But no matter what phase I was going through or what group of friends I chose, it always felt like it had to be either/or—when I was with my Black friends, I was Black, and when I was with my Hispanic friends, I was Puerto Rican. It was always a choice; I never felt like I could be both, and I was never quite Puerto Rican enough, never quite Black enough.My mother took notice and was constantly reminding me that I was Latina, too, that I should never forget what it meant to be a Latina. But what does being Latina really mean? I often wondered to myself. So when I first got to college, and saw a larger Hispanic population than I’d ever known, I had a new quest: befriending my Latino classmates, and fitting in with them.
