Latina Leadership Lessons: La Niña Adentro

As Latina Leader Juana Bordas has shared with us, true leaders take time for self-reflection and learn more about themselves constantly.  They heal them-selves of past wounds and hurts so that they are better able to lead those around them with objectivity and kindness.
 
(Juana is founding CEO of the National Hispana Leadership Institute – we’ll be talking more about this organization later – as well as President of Mestiza Leadership International and author of Salsa, Soul and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age.  Juana will be offering a leadership retreat this spring – check out the upcoming calendar for more details!)
 
The true servant leader, according to Juana, realizes that leadership is not about herself, but rather about giving to others.  And we can only give of ourselves if we are first whole.
 
What better place to start with self-reflection than our childhood?  We all were children at some point in our past (some of us a bit further in the past than others), and I know for myself, as I reflect on my own childhood (which was quite some time ago) and what I learned from my various experiences, it is also useful for me to figure out what “la niña adentro” is still trying to tell me.
 
During the month of January, a month when possibilities for the new year seem fresh and new, and the year is young and innocent and vulnerable – much like a child – we’ll be reflecting on all the ways in which we are like children (both in good and bad ways), as well as what we can learn from children, how we work with children, and how we can better listen to the little girl that is inside each of us.
 
Additionally, we’re going to hear from guests that are either young women themselves or do some amazing work with young women.
 
And don’t forget that one of our former guests, Josie Garza, is Executive Director for the National Latino Children’s Institute (NLCI), so I’ll be sharing with you all many of the insights she shared with us during her incredible interview, and encourage you to get more involved with NLCI.
 
Get ready for a month of reflection about “la niña adentro” and how we can learn to better Latina Leaders by listening to her lessons.

Is Identity Created for Us by Others?

To what extent do people outside our group choose our identities?  I read an article this past week about Obama and how people are now saying he’s not really black.  It’s interesting how people are deciding his identity for him, even outside of what he himself has declared. 
 
And I’m in the middle of reading Fade, My Journeys In Multiracial America by Elliott Lewis, broadcast Journalist and board member of the National Association of Black Journalists.
 
It’s fascinating because he talks about how through-out history racial identities have been made and remade and differ depending on context and historical place.
 
Elliott, a friend of mine, and I have talked about offering a recorded conversation as a podcast for the Powerful Latinas audience.
 
But all of these thoughts point to the fact that as Latinos our identities are not solely created by us as an “inside” group – we are also subject to the creations made for us by the outside groups, as well.
 
Because race, and other ethnic identities, are a social construction, who we are is in part a function of how people see us, and therefore cannot be changed at will, either by ourselves as individuals, nor by someone outside ourselves.
 
I’m Latino, in part, because people come up to me in grocery stores and start speaking Spanish to me (assuming that I can).  Luckily, they’re right; however, the fact that this also happens to Latino friends of mine who cannot speak Spanish doesn’t change the fact that those friends are viewed as Latino, by BOTH the “in” group and the “out” group.
 
And it also points to the fact that sometimes our identities can be mixed and varied, depending on the context.  This weekend I went to the movie, Nothing Like the Holidays, a story of a Puerto Rican family that gather together for Christmas.  In a particular scene, one of the characters insisted that Tito Trinidad, the boxer, was a black man, and another character insisted he was not black, he was Puerto Rican.
 
So the characterizations of identity get influenced by a number of factors, and the definitions can, at times, be fluid.
 
So while I’ve been encouraging us all to embrace our identities, and to choose the ones we want to identify with most, I would also encourage you to look around to find out what groups those around you identify with you and analyze how that affects you, if you agree with their analysis, and if not, what you can do about it.
 
For now, I want to encourage conversation and growth.
 
I wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season, no matter how you celebrate it and with whom.  Thank you for joining me in 2008, and I look forward to sharing much more with you in 2009.

Latino identity is *both* an inside job and an outside job…

This week I interviewed Stephanie Elizondo Griest, author of Mexican Enough, and we talked about identity on a number of levels.  In some cultures, including in the U.S., our culture can be ‘taken away’ from us.  I was struck by Stephanie’s commentary of the U.S. as a “graveyard of languages and cultures.”  Ouch!
 
However, Stephanie also told us of her being in former communist countries where there was severe repression and torture when people insisted on hanging on to their culture, religion or language and how certain people, strong in their belief, hung on to their identities and their beliefs no matter what.
 
