Dutch | Spanish
I identify myself as both Dutch and Spanish as I am half Dutch and half Spanish. My Mum is from the Netherlands and my Dad is from Spain. My Mum was raised in a small town near Amsterdam, called Muiden, which is where I grew up as well. My Mum decided that she wanted to raise her family there too. My Mum never really left the city, except for when she did the Erasmus exchange during her studies. She went to Madrid, which is where she met my Dad, more specifically at a bus stop. My Dad originally was born in Germany because my Grandparents had to go and work there as Spain was under the rule of the dictator Franco. Soon after the birth of my Dad, they returned to Spain where he lived until he and my Mum decided to move to the Netherlands.
I think the biggest challenge I face is that people in the Netherlands never think of me as being mixed-race, even though my surname is super Spanish. I am proud to be Spanish and I feel that I am more than just Dutch so I love to be recognized as both. Thus, I do not like it when people look surprised when I tell them that I am Spanish as well. I especially feel this way in Spain. As I grew up in the Netherlands, I do have a little accent when I speak Spanish. When I am in Spain, I approach people in Spanish, because it is my language and my country as well, but people often ask me where I am from or how it can be that I speak Spanish on such a high level. I think this is a shame, and it kind of makes me feel that I do not belong there or that I am not truly Spanish. Of course, it is true that I never lived in Spain, but I feel Spanish, I know everything about the culture and language and my family lives there so that kind of questions can be exhausting. It really feels like I have to prove and defend my identity.
I am very happy with my two cultures and I am proud of my two identities so I would not change anything if I was born again. I would want to return exactly the same. I think that my two cultures enrich each other and that they shaped me into the person I am today.
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