Joaquín noticed at the college’s orientation that he was one of only two Latinos in the entering class. In spite of this context, it took going to a college steeped in privilege for Joaquín to be given the opportunity to study his heritage. It was after this experience that he began the process of claiming both identities of Puerto Rican and scholar, and along the way he picked up even more ways to define himself (Raible & Nieto, 2008, p. 220).

Just like Joaquín, I made a few of the Latinos in my undergrad university. If I were a Latino male, the conspicuous experience would have been significantly greater. Relatively a dominant Latina populated, all-girl high school, the issues of race were only pertinent when famous comedians cracked an offensive joke at our community or there was a dispute among which ethnic “motherland” invented the horchata drink. This insignificant debate symbolizes the lack of cultural relevance our school had. Instead of taking action and seizing the opportunity to assign a research on the topic or instigate a structured, academic debate on a subject that interested us, our world history teacher shushed the class and gave our detention slips. She wanted to introduce a new topic that she felt was important, the rise of Macedonia Egypt (or something of that sort). Little time was spent on Mayan or Inca civilization. Was it not a world history class?

As a community, we rarely discussed racial issues in class. Which is why I never saw myself as an inferior race in the sanctuary of our Catholic school. That is, until I entered college. With the However, I did see myself as an interior student because of my race. It wasn’t until I entered UCLA that I learned my place in society as well as be given the opportunity to study my heritage and participate in the new civil movement. An opportunity that was accomplished by the activist work previous students of color (hunger strikes, protests, etc.). It is almost a shame to admit that even though I went to a predominant Latino elementary and high school, I knew more about the French Revolution and who Napoleon was than about the Dirty Wars in my own continent and who Trujillo was. In my opinion, therefore, students do not stop going through an ethnic identity development, especially if they come from a enclosed homogeneous community (be it white or a minority) with limited interactions with other cultures. In addition, as teachers we need to empower students to learn not only of other cultures, but of their own, to empower them be both inclusive and proud.