This was a strong reminder to me that there are (at least!) two sides to the cultural identity – both how people see you from outside the group (and how much we each individually decide to collude with the outside group in their definition of us) as well as how we are seen by the inside group.
 
Who gets to tell you who you are?  And is it really a ‘choice’?  It’s difficult to practice a culture all by yourself, right?  For example, if there’s no one to talk to, then your language becomes dead because the meaning of language – communication – gets lost.
 
Stephanie pointed out to us that in spite of the “browning of America,” by the third generation, only 17% of U.S. Latinos speak Spanish fluently.  But this isn’t unique to Latinos.  Other cultures and languages have suffered the same fate.
 
We *choose* to give up some pieces of culture in exchange for what?  Acceptance?  Advancement?  Or simply, at times, ease?
 
And likewise, we choose to hang on to pieces of our culture for reasons of pride, because of our values, and because they create pieces of our identity that we don’t want to lose.
 
Stick with me, because Monday we’ll be talking about how the ‘outside’ group gets to tell us (in part) who we are as well.

P.S.  In case you missed Stephanie’s interview, you can purchase either the audio or the transcript (or both) of the interview at the special pre-sale price until next Wednesday.  Click here to find out more…

Stephanie Elizondo Griest

Stephanie Elizondo Griest grew up in South Texas and considers herself biracial, as the daughter of a mother with Mexican roots, and a father whose European ancestors settled in Kansas. Neither she nor her sister grew up speaking much Spanish, and Stephanie shares her struggles with her ethnic identity and the stories that arise from her voyage in Mexico during 2005 and 2006 in her recently released book, Mexican Enough: My Life Between the Borderlines.

>> Join us as I discuss issues of identity with Stephanie and the feedback she’s received on her book.

However, Stephanie’s travels to Mexico are far from the first international travels she’s taken and written about. She has mingled with the Russian Mafiya, polished propaganda in China, and belly danced with rumba queens in Cuba. These adventures inspired her memoirs Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana (Villard/Random House, 2004), prior to her writing Mexican Enough: My Life Between the Borderlines (Washington Square Press/Simon & Schuster, 2008). Stephanie also is author of the guidebook 100 Places Every Woman Should Go (Travelers’ Tales, 2007).

She won the 2007 Richard J. Margolis Award for Social Justice Reporting and got inducted into PEN in 2008.

>> I’ll be asking Stephanie about her travels and to give us some highlights from the books she’s written.

A passionate activist, Griest co-founded the Youth Free Expression Network, an anti-censorship organization for teens that is a program of the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) in New York City, and is currently on the board of NCAC.

>> What does the program do, and why is she so passionate about this issue?

She once logged in 45,000 miles on a 42-state journey across America, documenting history that is generally overlooked in classroom textbooks for a non-profit educational website called The Odyssey. She filed 50 articles, hundreds of photographs, and a dozen video documentaries for an audience of 100,000 K-12 students at www.ustrek.org.
In 2000, Griest was a political reporter at the Austin bureau of the Associated Press, where she covered George W. Bush’s last legislative session as governor and his bid for the presidency. Before that, she edited and taught journalism at China Daily, the English mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, while serving as a Henry Luce Scholar in Beijing.

During her three month tenure as a Scotty Reston Fellow at the New York Times, she wrote about male belly dancers, Latina film makers, and dentists who replace canines with fangs. An article she wrote about religious cults for the Washington Post garnered her a spot on the 1996 USA TODAY All Academic First Team. She also covered Seattle’s grunge scene for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Austin’s drag queens for The Texas Triangle.

>> How did Stephanie start writing, and how does she come up with her story ideas?

She contributed to the anthologies Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times (Basic Books, 2004), Lengua Fresca: Latinos Writing on the Edge (Mariner Books, 2006), and Go Your Own Way (Seal Press, 2007).

Her travel adventures have appeared in Texas Monthly Magazine; Latina Magazine; Bitch Magazine; World Pulse Magazine; Traveler’s Tales: Cuba; Traveler’s Tales: A Fork in Her Road; Traveler’s Tales: Turkey; Traveler’s Tales: China; Traveler’s Tales: Whose Panties are These?; Traveler’s Tales: A Woman’s Europe; Traveler’s Tales: Hyenas Laughed at Me and Now I Know Why; Traveler’s Tales: Best of Traveler’s Tales 2004; Travelers’ Tales: Best of Women’s Travel Writing 2006; Traveler’s Tales: Prague and the Czech Republic; Travelers’ Tales: Another Women’s World; Q Magazine; and Many Mountains Moving.

