It’s all about being straight up

A new collection of essays provokes thoughts on the meaning of being Hispanic, female and American

By Tricia Schwennesen
Adelante Staff

Border-Line Personalities: A New Generation of Latinas Dish on Sex, Sass and Cultural Shifting
Edited by Robyn Moreno and Michelle Herrera Mulligan; Harper Collins Publishers Inc.
$12.95

Over the years, as I have worked at the craft of writing and learned more about my Latina culture, some common themes have surfaced in the form of questions.

Am I less Latina because I don’t speak Spanish? Why must people always play the name game — labeling me “white” because of my Danish last name? Should I use my mother’s maiden name, Contreras, as a pen name? Should I explain my adoption and my biological ancestry when someone asks me if I’m half Mexican? (I am, but I am also half Puerto Rican.)

I kept telling myself, “Tricia, you really need to write about that someday.” My someday has arrived, thanks to a collection of essays appropriately titled, Border-Line Personalities: A New Generation of Latinas Dish on Sex, Sass & Cultural Shifting.

The collection includes 20 essays written by 21st century Latinas for 21st century Latinas, broken down into the universal themes of family, love, cultural identity and lessons learned. They are challenging and at times defiant of the constraints that come with trying to straddle a cultural divide.

At the same time, each essay is extremely personal and reflects gracious acceptance of the reality that many Latinas struggle to retain their culture while striving to get a piece of the American Dream.

The writers are mamis in their own right, in search of the perfect novio — or novia in some cases, and they are still their mother's mi hijas. My only real criticism is that the majority of writers anthologized live in New York. So there are no Latina voices from the Deep South or the cornfields of the Midwest.

Regardless, readers will identify with these writers and discover their own favorites. I know I found mine. Among them is Maria Hinojosa whose “Ain’t Dishin’” sets readers straight from the first sentence. “Mujeres — let me be straight up,” Hinojosa writes. “I ain’t gonna dish about sex.” She explains her desire to keep the intimate to herself because “dishin’” as she explains to her Dominican girlfriends, is akin to sharing food from the same plate.

Like many Latinas, she was raised to keep intimate details to herself in order to preserve her good girl reputation. And the lesson she shares is that keeping those things to herself has only strengthened her relationship with her husband and intensified the intimacy of their relationship — as it should be.

Check out Tanya Barrientos’ “Se Habla Español,” in which she explains her struggle with the language and how even today she continues to study it (Barrientos is a graduate of MU's School of Journalism, by the way).

Then there’s Nancy Ayala’s “You’re Half Spanish, Right?” in which she confesses to her efforts to shed her ethnicity until a certain day, a turning point in her life. The episode took place when she was out one day with one of her new, white college friends at the grocery store and the two encountered a mostly Latino crowd. After using a derogatory term to describe the group, the new friend turned to her and asked, “You're only half Spanish, right?” as if Ayala's “white” side would surely not take offense. Ayala took it personally, and said so.
“College was the kick start I needed,” she writes. “It’s not as though I was completely blind to my background. I just wanted to be the person to bring it up and felt somewhat slighted when others did it for me.” It’s a feeling many Latinas can relate to.

Partly because of my trip last month to Houston for the Selena Vive! Tribute concert, I connected with Jackie Guerra’s story, “J.’s True Hollywood Story,” about how she won the role of Selena's sister in the movie released shortly after the Tejano star's death. Never mind that she had no drumming experience and wasn’t ethnic-looking enough, the casting people said.

In her introduction, editor Julia Alvarez, the author of “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents,” writes about childhood family gatherings. Of the collection she says, “If I were to single out the single most important change in this new generation, it is that these mujeres are talking, and how.”

Speaking of voices, it seems obvious to me as I write this last column for Adelante! that I might have set out thinking I would find my identity in writing Culture Café each month. What I discovered instead was my voice, and it is unmistakably Latina. I encourage you Latinas to do the same.

Meanwhile, I’m on my way back to Texas and my family.
Adios y Muchismas Gracias!