<<next bite
The first time I learned that Mexican people weren't considered white was when I was in third or fourth grade.
I used the word "puta"—which in Spanish means prostitute, in polite terms—around one of my sister's friends. My sister Andrea and her friend, who was named Lucy, were two years older. Lucy turned to me and asked, "Where did you hear that word?'
To tell you the truth, I don't know where I first heard that word. Perhaps growing up in West Covina, which had a good-sized Hispanic population, it was inevitable.
Feeling caught, I felt compelled to provide an answer. "It was written on the bathroom wall," I fibbed.
"What bathroom wall?" Lucy demanded. She was Mexican. She was also one of those kids who is somehow an adult at age 11.
I was digging myself into a hole.
"At a park," I said, or something like that.
Her sage reply spoke volumes: "I know you didn't find that written on the bathroom wall of no white home."
—Sarah Torribio
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