>> What does she gain from the different kinds of writing, and is there a type she loves best?

Her writing hasn’t gone unnoticed. She was a Hodder Fellow at Princeton University for the 2005-2006 academic year, and has won residencies at Can Serrat in Barcelona, Spain; Blue Mountain Center in New York; the Art Omi International Arts Center in Ghent, New York; the Writer’s Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, Arkansas; the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts in Nebraska City, Nebraska; and Ragdale in Lake Forest, Illinois.

She has also been a Visiting Writer at the University of Nebraska’s MFA Program. Around the Bloc was named “Book of the Year” by the Mayor’s Book Club of Austin, Texas; “Best Travel Book of 2004″ by the National Association of Travel Journalists of America, and a “Best Book of 2004″ by the San Francisco Chronicle. 100 Places Every Woman Should Go won the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation’s Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism’s “Gold Prize for Best Travel Book” in 2007 and the “Best Travel Book” in the International Latino Book Awards in 2008.

Griest has also been awarded honors and scholarships from the following organizations: El Andar, USA Today, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Freedom Forum, the Network of Hispanic Communicators, the Headliners Foundation, the Pan-American Golf Writer’s Association, Scripps-Howard, the National Hispanic Scholarship Fund, and the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Journalism. She has been a Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute in New York City since 2005.

>> Among all the awards and accolades, what does Stephanie enjoy most about her writing career and why? What lessons can we learn from her?

Griest’s foremost love is the open road, and her wanderlust has taken her to 30 countries. The “Red” ones include: Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Czech Republic, China, Hong Kong, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Viet Nam, the German Democratic Republic, Cuba, and Mozambique.
She has also traveled throughout Mexico, Colombia, Egypt, and Turkey, and 47 of the United States. Since August of 2006, she has been living nomadically. Three-quarters of her belongings are in storage in Manhattan; the rest is stuffed in her backpack(s).

>> Throughout her travels, Stephanie has learned a lot about the world. What are a few of her insights, and what can she tell us about traveling in general?

Griest graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1997 from the University of Texas at Austin with degrees in journalism and Post-Soviet Studies and earned a certificate of Advanced Russian from the Moscow Linguistics Institute. She learned Spanish at the Ole Language School of Queretaro Mexico and picked up Mandarin on the streets of Beijing. She has studied tribal gypsy belly dance for six years and has performed in China, Mexico, New York, California, and Texas.
Stephanie can be contacted via her website at www.aroundthebloc.com or on Myspace at www.myspace.com/aroundthebloc or www.myspace.com/mexicanenoughthebook or on Facebook.

Latina Leaders & Language — Tongue Tied at Times!

Language and culture are so intertwined; I’d be remiss in my musings on identity if I didn’t spend some time on issues of language usage among Latinos in the U.S.
 
Although many of us speak Spanish, not all of us do, and we all speak at different levels of fluency.  For many, language capability and ease is a source of some pain, for one reason or another.
 
Arisa Batista Cunningham, Vice President, Global Diversity, for the Johnson & Johnson Comprehensive Care and Surgical Care Groups, spoke with us about how a professor of hers when she first came to the U.S. made fun of her accent and thought she was stupid because of it.  This despite the fact that her level of understanding and learning far exceeded those of her classmates!
 
On the other side of the coin, Sylvia Mendoza, award-winning author, journalist, and speaker, told us of her admiration of those around her that are "beautifully bilingual" and her desire to have that ease and fluency with the Spanish language.  Although she was initially around the language as a very young child, she lost her Spanish language capability for a while because she wasn’t around people who used Spanish in her everyday life, and had to work to reclaim that part of her identity.
 
Some of our interviewees speak with accents, some don’t, some speak Spanish and some don’t.  And we’re all different kinds of Latina.  Different generations, different family backgrounds, different countries of national origin, etc.
 
Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, best-selling author and the "godmother of chica lit," spent some time discussing the "dirty secret" that those of us in the States rarely speak Spanish truly well, and that many of us lose Spanish language capacity by the third generation.
 
