I’m not exactly sure what you mean when you ask what kind of Cuban I am. I’m just Cuban. We have a very diverse family that includes Black, Brown, Jewish, Gay, Trans, etc.. We’re certainly not stereotypical Cubans in that we harbor no bigotry towards others.

Yes, I am an American-born Cuban. In fact, I am a first generation Cuban American. The reason I identify as Cuban is because I was raised by a large Cuban family in a predominantly Hispanic city. So the only culture I knew growing up was that of my own people.

It wouldn’t be until I got older (teen years) that I started to become exposed to what the United States was really like towards people like us. From there, my curiosity about social structures became a topic of interest that I studied most of my life.

In all honesty, declaring oneself as “American” is a misnomer as all Latin Americans are technically American. So I identify with the culture I’m most familiar with. In fact, American culture is defined by littles pieces of culture from all over the world. So American culture is built on diversity of thought and ideas.

To me, and not everyone agrees with this position, I believe there’s no such thing as an American. All of our individual heritages are from somewhere else. It’s the denial of one’s history that begins to create superiority complexes. By identifying as white, most people are denying their cultural heritage, and that’s a shame to me.

Instead, I prefer to be a cultural accelerator by passing on the traditions of my family and our people on to my kids, their friends, my friends, etc.. In other words, I am just one of many who is building cultural capital and generational wealth so that my kids have a level playing field in the United States.

Despite being born here, we’re still not fully accepted into North American society. It’s because of that I speak up for my people and other people of color while calling out racism and bigotry in the US.

Make sense?