So White

I was a busboy during my internship at the Guatemalan bakery, sweeping floors, washing dishes, and taking out the trash. It never failed to amuse me when I brought the trash to the outside dumpster and was met with the stares of passerby. Here I was, a gringo in a white apron taking the trash out of a Guatemalan bakery, performing the stereotypical tasks of an Hispanic immigrant and seemingly switching stereotyped roles with my Guatemalan co-workers. I soon realized how much I stood out when I was working behind the counter one day with the owner's wife and a female customer entered the bakery, presumably Hispanic by appearance and Spanish speech. After engaging in small talk in Spanish, the lady asked me with a smile if I was the owner's wife son. When I said no, she laughed and said, "No puedes ser, eres tan blanquito!" (You can't be, you're so white!) I realized right then that in that bakery, I was a foreigner. Although the Hispanics who were immigrants were considered foreigners in the U.S, within this Hispanic community, I was the foreigner, I was the immigrant. Despite my connection to Guatemala, despite my previous visit to the country, despite often wearing my Guatemalan jacket bought in Guatemala, despite being able to speak Spanish, due to the color of my skin, I was labeled as a white American. I now realize that I had experienced what every racially or ethnically diverse Hispanic encounters: being an "other". Many Hispanic immigrants in the U.S., due to their skin color, whether blanco (white), negro (black), moreno or mulatto (brown and/or tan), mestizo (mixed), café con leche (coffee with cream), are often considered as "others", as they all can be considered "immigrants" and not "real Americans". Whether these Hispanics are indeed immigrants, whether or not they have come to the U.S. legally or not, they are considered as foreigners due to their skin color. Even if these Hispanics have white skin, then they can still be considered as an "other" due to accent or origin of birth or heritage. In total, I got a taste of what many Hispanics experience everyday, living in the eyes of the public as an "other", all because I was "so white".