For Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the senior African-American Literature class at South was asked to respond to a prompt related to the themes of the class. Because February is Black History Month, Denebola is posting one of these essays a day until the end of the month so as to start a conversation about race outside the classroom. The prompt is as follows:
“In about 500 words, tell the story of a personal experience that relates in some way to the ideas and themes of this class. You should spend the majority of the piece telling the story, and the end should explain clearly what the story shows about a theme or idea from the class.”
By Selena DeLeon
Being a METCO student from Boston, I wasn’t the only Hispanic student on the bus, but once I stepped off the bus, I felt like I was the only Hispanic student in the entire school. I began to notice this more once I got into high school, and I always wondered why was I the only Hispanic in the school.
I started the METCO program in first grade. In elementary school, I never paid attention to who I surrounded myself by; I was friends with everyone. I was friends with the blacks and whites, and my best friend was a black male. We remained friends till high school, but now that I sit and think about whom I surrounded myself with in elementary school, it never bothered me until now. Looking back, before I entered the METCO program, I was surrounded by other Hispanics, and then I was taken out of that environment and put into a different environment. It was a big difference, because I thought that in a different school, there would be more of my culture in it, but there wasn’t. I was put into a white culture again, and I was forced to learn about the white major events in history.
When I entered middle school and begin to realize exactly what I was learning, it was never about the Hispanic culture. The only Hispanic event we celebrated was Cinco De Mayo, which is a Mexican event. I am a Puerto Rican, and we never learned about Puerto Ricans’ events or people. We should always focus on every culture, not just that of blacks and whites, because they aren’t the only people in the world. When we did learn about Hispanic events or read books and there was a Hispanic character, everyone would look at me and want me to read their part for them out loud in class. When I got to middle school, I surrounded myself with the black people cause that’s who I felt comfortable with; I still do surround myself with the black people. I would have some white friends come up to me and ask me, “Why do you hang out with the black people? Come hang with us.” My response to that is always a “no,” and at times I do wish to have my own culture around so I wouldn’t have to pick sides between the blacks and whites.
Being a Newton South High School student, I’ve finally accepted the fact that I’m the only Hispanic and that I surround myself with black students. I don’t find it a good thing, because I feel like the METCO program should have accepted more Hispanics in the program or sent more to South. My advice to others that are the only Hispanics: just be with who you feel comfortable around and try to share your culture with the others.
