Celebrating All That We Are

The recent Cinco de Mayo festivities was a great opportunity for our family to get out and have our kids celebrate one side of their multi-ethnic heritage. Our daughter particularly, takes great pride in her Mexican side and she certainly showed it by proudly waving and carrying her Mexican flag during the festival we went to in downtown Los Angeles this past weekend. It was good to see that she recognizes that component of who she is because though there will be others who will try to get her to deny that she anything other than black, she knows her mother and her heritage is as much from that culture as my side. And she knows her Mom and I very much want to make sure she celebrates all that she is and not just half.

Of course the challenge for us as parents is to make sure that she does not try to make a conscious decision to "be" just one thing over another, whether that is to be only black or to be only Mexican-American. Because not only would that be erroneous but it will also lead her to heartache as she will surely be challenged on such a notion more than a few times. My wife and I have made a conscious effort to get the kids to cultural events from both sides of their heritage and to make sure they are learning history that they can be proud of. So far it seems to be working. We expect there will be times where we, and they, will be challenged, but such is the process of raising well-adjusted kids.