Not What You Think- Versus

Growing up in San Fernando I have been exposed to a different life style and culture than a lot of students here at my high school, Granada Hills. Now even though I did not go to the schools in San Fernando that does not mean that I have been sheltered from the bad. With helicopters flying over night, fully aware of why, people breaking into my neighbors house at night when it was just me and my sister or walking at night and almost getting “blasted” by a gang who thought I was in one, simply because I was dressed wrong. This has shaped my life and at the same time this has made others look at me in a specific way. Most people, who are not latino, will think that I’m full Mexican and speak fluent Spanish and due to the ways I dress sometimes will think if I gang bang. Latinos on the other hand will think that I speak fluent Spanish but because they see and notice me dress differently, skinny jeans or Alice Cooper shirts, believe I am a Mexican trying to be a White boy. With this constent judgement all I can really say to defend myself is that “this is me and if you don’t like it than screw you.” I dress both ways, cholo and rebel white boy; I guess, if you can categorize a way of dressing, because of where I grew up and where I went to school. Also because of whom I associate myself with, gangsters, athletes, and all other types of people and races of people. So when you see me, what my brown skin shows and what my clothes show is me not what you think.