Mixed, Passing For WhitePosted in Articles, Audio, Autobiography, Judaism, Latino Studies, Media Archive, Passing, Religion on 2015-11-01 00:37Z by Steven |
Youth Radio
2015-10-12
What’s it like to be a mixed race person who passes as white? Complicated, according to Youth Radio’s Maya Cueva. She often finds herself struggling to represent the part of her racial identity that people can’t see.
My whole life, I’ve always been the girl who’s white face didn’t quite match my last name — “Cueva”.
In my family we always celebrated our identity: My mom’s Jewish and my dad’s Peruvian.
Sometimes my dad tries to say things in Yiddish. Words like schmatta, except for with his Spanish accent. My mom calls that meshugganismo — combining the Yiddish word meshugganah, meaning crazy, with the Spanish ismo…meaning ism. Quirks like this always come up in my family all the time.
Ever since I can remember, my mom has always searched for things that connect our Jewish and Latino identities. But out in the world, I often face identity policing. Because I pass as white, people ask if I’m actually a person of color or not. So I’m constantly having to prove my Peruvian heritage. Like having to tell my dad’s immigration story soon after I meet people. I call it “coming out as mixed.”…
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