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Teofanny: I like to sleep till ten.
Marissa: The 10th month is my birthday month.
Carlos: Ten years ago, my grandparents lived with me.
Vianey: Ten summers ago, I was carefree – no work/stress/hard stuff.
Julian: I've had ten dogs.
Regina: $10 can buy a vanilla bean venti with caramel, 2 cakepops and a cookie @ starbucks.
Andres: 10/10 is an A+
All: 10 fingers, 10 toes, eyes, nose, mouth, hair, arms, legs, beating heart…
Teofanny: We're all the same, right?
Marissa: The moment I realized I was different..
All: First day of school!
Vianey: I see kids that care so much about school, others who are disrespectful to teachers, and others that are really quiet.
Julian: At first I thought..
All: Where is this coming from?
Andres: I always thought everybody had a big happy family with 2 loving parents, and loving siblings.
Regina: Things can change.
Briana: Or have always been different.
Andres: One day we’re all joking around…
Julian: Dude, what's up with the plain face? You look so dead today.
Andres: Like your mama?
Regina: How could you be so mean?
Andres: How was I mean? I was just joking.
Regina: His mom is dead.
Andres: What? I didn’t know. What do I do now?
Teofanny: Ten minutes can help anything.
Andres: I have ten minutes.
Andres: I didn't mean to hurt you. I didn't know.
Julian: It's okay.
Vianey: Everyone has a story.
Julian: After my mother died, my sister came to Mexico and brought me to the US. I was 6 or 7 years old.
Julian: After my mother died, my sister came to Mexico and brought me to the US. I was 6 or 7 years old.
Julian: She tried teaching me English and I entered 2nd grade. Then, I knew I was different.
Julian: That summer she put me in pre-school so I would learn more English. I was around all these real little kids, and I knew I was different.
Briana: I always knew I was different – born in the US, growing up in Guatemala with my mom and brothers and my dad being from another culture, Mexican.
Briana: When I actually noticed everyone was different was when I came back to the US, got close to people, and got to know their stories. I had assumed I was the only different person…
All: Not true!
Briana: Finding out that everyone is different in some way, feels good.
Regina: I was the only African-American at my school. I went swimming with friends. Everyone’s hair got wet but stayed basically the same. Mine became a big afro.
Teofanny: Why doesn't your hair stay nice?
Carlos: Why is your skin so dark?
Regina: I was confused. I wanted to know why I couldn’t have hair or skin color like everyone else at my school. It made me feel like an outcast.
Briana: I didn't know.
Teofanny: The first time I realized that everyone came from different backgrounds was when I moved from Victorville to Fontana at the end of eighth grade.
Teofanny: Then, I realized there had been diversity in Victorville, too, but I hadn’t thought about it before because all the groups just hung around with each other.
Teofanny: Sometimes, people asked if I speak “Asian”. I’d have to explain that “Asian” is not a language…Sometimes, people asked if I speak “Asian”. I’d have to explain that “Asian” is not a language.
Carlos: I didn’t know – I mean, I know, I just didn’t know some people think that—you know?
Julian: In 2nd grade I realized I spoke with an accent while others spoke a more fluent English.
Marissa: We moved to be near family in Louisiana for a while and at school, everyone laughed at me because they said I talked “funny"
Carlos: People wondered why I don’t speak with an accent. And why I don’t speak Spanish. So they called me “***” and “white trash”. I’m proud of my heritage.
Carlos: We just didn’t speak Spanish in my house. I’m trying to learn, I’m just not very good at it.
Eduardo: For as long as I can remember, I have spoken Spanish. At a slow and gradual rate, my Spanish worsened. Slowly I began to speak English more and more often.
Eduardo: One day, we were going to a party as a family. My dad was driving and I was in the back seat with my cousin. Suddenly, I see my dad is mad. I don’t understand why.
Eduardo: One day, we were going to a party as a family. My dad was driving and I was in the back seat with my cousin. Suddenly, I see my dad is mad. I don’t understand why.
Julian: Porque no hables en Español?
Eduardo: I am.
Julian: Cierto que no!
Andres: No. It’s true. I’ve been speaking Spanish, you’ve been answering me in English.
Eduardo: I didn't realize I was doing that.
Eduardo: I think my dad was concerned that I was losing my culture or not caring enough about it.
Briana: One day, I was on the phone with my brother, who is in Guatemala. I hadn’t talked to him in a while, so I was pretty excited.
