The Word American

   I'm enrolled in this class for the reason that I knew it was going to be very interesting.  Learning about different ethnicity's and how they make up America is breath taking. Growing up, I have always had many questions about different ethnicities and their history.  However, being in the American education system since elementary through high school one does not get the opportunity to study every ethnicity.  I have always wondered why not, at times I feel like it's in our American culture to focus on our history then any other ethnicity.  Making it seem as if we were the number one country. Even though it is a great thing to teach the new generations to be a proud human of where one comes from at the same time we still need more information about other countries, our education system teaches us to forget about the world and about the humans who once called the land that we live on today their native land.

The first day of class Andrews ask the class what does American mean or something in the words of those lines to the class.  At times even though I'm a first generation citizen in my family, I still struggle with the answer of what does it feel to be an American.  I've never given much thought to this question until one day last summer, my friend Chris who happens to be a white American, ask me what my ethnicity was and I answered Mexican.  He really analyzed my answer and stood there thinking, saying so your an immigrant.  I'm not an immigrant I do have my citizenship however; growing up my parents never taught me to say I'm a Mexican American.  That may be because my parents have never felt like this was their homeland even though they are allowed to be here they still feel as if they do not belong here.  Growing up I have felt my parents struggle of not belong here so that may be why I do not say I’m Mexican American.  It might even be my parent’s pride of being proud of where they come from.  I at times, I feel like I’m not an American, because of what we people have made the description of an American, I feel like I do not fall into this description of an American.  I’m not a white, blue eye, or athletic American child.  Even though America is my native land because I was born here, I struggle to identify as an American. I hope this class encourages to change my mind site of what an American appears to look like.