A few weeks ago I was speaking with a group of friends of mine, most of whom speak Spanish on a frequent basis with their families and grew up speaking the language and when I told them of my fear of being interviewed in the Spanish language media, they all shared my point of view!  Not that I don’t want to speak in that venue; simply that I am not nearly as articulate in a language in which I was not formally educated (and therefore, have some fear of how my "sound bites" might turn out). 
 
How interesting that even those of us who are comfortable speaking Spanish with people around us in informal settings, when our language capability is put in the "public eye" become frightened about being "found out" that we don’t speak as if we were college-educated in the language, and have some level of discomfort.
 
And discomfort can turn to pain when people point out one’s flaws (whether it be from one side or the other) in a way that is unkind or derogatory.  When having had to give formal presentations in Spanish I have enjoyed a good laugh at my expense if I don’t know some words (such as "leverage" in a financial context, for example), but I know other friends of mine have been very hurt when teased that they don’t speak Spanish at all (which is very common where I grew up in Colorado since many of our parents were severely punished for speaking the language in schools and didn’t want the same for my generation).
 
Of course, that experience is not unique to Spanishspeakers.  Other immigrants who’ve come to the U.S. have had the same experience!  And now, in some ways, the tide has turned, and being bilingual is seen as an important skill, and certainly a beneficial commodity in an increasingly global workforce.
 
There are so many things we can say about language, but I’ll end for now.  But stay tuned for more on the topic…

Latina Leadership and the Cultural Push/Pull

This week’s guest talked to us about how she felt the push and pull within her home and her culture to, on the one hand, succeed in the U.S. (as a first generation immigrant), and on the other hand, to stay within the traditional female roles. 
 
As Latinas, we often have this push and pull on our identities, especially as it comes to leadership, even if we are not first generation.
 
We’ve been talking about how within the culture we are always maneuvering to figure out who we are and what kind of Latina each of us wants to be. 
 
Several weeks ago, recall that award-winning author and professor Norma Elia Cantú spoke with us of the fear that many Latinas feel when leaving home for the first time, or the difficulty they receive from friends or family members based on their fear, that achieve-ment will somehow make us “different.”
 
Perhaps this is the reason that we hear the story about the crabs who pull us back down.  Is it a fear of losing our cohesiveness, of the “one-ness” of being in a homogeneous community?  And yet, community and culture is by its nature changing, varied and diverse.
 
So to try to keep a culture the “same” actually makes it stagnate and die, instead of being a living, breathing and fluid thing.
 
Emily Matos, graduate student at NYU, spoke with us about growing up in New York City and how she would be teased for being like a “white girl,” in part because she was a strong academic achiever.
 
What does it mean to us as Latina leaders and agents of change when our communities are at times so fearful of change (in part, because they’ve been attacked so much, as well).

So it’s up to us to decide how we want these changes to come about, and to make a place for the changes, and decide what they will look like.  Join me to make the changes in our communities *deliberate* and POSITIVE, and to make space for more changes to Come…

Have a wonderful weekend,
 
Aurelia 

P.S.  In case you missed Elva’s interview, you can purchase either the audio or the transcript (or both) of the interview at the special pre-sale price until next Wednesday.  Click here to find out more…

Elva Lima

Elva Lima is the oldest girl in a family of six children. Her father worked in the fields of Sacramento when he moved to the U.S. from Mexico in 1961. Her father was able to move the family to the United States in 1965. Her mother was a stay at home mother while her father worked as a bartender.

>> I’ll be talking with Elva about her early childhood influences, and what she learned as a youth.

Elva holds a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Organizational Management and a Master of Public Policy and Administration degree from Californian Lutheran University. As a “non-traditional” student, she obtained these degrees in her late 30s, early 40s.

>> What drove Elva to go back to school, and what did she learn from her unique experience?

During her 28-year career with Verizon, Elva has held a variety of positions within external affairs, communications, and public policy. Before being named to her current position, she was director of external and government relations for Verizon California.

With more than $71 billion in annual revenues, Verizon Communications Inc. is one of the world’s leading providers of communications services. Verizon has a diverse work force of 214,000 in four business units: Domestic Telecom provides customers with wireline and other telecommunications services, including broadband.

