As a child I was never really aware of my identitiesidentity. ThroughThroughout my childhood my parents shieldshielded me from discussion relating to birth or hertitageheritage, which I would later realize was from their lack of identity. My mom was born with no father and a mother who abondandedabandoned her. My father was born into a large family of nine with a father who had died young and a mother who strugglestruggled to make ends meet. Only recently, upon reflection, did I realize that I was half white and half quatemalanGuatemalan. My family consisted of six people up until recently. It was me, my one brother, two sisters and parents. Now, we consider ourselves a family of seven with the recent joining of marriage between my brother and a longtimelong-time friend.

I grew up with white privilageprivilege. I could pass as spanishSpanish around latino groups and white around caucasian groups. As a nieve brown haired light skinnednaive brown-haired light-skinned girl, I was stubborn and vain. As a women, I thought I ruled all men but came to realize the target it made me because of my gender identity. On a recent trip to quatemalaGuatemala, I was greeting aan uncle who I had just met. Thereafter, continingcontinuing in conversation, I noticed his eludeaversion to makemaking eye contact. My brother was also in the room and in the entire span of an hour he had yet to even turn in my direction while speaking with me. At first, I assessed the situation as his social skill issueissues, but later realized through more men joining inentering the room that the problem was in fact my gender. This was the first experience werewhere I had realized my gender made me less than others in this situation.