Enter, A New World Awaits

I’ve always considered myself Mexican, 100% baby! Growing up I only spoke Spanish at home, to later realize that I was in a country full of English speakers. Being Latino you kinda live in your own bubble, this bubble being a completely different world.

As a child I remember listening to Selena, Vicente Fernandez, Bronco and Los Tigres del Norte. Latin music was a big part of my life, for the first few years of it I couldn’t even go to sleep if I didn’t have music to the maximum volume possible. You would think that babies would want a quiet environment to sleep, but for me it was the complete opposite. Not a soul even dared to turn that volume down, or I’d wake right up and throw a fit. While most of the country’s young girls were captivated by Brittney Spears and NSYNC, I was happily living my life in my bubble of my culture.

A world where everyone speaks Spanish, dances and loves parties. Parties are basically every weekend and people search for ANY reason to throw a bash! Adults are the main organizers, making sure there is alcohol at EVERY party. It doesn’t matter if it’s for a little kid’s birthday or your grandmothers, there is going to be alcohol and a LOT of it. I always thought this was completely normal, that everyone did it, but I later realized that is wasn’t the case.

In Mexican culture a big part of communication is saying hello and how do we do that you must ask? Well in my family we are accustomed to give a kiss on the cheek, a quick peck on the cheek from an uncle or aunt but that’s it. For friends or acquaintances we just hug or wave hi, at least that´s what we do in the US, but to my surprise that’s not how it works in Mexico.

One time one of my friends invited me to one of her friend’s quinceañera in Mexico that I wasn’t necessarily invited to. I wasn’t so fond about crashing a party but I was basically dragged there against my will. Her mom dropped us off at an event center in the middle of a tiny town, there was nothing close by but a park(they call it a plaza in Mexico). The place looked luxurious! Shiny floors, tall windows and a majestic staircase. It looked nothing like where quinceañeras are held in the US, our venue is our backyard! Yeah! Try to make that look fancy.

As we entered I could feel everyone’s steady stare on me, and it felt quite uncomfortable. They quickly saw my friend and proceeded to greet each other. As soon as the stranger finished, she approaches me says “hola” giving me a peck on the cheek. My thoughts quickly went to “Woah, first of all, I don’t know you! Second, you’re not part of my family! Third of all, who are you?” I then looked around and saw a swarm of people approaching me, all of which proceeded to do the same thing. It was right then and there, I realized this was normal. My whole life I had grown up believing that I KNEW what the Mexican culture was, but I now knew that wasn’t the case. I realized this was only the beginning of my cultural adaptation.