Everyone has and is a different definition of blackness, but when one chooses to actually dissociate, he or she is severing the connection to a cultural group.

Somewhere along the line I left behind not feeling Latina enough and not feeling mainstream enough and in the process strengthened cultural muscles that I can humbly flex within a moments notice.

Despite every attempt by mainstream society to render us invisible, Native Americans are very thankful. After more than 500 hundred years of colonization, Native Americans are still here and always will be. Please remember that when you sit down at your Thanksgiving meal this year.

Seventeen years ago this month, I was in the middle of a full-blown identity crisis. I didn't know who or what I was anymore, let alone what to call myself. As our nation turns to observe National Adoption Month, I'm reminded of accidentally discovering, at the age of twenty, that I was adopted.

At some point, your child may identify with one race over another. This may not be yours and you may feel hurt. Biracial children build healthy self-concepts when they are taught that they are both, not 50/50.

Fair-skinned, single language learner, Mexican/Puertorican Latina placed in a Latin paradigm where I felt I did not identify at times and yet in the same breathe was not accepted either. Feeling as if I was questioned of my authenticity? I had to ask myself "Who and what am I?" everyday of my life.