Passing at the U

Passing at the U

Lauryn Garcia

10/03/2022

Growing up in a Caribbean country, most people would think that we are all-inclusive because of the racial diversity that we have. Reality is that the minority always ends up being the most affected even by your own people. This includes prejudices when getting a job, public representation or immigration chances. This is the story of how I passed as a non-Spanish speaker for about a month at my job.

For the past 6 years, I have been living in Hialeah, I call it "la casa de Los Cubanos" (Cuban's house). There is no such thing as diversity here, whether you are in school, the market, etc. At first, I was kind of relieved because I thought I would feel more comfortable and welcomed to this new country since there were people surrounding me that spoke the same language and had the same culture as me. Don’t get me wrong, I'm not saying that I don't love my culture, but honestly. I am so tired of being in almost the same environment that I was born in. Especially because I know that outside of what it sometimes feels like a bobble, there is a diverse community.

While seeking to interact with a more diverse community, my attention was drawn to the University of Miami Hospital. The UMH (University of Miami Hospital) is in the middle of Downtown so, many people from all kinds of places come to us. The moment I started working there I notice the variety of languages that we had, as well as religions. I felt comfortable because we try our best to leave our differences behind and always respect each other regardless. Still, being part of the Hispanic community has forced me to realize how much we need to work on getting educated when it comes to the diversity that this world holds.
Basically, what happened was that I guess the people that hired me forgot that my last name was Garcia and so when I tell others my first name, they would immediately think I only speak English. Since I started training, I tried to be as formal/respectful as possible, so I spoke in the common language that we all share. Even when I could tell that some of the nurses and doctors spoke Spanish, I still communicated with them in English.

One day, one of the CNAs, we’ll call him Jorge, made coffee and he was sharing it with all of us. My Cuban instincts could not stop me, so I went to the lunch area and got my cafecito. Then this one nurse asked me in front of everyone: “You like Cuban coffee? Where did you learn to drink it that fast?" I cluelessly replied, “My home country, same as how you learn.” Everyone seemed confused and so the next question that was thrown at me was: “Where are you from?” Again, I responded with a clueless look on my face and said: “Cuba”. The room went quiet and so Jorge said “Quee!!, tu eres cubana??”(what, your Cuban). To which I replied yes and laughed awkwardly as I tried to walk away and go back to my workstation. That day I tried my best to not mind that comment and keep on with my routine. Jorge personally took the time out of his schedule to let everyone on the floor know that I was Cuban just like he was. Whenever he talked to any coworkers near me, he will tell them: “you see my Cuban lady over there, don't mess with her ok”. I would just laugh these interactions off and by the end of the day I kind of felt relive that everyone knew the ‘news’ already. I hoped that it would take off a litter bit of pressure that I had as a newbie at my job.

At least that’s what I wanted to convince myself of, but by the next day people started coming up to me just to ask me if I was ‘really’ Cuban. Apparently, NOBODY could’ve imagen that I even understood Spanish. They started coming for my accent and refused to believe that I immigrated to this country a couple years ago. Then they started commenting on my looks, someone even said that with the braids that I was wearing I looked Jamaican, Haitian, or from any African country. I was shocked I didn't know how to take these comments anymore, wasn’t sure if they were compliments or insults to my identity.

What makes it funny to me is the fact that almost every person that refused to believe I was Cuban, were Cubans themselves. Confessed that, they could’ve taken me and that I could ‘pass as’ anything but Hispanic, anything but Cuban. Acting as if they had never seen an Afrocuban in their life.

I have already been working at the UMH for about 3 months now. However, I still get comments and reactions like these almost daily. I don't expect anyone to know where I'm from but at least to try to act like I‘m not some rare thing that somehow was able to immigrate to this country.