>> What has Elva learned during her long career at one company?

Elva Lima was named vice president at Verizon in October 2006. She is Verizon’s senior executive for strategic programs for the West region, which encompasses California, Arizona, Nevada, and Hawaii. In that role, Elva is responsible for developing and maintaining strategic alliances with external stakeholders and oversight of the Company’s social responsibility efforts.

>> How did Elva move up the ranks, and what can we learn from her about career successes?

Elva is an active member of the community and serves on the Greater Sacramento Urban League and California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Corporate Advisory Board.

She served as a member of the board of directors for the following organizations: Los Angeles League of Women Voters - Education Fund, Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation, Los Angeles Regional Technology Alliance, United Latino Fund, Children’s Museum of Los Angeles, and other nonprofit organizations throughout California.

The National Latina Alliance, Pomona Valley Boys and Girls Club, Greenlining Institute, Golden State Minority Foundation, and the Tri-Council of Big Sisters of Los Angeles have recognized Elva for her commitment to community service.

>> In addition to the demands of her job, how does Elva find time to give back?

Elva is a single mother of two boys.

>> As a single mother, I’ll be asking Elva about how she meets her family’s demands.

Multiple Identities

We’ve been discussing identity issues, and I wanted to bring up the issues of mixed race, ethnicity, national origin and culture because it’s another part of this "Latino measuring stick."
 
How many times have we heard that someone isn’t "really" Latino because both of their parents are not Latino?  For example, they’re "mixed race" — Latino and Asian, Latino and Black, Latino and American Indian (which is an interesting comparison, but understandable for cultural reasons), Latino and white, etc.
 
What’s so ironic is that Latinos, as we’ve discussed before are of all races.  So the real issue is not one of "race" so much as that of cultural background and affinity.

So often we see celebrities and movie stars deny their Latino ancestry or deny their affiliation until it becomes "cool" or acceptable to self-identify as Latino.  And I think we can understand this from a cultural perspective when it can be difficult in a profession so identity conscious not to be self-limiting to so identify.
 
For example, Jessica Alba stated she didn’t see herself as Latina until it became "cool" and acceptable for her to do so.  And until she could be sure it didn’t narrow the roles that it would be possible for her to play…  (not an unreasonable fear)
 
And while the Latino media is so anxious, at times, to include those who are mixed as "one of us" internally we are sometimes EX-clusive of those that we feel either don’t self-identify as Latino or those we think of as different.
 
So I encourage each of us to think about when we choose to be EX-clusive versus IN-clusive and why we do so.  Don’t we want to allow us all to be Latino if and when we agree to be part of this culture.  What does it take away from us if we do?
 
More questions and I’m going to shy away from answers for now, but of course you can probably tell in which direction I’m leaning. 
 
Let’s keep the discussion alive, because I want to encourage thoughtfulness and reflection, as well as the push to question when and how we keep people in and how we push people out.
 
Please stay with us as we continue the conversation…

Latino Measurement Stick

Now, we all know that if we’re comfortable in our own skin with who and what we are, then it’s hard to shake our faith and no matter what anyone says, we stand firm in our vision of ourselves.  We choose our Latina identity and what kind of Latina we want to be.  And we create "Latina-ness" as we go… (but more on that later).
 
Nevertheless, to find that solid centered-ness can be difficult, for any one of us and in a multitude of ways.  And what others have said to us have at times been painful, so it can be difficult to look at the issues objectively. Nevertheless, let’s take a minute to look at the measuring stick upon which many people measure "how Latino one is."
 
For example, one’s "Latina-ness" can be questioned by the "in group" (other Latinos) in various ways.  One could suggest I’m not a "real" Latina if I don’t speak Spanish, or if one (or both!) of my parents are white, or if I didn’t grow up in a "barrio" or even if I succeed and do well in school!
 
And what about other things, like dancing salsa, cooking certain recipes and practicing a certain religious tradition? Or (gasp!), heaven forbid, marrying or dating outside the "Latino" fold?!?
 
Why is it that these common "markers" are things to which some hold so tightly, even to the extent that we often see jokes flying around stating, "You know you’re a REAL Latino if…"   We also hear the stereotypes (and what it supposedly means to be Latina) out of the mouths of Latino comedians.  Sometimes the comedians help us to reflect, and sometimes they simply reinforce the negative stereotypes.
 
