Chimamanda Adichie’s TED Talk is a moving speech about how small stories can make remarkably strong impacts on how people see others and the world without any real world evidence of the thing said to them which happens with many peoples cultures, beliefs, and political opinions. Yes, maybe in another country you heard of abusive men but this is in every country, as brought up in the Ted Talk. This is an issue because people assume negative things about people that are often not true. In my case this applied to how people from Mexico, and America view me and others like me.

As a Mexican, people categorize me or my family as a common stereotype and political opinion. I was in government last year when I realized that my entire existence as an ethnicity is political and some people want me to “go back to my country” although i was born here. When I was in fifth grade, a teacher told me I should be proud because I am a first-generation American, although I was confused because all I knew regarding that topic at the time was, I am Mexican. When I was six, my friend told me, if my dad was an immigrant, he would be homeless and not allowed to have me and be jobless. In elementary school I was put into ESL (English second language classes) . This was odd because I only knew English at that age. I later learned this happened to many other Hispanics I know. My parents never told the school to put me in this class or anything related. Furthermore People in Mexico see me as a rich, spoiled kid; as white, as a California blond girl tanning to be orange with no knowledge of my culture. But people here have seen me as an intruder and strange to speak to my dad in his native tongue. Most people see a Mexican or Hispanic in similar ways, depending on how they were raised or where they come from. People in America see Mexicans as dark but not as dark as other races, they see Mexicans as people who come to their country without permission, and they see Mexico itself as a dangerous country that spreads danger to the U.S. There are other stereotypes I am not sure are as popular that I have heard such as we are poor and all very similar, we all come without permission and can easily get it. Believe it or not, people from Mexico think stereotypes about the U.S. as well. They think all Americans are racist unless it comes to food and the U.S. is politically perfect and any hard worker or even most kids who go to school can easily become rich. They think once you come, you can quickly be rich with no setbacks. These are all based on short stories adults tell their kids.

In my situation, I get to see both sides of the “small story”. Although I am a full-blooded Mexican, I was born in the U.S. I grew up not knowing people see me a certain way from both places I am from. I somehow was too Mexican for some people and too white for others. My dad is not a legal citizen, but my mom is. My mom didn’t bother to teach me Spanish, so my grandma disliked me. This also grew a barrier with my dad for many years because his first language is Spanish. I grew up and am now fluent in Spanish. But now people at the store talk louder and make mean faces to me and my dad as if our speaking Spanish mean we only know Spanish and we are hard of hearing or stupid. I am not sure if my dad notices this, he has just gotten used to it, or has never seen anything different. When I was young, I felt ashamed of my culture because kids would be slightly racist. This led to me trying not to be tan, shaving my arms every week, and trying to be away from my dad in public so I didn’t have to speak Spanish. I now feel much shame for this because I am now very proud to be Mexican and even try to tan and look mexican because I grew up to learn that the other Mexican kids would be rude towards me, because my skin is too pale, which is an odd assumption considering many many Hispanics are not dark or brown. Living in the U.S. made me have assumptions about my people that just aren’t true. I learned that in Mexico there are cars and cities much like in the U.S. (which is relatively new) I also learned it takes an average of 22 years to get into the U.S legally and many come to lighten their families financially. I learned that many of my ancestors were actually on this soil first and migrated down to Mexico as the English came. I learned immigrants have to pay taxes and do not get tax returns, which is why it is stereotyped that immigrants don’t pay taxes. I know immigrants who paid 500,000 dollars in taxes last year. I learned immigrants cannot get help with retirement, medical insurance, government housing (now Colorado is the first to change the housing in 2021), and much other government assistance. This makes it impossible to reach goals that Mexico’s people think are easy. My dad has had a very successful company and a great amount of money that an American can give them a home and pets, but we have lived in an old two-bedroom apartment for the past 13 years. He once told me, “going to America was the greatest disappointment of his entire life”. All this has led me to have many issues finding myself because I am seen as a white, only English speaking, rich girl who can achieve anything with no hard work. But I speak Spanish in a store and suddenly I am a border-crossing poor immigrant who is stealing jobs even though once again, I was born here. I am still learning, I will never be what people expect of me, I will never be white enough or Mexican enough, so I’m learning to just be in between whatever I want to be and not care what people’s stories have shaped me to be in seconds.

This is why a short story can critically damage people’s opinions. It can even shape people to be how others think they should be. This leads to people not knowing true facts and other stories. Every country has its pros and cons. Short stories can only show one aspect. In reality no place is all that different, but rather every single person is very different.