The two communities that mean the most to me are my Mexican-American heritage and tennis. Although these things are two different worlds these are where I have grown to become the person that I am today. I selected my Mexican-American heritage because it’s something that I was born into and have to live with. This is something that is a part of my life and can’t, this where my morals and beliefs stem from or where I saw beliefs and morals that I don’t want in my life. Tennis on the other hand is something that consciously choose to join and there is I have made many friends, had great times and which I had various problems. Tennis is something that change my life for the better but it also thought more lessons that just playing the sport.
As a Mexican-American I would normally be considered a minority but I have not grown up being a minority. My hometown of El Paso is predominantly Hispanic so I have never felt out of place. Growing up though I was thought many thought many things that I still carry with me today and others that I discarded after a lot of consideration. One main value that I associate with being Mexican-American is family. One thing that my mom is adamant about is that family is important and that’s why she would do anything for her children and her mom. I, however, don’t have that mentality which is why I don’t get along with my older brother and younger sister. Another value that I associate with being Mexican-American, at least from what my mom has taught me, is hard work. My was a single mother of four but she word hard to make sure that we always had food, clothes and supplies for school. My mother always felt that her children should either work or go to school which is why she is working hard so that she can pay for my school. In turn that’s why I work hard, to succeed in school and get a good job to maintain her.
With these two values I carry myself with pride for who I am. Although I know many people would not like me because of where my family is from, I have rarely had cases where I been stereotyped for my heritage. The only two small instances that I can think of come from family and from my other community, tennis. The first one comes from mostly the majority of my Aunt Dora’s, who is my mom’s twin sister, family. They all see me as some sort of “nerd” and have always hinted that I shouldn’t strive for school. Not a single one of them has ever been to college and never liked school and see it beneath them to ever try to go to one. One time they even said, “when have you seen a Mexican at college.” The other instance was at tennis tournament and as things were wrapping up we saw some guys with a soccer ball playing basketball so we ask to play soccer instead. They said yes but then all the other schools teamed together and when we complained they said, “you guys are from Horizon, you all know how to play soccer.” This seemed fair to them because most of schools that banded together were the more “better” ones as our school was seen as the place where immigrants usually tend to go, they seemed to view as a bunch of soccer players that are just in tennis because they couldn’t cut it for the soccer team. These are two small things but still times where my heritage seem to some sort of indicator of who I am as an individual.
In tennis is where I was able to create many friendships and learn many things about myself. If there was one thing that I took out of the tennis is the importance of friendship. That’s the one true thing that I learned from playing during high school. Tennis is one part of my that I feel more incline to as the idea of “my tennis” instead of the sport because what I associate tennis with is my friends. Other people do not share the same feelings and just see it for what it is, a sport. That’s fine as you can’t really hold attachment to something that you have never experience. There was on instance in which I felt truly stereotype just for the sport I played. One time the team was walking towards to a friends house for a cook out. On the way there we crossed paths with a rowdy group and as we were passing by one guy screamed, “look it’s the tennis p*****s.” He called me and my friends “p*****s” just because we played tennis. What they saw us were some unfit losers that stand there and whack at a ball. I think that the guy wouldn’t have said anything if we were the football team or the baseball team. In his eyes we were just some “p*****s”
I found that UT has Club Tennis which is just a tennis program for players of all levels to practice and compete. The other one that kind of interest me is the Chicano/Hispanic Law Students’ Association which is group that not only look at legal problems that affect that Latino community but also help Latino law students. That would be something that I would really consider during my time at UT.
I agree that one of the things I associate the most with Mexican-American culture is hard work. I also grew up in a single parent household and despite all the trouble my mom had to go through to make sure my sister and I had everything we needed, she never complained or made it seem impossible. It was not until I was older that I realized and learned to appreciate all the things she did for me that I know she did not achieve easily.