The other day I was talking to a close friend of mine whom I will call Carla for purpose of this story. She is a champion of immigration initiatives always involved in social justice activities, a role model.

When chatting, I asked her what her experience was like growing up as an immigrant or a child of immigrants. She told me about her first day at grammar school and how frightening it was.

She came into a classroom full of new faces. She remembers the place decorated with big colorful pictures of animals and fruits, the alphabet in large letters, and the numbers from one to ten. As she looked around, she was frightened to see herself so different from everyone else. Her skin and hair color were different, and she noticed that the clothes her mother had picked for her that day did not match the uniform the other girls were wearing. Others girls were dressed much more nicely and she felt envy. She wanted to be more like them and less like her siblings, with their immigrant background and culture.

As Carla grew up, she struggled to manage a bi-cultural life with different demands. On the one side, her family had customs, rituals and values that were much different from what Carla was learning at school and among her friends. Her parents had expectations for her that were different from those of her friends, while the society she was growing up in demanded of her things that contradicted those very values that were so important to her family.

As she matured and experienced her life as a bi-cultural Latina, she learned to cherish the uniqueness and values of her family and culture, which she says were essential in helping her reach her educational goals, and are now part of who she is. She also learned to take advantage of all the great things that this country has to offer to young people who work hard to reach their goals.

Certainly this story is one of millions, and each of us faces our challenges in a different way. So, what does it mean to you to live bi-culturally in the United States? How have your culture and your family values influenced the way you live your live as a young Latino or Latina in this society? Is your story anything like Carla’s story, or are those stories something from the past?

One of the things that I came away with after talking to Carla, and something that I personally value very much, is the fact that Hispanic youth living in the United States bring great diversity and such a richness to share with this great country. You are not only bi-lingual, which is in itself a great gift, but you are bi-cultural, something that enables you to stand out and see the world from a dimension that is missed by many.

I hope that, like Carla, you have come to grips with your identity and have discovered what is important in your life. Feel free to tell us about your own experience growing up or living in a bi-cultural world.