Luz Morales is a 19-year-old student at UGA studying Agriculture Education. Morales identifies as Mexican and shares her experiences of being a Mexican in America.

“I love my culture. I love the food we eat and the ceremonies that we have, the celebrations we have and how close family is. Being a Mexican is just really powerful to me. I couldn’t imagine not being Mexican.”

Both of her parents are documented residents in the United States, but Morales experiences frustrations having to constantly specify whether she and her family are “legal Americans.”

“A disadvantage for me is that I don’t fit in. I don’t fit in over here in the United States and I also don’t fit in in Mexico entirely.”

Morales mentions how often she feels as if the United States alienates her and her people through certain documentation processes such as specifying “preferred race” on census documents and only having the option to bubble in “other.”

“People do ask me what am I…I don’t know which I prefer better, whether someone is assuming I am white or assuming that I am Mexican, because either way they are still assuming.”

Morales goes on to talk about personal hardships faced by the Hispanic communities in America. She mentions how derogatory terms such as “illegal alien” or “wetback” are heard by her community on a regular basis in America.

“I’ve seen on individual levels and on global and national levels of people being harassed, people being scared, people not knowing what to do. There are people who have their green cards and have their permanent residencies and are scared to visit their families in Mexico and not be able to come back. There is a lot of fear, and there is a lot more hate against people. None of it is okay.”

Morales mentions that the biggest threat in her community is deportation. Morales says that a lot of families are going to be separated because they do not have their residency papers finished. She mentions how a lot of kids are going to lose their parents and must go to social services because they are not “legal.”

“The hardest thing that we have to face is that we have to prove that we belong here and that we actually provide value to this country. We have to constantly prove that because not everyone sees this value in the same way.”