You Don't Belong in a Box: A Letter to Those Who Don't Fit In
Today I am writing for all of you out there who have felt like they did not have a place within their culture or those who didn’t fit in with their culture &/or ethnicity. I grew up in a multiracial household my mother of Mexican-Spanish descent and father of Caucasian-European-Spanish decent.
Growing up I did know any other multiracial or biracial folks who looked like me or my family.
So as a Latinx-Caucasian person growing up, I never fully felt like I’ve fit in 💯 to my cultures.
Over time I’ve learned to honor all the pieces of me in spite of folks expressing their opinions of me “not being Mexican enough or White enough” and opinions of my parents being in a biracial marriage.
Imagine filling out an application that asks for your race/ethnicity and boxes stating: Hispanic ( Non-White) and White (Non-Hispanic) when I am clearly both.
I don’t belong in a box and neither do you. I now understand that I am blessed with a multicultural lens into the world. I can be more than two things and that is just fine.
As a biracial latinx-caucasian, Bilingual Spanish/English speaking Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist I have been drawn to working with Latinx and POC with the purpose of eliminating the stigma of mental health treatment in Latinx communities and helping individuals, children, youth and their families find their voice, heal from transgenerational trauma and repair relationships.
My hope for you is that you honor every piece of who you are.
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Note: Mary was recently featured in an article from the Daily Titan titled, “Latinx Community Dispels Mental Health Stigmas”. We recommend you take a read!