What is an American?

What is an American? You tell me because, well, I’m “American” and my parents are American. Which American are we talking about? The “American” American or the American American. Oh! We’re talking about the “American” American. Well, for the most part, people would say an “American” American is someone born in the United States, which is funny though because there are many countries in the Americas. Why does the term “American” only refer to the U.S., I’m not sure. So, what is an American? I would say an American is someone whose lineage has been in the U.S for many generations. But then that wouldn’t make me American, and I’m okay with that because I am more familiar with my Mexican traditions. Then again... Mexico, and many other countries, is greatly influenced by America. America the “Melting pot” (Creds to Keduse) of many other countries.  I feel like America is a fruit smoothie. A mixture that contains a little bit of everything and taste great. But it couldn’t be great without the actual all these different types of fruit.

 “American”, in my opinion, shouldn’t be considered an ethnicity or whatever it’s considered now. Neither should Mexican, or Asian, or any other race in the world. Why? Well we all come from the same origin. Why do we have to label ourselves? Labeling ourselves creates so much hate because of pride and patriotism. Even though when I am asked “What are you?” and I answer “Mexican-American”, most of the time I wonder why I am considered American. Yeah I was born in Chicago. But I grew up in a Mexican family, Mexican neighborhood, Mexican school, and spoke Spanish 90% of the time. Basically I was born in Mini-Mexico located in Little Village. Why are my parents considered illegal if the only difference between me and them is our place of birth and if their place of birth helps America the fruit smoothie taste great? I don’t know. I might never know. But I hope that the generations that come after us see what I mean and try to break down some borders.