more than just a color!

[jacobsproudmom]

When someone asks you who you are what do you reply? YOUR name i assume as do I. I reply Gabriela. But that is Not who I am, that is merely my name. I am a mother, a daugher, a sister, a friend, a partner. Thats not all though. I am caring, loving, sensitive, thoughtful and many times impatient. I have a temper problem. i am verbal. I am a survivor. I have survived physical, mental, emotional and sexual abuse. I am a thinker. I am smart. I am young in body but old at heart for the most part. I am more serious than I should be at times.

I am many things. I used to think that my nationality defined me, that it said who I was or am. But Its not the case. I love my roots and I will stand for them until the day I die. i am mexican but that is just my roots. I have figured out that after some thinking that i would still be the way that I am even if I was another color. That I would still like the same things and I would still be the way that I am. I am too stubborn. Maybe maybe not But my color is not what makes me ME. It took people judging me the wrong way for me to realize that my color does not say anything about me or what is on my inside, what is on my head.

I go to stores and sometimes the sales people follow me because of my skin color. They see me brown skin and think that i am a thief. They assume that just because I am brown and speak spanish I am a crimminal. People I meet would speak to me in small words as though I cannot comprehend the English language just because of my skin and my last name. They assume that I am uneducated. The assume that I am less than them. I am not, nor do I think that I am better than anyone else. It took me going to interviews and them reacting that way and then seeing the surprised look on their faces when I spoke the language well and understood them and was able to keep a conversation with them. I go to places and they think that just because i have two kids and I am not married that I am on welfare. I am not. I am not on welfare nor have I been on it. I have struggled yes but i dont take the governments money. I am not a thief nor a crimminal. I am not here trying to take anyones job. I am not who they presume i am. They would know that if they got to know me.

I am more than just my color!