Being A Chicana

As we were growing up my uncle would always call us Chicana’s. “Chicana means a women or girl that’s origin or decent from Mexico.” He called us Chicana’s because he said you girls weren’t born in Mexico and you were raised differently from us. He once mentioned how the school’s in Mexico their regulations were different from the ones in New York City. The I learned that all the schools in Mexico your required to wear your uniform starting from elementary to middle school and high school. How every semester your parents must sign you up to continue attending class.

 The regulations were strict you either had to follow them or you would have to attend to the consequences. Your uniform was required to be nicely iron it couldn’t be ripped or all creased up your shoes had to been super clean and your skirts and dresses couldn’t be altered in to a shorter length. You basically had to show up to school presentable as if you were showing to an interview. That proved the teachers you were ready to learn. Girls weren’t allowed to wear makeup and if they did the teachers would ask them to go to the bathroom and wipe it off or they weren’t allowed to come back to class. They also weren’t allowed to wear nail polish & all their shirts had to be button up no showing skin. Nor could they wear piercings around the face both girls and boys. The Boys weren’t allowed to do any sort of design in their hair they had to cut their hair very simple and plain. When they had gym it was mandatory to wear gym uniform or they weren’t allowed to attend class. This was required in all the schools in Mexico. “He said that there was a few times kids were sent home because either their uniform wasn’t nicely presented.” When I went to Mexico over the summer my cousins had told me the same thing how if I went to school there I wasn’t going to be able to wear the amount of makeup I used. I once saw heard how my own cousin was told by a teacher to cut his hair because he couldn’t show up to class like that.

 I than realized that we grew up differently here in New York City most schools don’t have those type of rules. Some schools do require you to use uniform or a shirt but that’s common.  When I was high school I was allowed to wear makeup or at least mascara in middle school but my mom wouldn’t agree with it so much because she would say what I you get in trouble in school. Something my aunts weren’t allowed to do until they graduated high school I mean they were allowed to wear makeup outside of class. When I heard all of this I was shocked because I couldn’t imagine myself going to a school were you aren’t allowed to wear makeup or at least some mascara it was just surprising I understand maybe at a younger age but in high school. I Realized why my uncle would always called us Chicana’s were weren’t fully Mexican we were half American / Mexican because of the way we raised as we grow up we sometimes don’t follow anymore our cultural descent. We don’t do the same things our parents were taught as we were little because of the country we grew up in.