What´s the deal with race?

I have been in Mexico for just under two weeks and I am still greeted with the question everybody back home always wants to know, ¨so, what race are you?¨ I used to think that the question of race was one that white Americans were overconcerned with but it seems that Mexicans are too. Even mexicanos it seems have stereotypes about mexicanos.


I was at a party in Cuernavaca last night and it wasn´t enough to speak Spanish and have a Spanish name but the question was asked by a mexican national: so, what are you other than mexican, really? I stated simply that Mexico was a nation of mixed racial heritage and that any Mexicano or child of Mexicanos could potentially have African, Indigenous, European or Asian heritage. What ensued was a discussion about what most likely be my racial asignation for the evening. People it seems really trip on this issue. Why is it so important to look ¨Mexican¨ or to act your heritage?

Later that evening, the party had moved to another address and again the question of racial identity came up. This time I was compared to Angelina Jolie or rather a half french Angelina Jolie look-alike. I think I was supposed to be flattering. Anyway, after I stated this time that I was every woman (meaning all races) another discussion ensued about my racial asignation for the evening. I have always been annoyed with people´s curiosity about my racial identity. It gets tiring to hear the same questions and it makes me wonder what the big deal about race and identity really is.