{"id":63334,"date":"2012-05-30T10:00:17","date_gmt":"2012-05-30T15:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2012\/05\/30\/esther-cepeda-im-a-minority-within-a-minority\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:57:07","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:57:07","slug":"esther-cepeda-im-a-minority-within-a-minority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/race-and-ethnicity\/2012\/05\/30\/esther-cepeda-im-a-minority-within-a-minority\/","title":{"rendered":"II. Esther Cepeda: I\u2019m a Minority Within a Minority"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>

<!– <\/p>

Tell Us Your Story<\/p>

<\/a><\/figure>

Join the conversation about ethnic identity on the Pew Hispanic Center Facebook page. –><\/p><\/div>\n\n

Any day you learn something important about yourself is a great day.<\/p>\n\n

That\u2019s how I felt the day the Pew Hispanic Center published its report \u201cWhen Labels Don\u2019t Fit: Hispanics and Their Views of Identity<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

That was the day I realized I\u2019m a minority within a minority \u2013 one of the mere 21% of respondents who trace their roots to a Spanish-speaking country but identifies primarily as an American.<\/p>\n\n

No biggie, really, I always knew I was different that way; the report helped me understand why.<\/p>\n\n

Well, I was already familiar with part of it \u2013 I grew up in mini-UN part of Chicago where everyone\u2019s parents were from somewhere else and we were lucky enough to attend a school that treated us equally as new converts to the religion of Americana.<\/p>\n\n

Pair that with thousands of hours of watching Tom and Jerry, Bugs Bunny and the Flintstones and I was practically apple pie incarnate \u2013 well outside the 47% of survey respondents who said they consider themselves to be very different from the \u201ctypical American.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

As a bicultural, bilingual Chicagoan, I feel pretty typical. And I get a little crabby when asked where I\u2019m \u201creally\u201d from when I say I\u2019m American \u2013 probably just like the rest of those who identify themselves as American.<\/p>\n\n

Why am I \u201cAmerican?\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Well for one, because I say so.<\/p>\n\n

There are many other reasons, but the biggest one is that my parents are not from the same Spanish-speaking country. Being the U.S.-born child of Ecuadorian and Mexican immigrants effectively makes me pan-ethnic Hispanic or Latino (and I\u2019m firmly in the Hispanic boat \u2013 hearing the term \u201cLatino\u201d is like nails on a chalkboard to me) instead of simply Mexican-American or Ecuadorian-American.<\/p>\n\n

I can\u2019t dis half my heritage, can I? Basically, I\u2019m a mutt. And what could be more American than that?<\/p>\n\n

Esther J. Cepeda is a nationally-syndicated columnist for the Washington Post Writers Group<\/a> and is based in Chicago.<\/p>

Views in this conversation series are those of each author alone, and not the views of the Pew Hispanic Center, which is nonpartisan and non-advocacy.\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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