Normal Person

i am a mexican. i speak english (my second language) WITHOUT a spanish accent. i have olive skin that tans very well (i like to refer to it as SPF Mexican), and dark hair and brownish eyes. i do speak spanish (my first language), without an american accent, and russian is my third language (long story).

living in This State, i get asked a lot where i am from. that is the first clue that the indigenous population of this state is mostly white. so when i have a person look at me and see someone with slightly darker skin, and they ask 'where are you from?' i know they are not interesting in knowing which town i live it locally; i am darker-skinned, so i must not be from around here.......

so when somebody asks me where i'm from, i like to get straight to the point and either say i'm from el paso, texas, or i just say 'i'm a mexican.' (it's kind of embarrassing to make people that want to know what race/ethnicity i am go thru the hoops of-'where are you from' 'Local Town, nearby.' 'no, i mean, where are you from from.' 'i'm from Local Town. well i did used to live in Other Local Town, but i moved.' pause for exasperated silence, followed finally by, 'what race/ethnicity are you?' oh, is that what you really wanted to know, you racist stereotyping bigot? well, you should have asked that at the beginning, instead of thinking you could be sneaky and find out my race by asking me where i'm from.....) anyways, usually i just spit out mexican and get it over with.

so, conversation gets started with another patient.

patient: 'where are you from?'

nurse j: 'el paso, texas.'

patient: 'are you spanish?'

(another pet peeve. 'Spanish,' means, when referring to a person, that they are of Spanish descent, as in, they are from 'Spain.' because i speak spanish does not make me 'Spanish.' LOTS of countries in the world have Spanish as their primary language. it's really not that hard. it's like assuming everyone that speaks English is from England. i swear the next idiot that asks me if i'm 'spanish' because i speak spanish is gonna get an 'are you english? your english is wonderful. you don't even have an accent,' from me. sorry, had to get that off my chest. end rant)

anyways, back to the conversation-

nurse j: 'no, i'm a mexican. both my parents were born in mexico.'

patient: 'wow, you don't even look mexican.'

nurse j: 'really? what do i look like?'

patient: ' a normal person.'

*sigh*

in case you were wondering, the conversation did not get any better after this last little gem. patient went from telling me i looked like a normal person to telling me that with a little education, even mexicans can make something of themselves. thanks for that newsflash buddy. how's the weather?

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thanks to the current hoopla over immigration, i also had another patient recently ask me, when i went into the room with another nurse (not my patient) to help turn him and stuff pillows, if i was 'illegal,' right off the bat. smooth operator that one. nothing got by him. damn fox news, riling up our elderly.

by the by, no picture for this post. for a good time, use google images to look for 'normal person.' it's a blast.