preview

My Thoughts On My Family

Satisfactory Essays

“Don’t worry about them, they are only staring because I have the two prettiest girls in the world” rings my mother’s voice as we walk through the airport terminal. This phrase is one that my sister and I have heard countless times before; normally when my sister or I catch someone staring at my family. They might be curious about the sizable amount of luggage that we have, but other times the blunt judgment on their face is obvious; the eyes roaming from my mother’s Puerto Rican face to my father’s Danish face, and then to my own. The confused gaze obviously reveals their thoughts; they are trying to figure out my ethnicity and they are perplexed at the sight of a mixed couple and their children. As time goes on, my sister and I have learned to deal with this ignorance. Yet, as a young child it definitely influenced my thoughts on my heritage; I became desperate to know more about both my Mom and Dad’s family. I constantly pestered my parents for information; I yearned for information on my heritage, asking for stories, names, and places. It was through the information that I was given where I found traits and values that run deep in my family. Generoso Maldonado, my maternal great-grandfather was a vital role in my family history; his decisions impacted my relatives on a large scale. Generoso lived in Ponce, Puerto Rico in the early 1900s and worked as a firefighter in the Parque de Bomba firehouse, which is famous for its red and black paint, the colors of Ponce.

Get Access