When you feel invisible in the country you were born in — and even more so in the country that you adopt. Part of an LAist series, guest essayist Diana Pinacho describes what “Being American” means to her.
But for centuries, the Black population has been rendered invisible, along with its customs and traditions.
: “Although the idea is we are all mestizos,” she said in a 2016 talk, “there are some who are ‘better’ than others.”This is why I had difficulty identifying the roots of customs and traditions from my mother’s side of the family. Affirming my Black identity was a process, and still is to this day. When visiting a cousin in Bakersfield, I had the opportunity to meet some young acquaintances of the family, also Mexican. As I was telling them about my activism on behalf of Afro-Mexicans back in Mexico City, one of them said, “But you’re not Black.”It made me realize that here in the United States, the idea of “Mexican” — among Mexicans and non-Mexicans alike — is based on the mestizaje ideology.L.A.
I’ve had my identity challenged in other ways here. About a month ago, I joined some new friends at a screening of a documentary about African traditions in Mexican food. Afterward, over dinner, one offered me this unsolicited advice: “Don't announce yourself as an Afro-Mexican, because when I see you, I don't see an Afro person, and that can be a problem in the United States."
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