Hello! My name is Alexus and I am Mexican and Taiwanese. I am extremely Californian—I grew up in Southern California and go to UC Berkeley; my parents, both immigrants, met at LAX; I can list almost every boba place in the 626 area code; and I could lead a tour through South Central for amazing tacos.
Anyway, I speak, read, and write a good amount of Spanish and Chinese, which I know I’m pretty lucky to have grown up with both. I’m also pretty lucky to have grown up in a place where I could actually surround myself with many other Hapa friends, and join a number of social advocacy groups for us mixed people!
I know a lot of us still feel like an odd duck even in Hapa groups, me included. I’ve only met one other Hapa who had any Mexican in them, and I want to show the world there are more of us. It seems like a lot of us can say we align more with one of our backgrounds, but I feel like everyone who really knows me is surprised with how well I’ve invested myself in both Taiwanese and Mexican culture. All my life people had been telling me to “choose a side,” but I know I should be so proud to be able to claim both.
(When I was a kid, I scoured the internet for pictures of what Mexican/Taiwanese people looked like… obviously if there’s so much diversity in those countries alone I would never find out, but I was so curious! I looked nothing like how I felt I looked as a baby!)
Hapa Voice 