Briana: He started laughing, and I started laughing. And I asked him, why are you laughing?
Carlos: You sound Mexican.
Briana: Really? If I sounded Mexican, did that mean I wasn’t part of the Guatemalan culture that I share with my brothers? Did that mean I had to choose one over the other?
Teofanny: I’m Indonesian-American. Specifically, Batak. My family on my mom’s side all live in Indonesia. When I was younger, we went to visit.
Teofanny: I’m Indonesian-American. Specifically, Batak. My family on my mom’s side all live in Indonesia. When I was younger, we went to visit.
Teofanny: . A ritual at family gatherings/feasts is to feed the elders as a sign of respect and love. I was supposed to help feed my grandparents but… the closer I got… the more scared and lost and uneasy I felt that I just--
Teofanny: Afterwards, I scolded myself for running away. I dearly love my family & I realized I needed to embrace my culture, especially if I hope to preserve it & pass it on.
Marissa: When we first got to Louisiana, we loved it. Our backyard was the size of a football field - it was full of trees, grapes, raspberries and these amazing flowers.
Marissa: One day, we’re all sitting in the living room when a stranger walks in
Carlos: Hey, how ya doing?
Marissa: Good?
Carlos: You sure have a pretty place.
Carlos: Say, mind if I stay for dinner?
Marissa: Thank you?
Marissa: What would you do?
All: Call the cops!
Marissa: When the cops got there, they looked at us as if to say,
Regina/Eduardo/Carlos: Californians.
Marissa: For days, the neighbors would look at us and laugh. Apparently, that’s just part of the culture in that part of Louisiana but we didn’t know, our family hadn’t told us.
Vianey: One big struggle I have with my culture is how the girls in my house have to do everything. I remember the first time it hit me. My sisters and I helped my mom cook, but the boys just sat at the table waiting to be served.
Vianey: Inside my head, I was saying...
Regina/Teofanny: That's not fair!
Briana/Marissa: Get up and serve yourself!
Vianey: But I stayed quiet and continued to serve the food. When we finished, I got up to throw my stuff away and then I see my dad and brother just leave everything, like nothing. I wanted to say...
All girls: Clean up after yourself! If I can do it, YOU can do it!
Vianey: It was VERY disappointing and upsetting. My mom just laughs but it’s a struggle with me still.
Marissa: I think the hardest aspect of my culture is always following tradition because I'm always learning new things about other cultures and it's hard to follow tradition.
Teofanny: It can be challenging for me accepting some of my cultural traditions that might come off as weird or bizarre to me at first, but I want to pass on my family’s traditions.
Carlos: I want to be able to show my culture without being criticized.
Andres: To me, culture is a significant part of my identity. It is my heritage, my roots. It's where I come from and a part of who I will become.
Regina: My culture is a part of my identity, but it does not define me. My heritage is African-American and Indian. We’ve been here a long time. I love who I am and how I was brought up, which is to be strong and to not let people walk over me.
Briana: I am proud to say that I have 3 cultures in y life - Mexican, Guatemalan, and American. To me, I am an example of how different cultures can work together. It gives me a much bigger background.
Julian: I cherish the "backstory" of who I am.
Eduardo: Differences between people is what makes the world unique, and beautiful, and allows me to gain new perspectives.
Julian: ] I was watching the news and there was this man talking about some statistics he’d researched based on race. He said that Latinos and African-Americans have the largest dropout rates in the country.
Julian: He said that very few graduate because Latinos and African-Americans don’t care about education as much as they should.
Teofanny/Marissa/Carlos: OFFENDED!
Eduardo/Regina/Andres/Briana/Vianey: STEREOTYPED!
Julian: Ever since then I have this mentality that I will prove to them that these “statistics” are just stereotypes.
Regina: It's hard for me to understand that I'm going to have to work a lot harder than other people just because of the color of my skin and have to prove to people I am worthy enough to work for their business.
Julian: I like to use a quote from a lady I met recently which puts my dedication to strive into words:
All: Just watch me! I’ma show YOU!
Eduardo: 10 minutes ago I dreamt of a day when I will achieve every dream of mine.
All: Yeah! Ten…
Marissa/Vianey/Eduardo: An even number,
Regina/Carlos/Briana: Also known as a decade,
Teofanny/Andres/Julian: That marks an important date…
All: Happy Anniversary PAYS! Thank you!