My culture. My Heritage. My Identity.

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Name- Naomi Bermudez

Date of Birth- February 25, 2013

Sex-Female or Male

Race-Caucasian      African American      Asian-Pacific Islander   Native American??

Marital Status-Single

Ethnicity- Hispanic    Non-Hispanic

Primary Language- English           Spanish      Chinese      Arabic    

This is something that you see everywhere. Be it doctor's offices, surveys, applications, etc. Everyone wants to know who you are! At times, these demographic choices puzzle me at times because the limitations of the choices seem to be meticulously calculated.  I always find difficulty in answering this question when I see it somewhere. I think this is because my cultural identity is one that I cherish very much, therefore to limit it to four or five choices seems...restricted. I am a full Nicaraguan-American woman that has darker skin than you "average" or "stereotypical" Latin women. I put these words in quotations because it is what I feel society, at times, thinks of Latin women (that we ALL look the same). As we all know, that couldn't be further from the truth! Although race choices vary from questionnaire  to questionnaire  these are actual options I saw at a recent doctor's visit. It intrigued me and prompted me to ponder the following question: Why do we as humans have to define ourselves in such a capacity that limits our individual identities?... cultural or otherwise.