Mujer Latina (original) (raw)

Just for some background... I just got married this summer, and my husband is also Colombian, but my last name sounds English (my grandfather was from Providencia, an island in the Caribbean so it's from his pirate ancestry) and his does not.

Yesterday morning I went to the Social Security office to officially change my last name to his. I filled out the name change form, which also included things like my ethnicity, my birthday etc. My number was called and I went up... everything was fine but then she printed out the form for me to sign off on the changes. I signed it, but I noticed where it had "ethnicity" it said "white". I was like, "ummm I'm not white, I'm Hispanic, I marked it on my form. I don't know if that matters." The Asian woman said, "NO YOU'RE NOT. You're HUSBAND is Hispanic, YOU are WHITE." Well I was pretty offended... I think I know my ethnicity thank you. (and hello I'm BROWN if you haven't noticed) I told her, "No, I am ALSO Hispanic" and she just said, "oh well it doesn't matter".

I think she thought I was trying to change my ethnicity just because of my husband - like I'm dumb enough to think that if I marry someone of a different ethnicity I become that ethnicity too. Wow. She didn't say so but I assume that's what she thought. Turns out my Mom filled out my SS paperwork when I was a kid and she put "white". I am half Anglo on my Mom's side, but I was raised solely by my Colombian father from age six and don't really identify with my Mom's background. I've never been close to my Mom or any sense of Anglo culture as it is known by my Mom's family anyways.

I left the office but then I just felt like crying to be perfectly honest. It just felt like officially, according to the government I was "white" and not "Hispanic". I was having a mini identity crisis when I went back inside, got another number, went up to the booth again (different woman) and explained what happened. She was really nice though and she changed it for me, and I left feeling empowered, if not a little bit silly. But overall I felt better so I'm glad I went back in! That lady really pissed me off!