We *ALL* have such varied and different experiences.  What can we possibly point to that makes us "more" or "less" Latina?  And why would we put Latino-ness in a category of items that even could be quantifiable?  If I have a half cup of brown skin, one teaspoon of salsa, and pray to a saint on Saturdays, does that make me more Latina?
 
Another "measurement" has to do with where we grew up.  The assumption, of course, that if one grew up in the "barrio" that this was a badge of honor and made one the "real" Latino.  Now, I can appreciate that we often hold on to an area of stigma and make it something of pride in order to heal ourselves. 
 
And much of the time, we use various forms of affirmation to heal ourselves and verify we’re OK and that others had this experience, too.  However, we don’t want to hold so tightly to the "badge of honor" (whatever it might be) that we dishonor those that don’t also have the "badge."  Growing up poor is another badge that we use like the badge of where we grew up. 
 
The bottom line is that it is such a gift and a privilege to see the Latino culture and a growing and changing thing, some-thing that is fluid and real and current.  It has been different in the past, it is different for many of us, and it will be different in the future.
 
I invite you to join the conversation with me over the upcoming year as we dive into many more pieces of the Latina identity as we unpack Latina stereotypes and archetypes (and I’m sure I’m guilty of using and believing many of them myself!).

Latina Identity Crisis

As Latinas we’re so diverse, it is often difficult to define exactly what a Latina is.  Hispanic or Latino is an umbrella term used to define many people of different races, cultures, colors and backgrounds, but all generally coming from 19-23 Latin American countries. 
 
The U.S. Census, for example, defines Hispanics or Latinos as those who classified themselves in one of the specific Spanish, Hispanic or Latino categories listed on the Census 2000 questionnaire.
 
But somehow, those dry definitions don’t capture all the nuances, and the difficulties, we have in accurately conveying who we are.
 
Earlier in the year, author Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez spoke with us about the difficulty of aligning oneself with "THE" Latino community, because there are so many different ones, and it means different things to different people.  Also, being a "Latino" anything can mean that one is placed in a box and is not allowed to be simply the best at what one does.
 
Madeline Padilla, Director of Publicity for Arenas Entertainment, and the one in charge of marketing films to the "Latino" audience told us that on her staff they deliberately have different kinds of "Latino" because the way people say and understand things is different.  It is key in her industry to be able to communicate well to this varied audience.
 
But who are we INTERNALLY?  And how do we communicate with each other?  I remember a previous Puerto Rican boyfriend laughing at certain phrases I use in Spanish since they are not common (or accepted) phrases in use in Puerto Rico, even though they are heard with frequency among groups of Mexicans.
 
Dr. Ana Nogales, clinical psychologist and founder of Nogales Psychological Counseling, Inc., and Clinical Director of the nonprofit organization, Casa de la Familia, talked with us about the different kinds of Latinas out there and how she sometimes feels like she doesn’t "fit in."  Her Jewish parents immigrated from Poland to South America, and eventually made their way to the U.S. (after Ana was an adult) and this has given Ana a very different kind of Latina experience.
 
Many, many of our guests have spoken about this "identity crisis."  For example, Sylvia Mendoza, Author of the The Book of Latina Women: 150 Vidas (Lives) of Passion, Strength and Success, spoke of the loss of language that so often happens in Latino families and that while she now speaks Spanish, often the easy fluency that she sees in those around her is something of which she is envious.
 
Isn’t it interesting that even amongst ourselves, it is such a common experience to question our own identity and what it means to be a "real" Latina… 
 
How we fit in on a number of different levels can cause us to feel that vulnerability — lack of the "traditional" culture, language, or religious background can force us to confront our own identity and decide for ourselves who we are.
 
And yet, the Latina identity can be such an important part of who we are — and sometimes even more real and felt to us than an "American" identity, which many times we are not allowed to have.  For example, when asked "What are you?" would "American" be enough to satisfy most people’s curiosity? 
 
So, even for those of us who were born here (and not all of us were!), the internal dilemma continues.  This is in part why it’s so important to me to interview such a diverse group of women. 
 
There are so many different and unique kinds of "Latina" experiences.  I’m sure you have a story of your own.
 
I want to reflect ALL of our experiences.  Join me over the next couple of weeks as I continue to discuss these issues of identity…