When people ask where I’m from, I’m usually conflicted. While I currently reside in Texas, I wasn’t born nor raised here. When I moved from California, I was asked a few times where I was from. I’d simply just say, “California.” Then, they’d ask, “Oh, really? What part?” I’d think to myself, “Well, do I tell them SoCal or the actual city? But, if I do say the city, which one should I say? The one I was born in or the one I actually moved from?” Both cities feel like home to me, but what should I actually answer with? To me, it’s like choosing between my mom’s and my dad’s sides. What side do I feel like I represent the most?
— Annmarie Faleafine, Lubbock, TX
When people ask me where I am from, I can usually feel my cheeks turn hot as I spend the next few seconds pondering the response I would give to the predicament my interrogator just put me in. For me, this question represents both a complex cultural and identity conflict that I’ve been combatting my entire life. I, along with every member of my family, was born in China. However, my time there was brief, and I’ve spent a significant portion of my life in the United States. So in response to this question, do I say that I am from China, making myself the target of xenophobia and mockery regarding COVID-19 (aka the “China Flu”), or do I say that I am from the United States, being completely doomed to the awkward follow-up question of where I am ACTUALLY from? In that sense, Vanessa Hua’s “The Complexity in ‘Where Are You From?’ hits close to home. Whenever I tell others that am American, the raised eyebrows and uneasy silence come instantly, prompting me to clarify and tell them that, although my family is from China, I’ve lived in the U.S. for most of my life. A satisfied smile spreads across my interrogator’s face as they realize that, once again, Asian-Americans haven’t assimilated into American society.
Hometown Love
“Lubbock, Texas. Born and raised,” I tell my peers. Their responses are full of enthusiasm, I know. Nobody ever asks any more questions, because they know that Lubbock is a boring place. They also can’t imagine living in the same place their entire lives. Something that they’re missing, though, is that I have seen Lubbock’s city limit expand two times. My address changed when I was in Elementary School. It used to be a county road, now it is a painted street. As a little girl who’s lived outside the city her life, so far, it was super exciting to see the workers paving and painting the road in front of my house. (Considering the fact that the road beside my house was made of nothing but dirt) I’ve seen three Elementary Schools get built, including the school that I went to all 7 years of Elementary. I’ve seen the Middle School I attended get built. Lubbock has changed so much over the 16 years that I have been a resident. I love it here, but I can’t wait to live in a city where I don’t have to be full of shame when telling someone where I am from.
— Olivia Bonner, Lubbock Cooper High School
In my life, I have moved around frequently and had many different places that I called my home. Even though throughout my life my location has changed, I will always consider the place that I’m “from” to be my hometown in California, even though I’ve since spent the majority of my life in other places. Despite my limited time there, I made almost every core memory growing up in that town. There, I was shaped as a person in my young age and continue to visit every summer in remembrance of the unforgettable childhood I created there. Where you’re “from” doesn’t ever have to be where you are in the moment. I think where you are truly from is where you feel you were the most shaped as a person. For me, that place was California because there I discovered who I was going to be growing up and developed passions, friendships, and aspirations that I still hold on to to this day.
— Leah Schraff (Block 4), Hoggard High School in Wilmington, NC
Identity and Place
Half Italian and half Indian, when people look at me they can rarely guess my race. People don’t recognize the Indian in me, asking me if I tan everyday, or if I am Latina. “No,” I tell them proudly, “I am half Indian” … While I might not look like what you think of when you picture someone Italian, this identity could not be a bigger part of me. I have had the opportunity to not only be a tourist and learn to make pasta in Italy, but to blow glass in my relative’s glass factory outside of Venice. Back at home I often dream of living in Italy. In the meantime, I do what I can to bring a bit of Italian life into my home, cooking my great grandmother’s gnocchi and risotto and taking Italian language lessons. As I fill out applications, it sometimes asks me to select my race and I check both Asian and White. But on some applications it asks me to just pick one, so I default to “other.” I am “other” and proud to be.
— Shaila Patel, Farmington, CT
The mysteries of my family parallel those of Hua’s father. My grandfather was an illegitimate son born somewhere around Monterrey, Mexico. He was adopted by Joseph Garcia, but his assumed last name was Contrelez. My family will probably never know our kinfolk in Mexico. While Hua is offended when she is interrogated about her ancestry, I am indifferent when I am questioned about my cultural background. The inability to answer questions about my family has never insulted me, and no one has ever been unsatisfied when I omit information about my heritage. Instead of clinging to one’s motherland, people should find something like Hua’s family necklace, something to represent a family’s legacy other than a last name. If Americans can find value in their present home, we take a step closer to eliminating ethical stereotypes in our society.
— Aaron Garcia, Bryant High School, Arkansas
My family and I are from Ethiopia. Ethiopia is known for being one of the two uncolonized countries and the origin of coffee. My family takes pride in that and tend to talk about it freely when someone asks. If someone asks where I’m from, I used to be happy and say Ethiopia but people can’t seem to get their mind around that there is a country named that. They joke around and say, Utopia?, Zootopia? So I stopped saying Ethiopia and started saying Arizona. It seems people accept that more. But I do take pride in my beautiful country.
