I have been both witness and recipient of the question that is the title. When I look at various situations, I’m always intrigued as to why this question is asked.

One of the incidents that comes to mind goes back to when I used to work at a call center. I never really came across racist customers but on occasion, I would hear comments such as “Wow…you sound educated” or “You don’t sound like a José.” Ok…I can’t be sure, but I think that the former was intended as a comment and maybe the same for the latter, also?

Besides looking at accents, there’s, also, the issue having to do with assumptions about physical features. Awhile back, I discovered this comedian, Daniel Weingarten on YouTube through Facebook. While I was writing this, I found a video, “When People Say, ‘You Don’t Look Latino.’“ that hit the nail right on the head. To summarize the video, he said that some people are surprised that he’s Latino, when he starts speaking Spanish. He brings up the point of how Latino isn’t a race (scroll down to race2, definition 3a) and talks about the rich complexity of cultures and features that makes up Latinos. We are just not one thing nor have one particular “look.”

In doing a little more research, I, also, discovered Pedro Flores. I watched a comedy-satire video, “Taco Truck-Salsa Diaries, vol. 1.“ In this video, Pedro, a light complected Mexican, was talking to his girlfriend and two mestizo looking Latinos were making cracks about him talking about tacos. When it came time to order, the two guys emphatically ordered their tacos with no hot sauce. Then, it came time for Pedro to order and he asked for the opposite: tons and tons of hot sauce. Where the mestizo looking guys questioned Pedro because of his features, Pedro indirectly called them out for not using hot sauce. Things escalated, when the mestizo looking guys started talking smack to two other guys in line: one referred as “Chino” and there was another guy that I thought was African-American. Chino claimed to be from Tijuana, while the other guy said that he was from Guadalajara, “Viva las Chivas all day, baby.” When it came to every guy in this video, there were incorrect presumptions about each of them.

Going back to the question “So where are you from?”, I think that things could go one of two ways. Either it comes from a place of legitimate interest or from not knowing what box to put the other person in. If the motivation is the former, then it could start some really great conversations that can educate. If it’s the former, then it’s an issue not from being unable to categorize someone but from feeling that it’s necessary to do so. If you are someone that feels that these boxes are necessary, ask yourself why this is necessary for you?

When I conceived of the idea for this piece’s graphic, I wanted to recall the beautiful rainbow that represents Latinos. Some years ago, I used to edit an online magazine blog geared toward Latinos and people interested in Latino culture. In its mission statement, I spoke about this rainbow: Latinos are the darkest of dark to the lightest of light. Within a family, you could have children with the same parents but occupying different spots of the rainbow. While they might look different, it doesn’t mean that they’re any less siblings to each other. Similarly, just because we are in different spots of the rainbow, it doesn’t mean that we are more or less Latino.

WE ARE WHO WE ARE.