Something I have been asked more times than I can count is, “Say something in Spanish” after someone finds out that I’m Mexican. As a culturally mixed Latino with one Mexican parent and one white American parent, I know the surprised reactions that I am met with are entirely motivated by the fact that I have light eyes and fair skin.
The Latino community regularly expects me to prove my Mexican-ness to them, asking me to say specific words in Spanish or doubting whether or not I know what pozole is. While mixed people who belong to a variety of cultures share common experiences, culturally mixed Latinos face a specific type of marginalization due to the unique racial history behind being Latino.
Latinos are set apart because being Latino almost inherently means being mixed. Latino racial history is deeply tied to Mestizaje, the cultural and ethnic mixing that began during the colonial era. This means most Latinos today can trace their ancestry back to three modernly constructed categories of race: white from Spanish and other European colonists, Black from enslaved Africans, and Indigenous, the original occupants of the land. This is why Latinos can appear so differently phenotypically — from having pale skin and light eyes to darker complexions and Afro-Latino features.
Given this racial fluidity of Latino history, one would think that Latinos would be more aware and accepting of differences. Unfortunately, for many culturally mixed Latinos, this is not the case.
Mixed people often share universal struggles. Among these are factors such as the need to prove belonging or feeling more connected to one side than the other, which can contribute to several complications. Internal identity conflicts — such as not feeling a sense of belonging in any culture — being fetishized for their ambiguity or exoticism, or facing stark contrasts between families in terms of culture, politics, or language are a few more examples. Monoracial people may even pressure them to pick a side, as if both identities coexisting with one another cannot exist.
However, for those who are culturally mixed Latino — meaning they have one Latino parent and one parent of another ethnicity and culture — there are additional layers to this marginalization. Because Latino ancestry often denotes a fusion of various races, being Latino is not considered a race on governmental or other formal documents. Rather, it is classified as a separate ethnicity. While this makes sense logically, it creates a flurry of problems in practice.
When a Latino fills out a form that asks for racial information, there is usually a completely separate question from the typical “What is your race?” question that asks, “Are you Hispanic/Latino? Yes or No.” This ignores the fluidity of Latino identities and boxes every Latino, regardless of how different their background may be, into one box, while also forcing many Latinos to pick a race that they may not identify with at all in the preceding question.
Recent official questionnaires have begun consolidating the two questions, forcing mixed people into a strange collection of options. They have begun formatting the answer choices as such: White (Not Hispanic/Latino), Black (Not Hispanic/Latino), Hispanic/Latino, Mixed (Not Hispanic/Latino), etc. Notice what’s missing? A box for people who identify with more than just one of their check boxes. The form’s wording singles out Latino identities, conveying that they cannot coexist with other identities while also implying that other mixtures are valid.
This effectively reinforces a false idea that being Latino is a monolith, rather than embodying plurality and mixture.
Not only do culturally mixed Latinos go through the typical mixed kid experiences growing up — like othering, feeling excluded or not understanding their relationship with race — but even governmental, schooling and employment forms do not validate their identities. It becomes a war with check boxes, trying to find the one that feels right, but finding that it rarely exists.
Oftentimes, Latinos are flattened into just Hispanic, losing the richness and beauty of a mixed lineage. Inside the Latino community, the requirement that mixed people must prove their Latino identity to others feels preposterous, as all Latinos are mixed to begin with.
To answer the question I’ve been asked so many times: yes, I speak Spanish and yes, I know what pozole is — it’s delicious. But even so, these attributes should never be the key to being included in one’s own culture. Race is a social construct, and society treats these boxes entirely too rigidly. Our identities are fluid and should never be reduced to check boxes. We are not “less” Latino for being part of different cultures — we are whole.
Alexander Randall is an Opinion Intern for the summer 2025 quarter. He can be reached at arandal1@uci.edu.
Edited by Casey Mendoza and Joshua Gonzales