Oral History by: Eva Martinez

For my oral history report i interviewed a family friend. Her name is Sandy. She was born her in Chicago and she has lived here ever since. She feels that she has lost her connection to her cultural identity. She's Puerto Rican and she feels more "American" than Puerto Rican. She says that because she doesn't speak Spanish. I feel the same way. I feel that I am more "American" than Mexican because I don't speak Spanish either. We are both able to understand it somewhat, but we are incapable of having a full conversation with someone in our native language.

Why do you feel that you have lost your connection to your culture?

I think it's because growing up my parents always made me celebrate holidays that you wouldn't normally celebrate in Puerto Rico. Plus I think my parents didn't really want me to know about my heritage because they wanted me to be more "American." They even chose my friends for me. They told me who to hang out with. They gave me the excuse that everyone who I thought was my friend who are Puerto Rican like me were "bad" people. At first I didn't understand that. I guess they were afraid that I would become like them. I guess most of the people that I was friends with, they thought they were all gangsters and they thought I would become like that. As I grew older I realized it was my parents' fault that I don't know about my culture and how to speak Spanish. They felt that not speaking English would make me less of an American. Because of my parents I had to do my own research and learn about Puerto Rico and I also found out that not every Puerto Rican or all Latinos for that matter are gangsters. That's just a stereotype they stood by. I think they were almost trying to instill a sense of fear in me about my own people. I'll admit it kinda' did, but now that I look back at that i realized that because of that fear I lost some really good potential friends.

Do you think that your parents had a difficult time growing up because their parents who immigrated to America did the same thing to them?

I do think that my parents had a difficult time growing up because they told me when they were old enough to understand what was going on, they wanted to keep their Puerto Rican heritage and be able to still be American. They felt that they would still be "American" while they were being Puerto Rican. Now that I am in college, they want me to have pride in my culture and now we go to the Puerto Rican festival every year and they are helping me with my spanish.