Hispanic Vs. Gringo Essay Example

Defining yourself is one of the most difficult activities in the world. People are so different and complex that it is very hard for somebody to say that they are one way or another. There is something that always escapes the definition of one’s self. In my case, one of the ways that I define myself is a Hispanic. For me, this has to do with a language above all other things. This not only helps me identify others like me, but it has also established a difficult barrier between us and the English-speaking world. In my experience, language has been a difficult barrier to overcome, making Hispanic a way to make myself different from those that speak English.
My life story has shown that “Hispanic” is a way to differentiate one’s self from “Gringos”, or Americans. When I came here five years ago, one of the first differences I saw respect to my native Dominican Republic is that they talk English here, instead of Spanish. Even though I have to say that there is a lot of English in the Spanish that people talk where I come from, almost everything is different, from grammar, to the way one puts words together, to the expressions and, obviously, the words. It has been very difficult for me these five years, and I still do not believe I have gotten the hang of it. This has obviously been very rough because sometimes I feel like I am doing the most I can to communicate something, yet the other person does not understand me at all.
However, I have to say that I am in no way ashamed of being Hispanic. Even though it is not an advantage here, I know that speaking Spanish is very useful. It only means that I have a second language, while most people here only have one. That it is not the same one is a difference in culture, not in quality of the person.