Mexican | Salvadoran - Research Assistant @ The Alan Turing Institute
I would just define myself as of mixed-race/ethnic background. In the USA, I would be labelled 'hispanic', as some sort of label that encloses more than 600 million people.
I also think that when talking about mixed backgrounds, we are also talking about migration. My Grandfather emigrated, my Father and his siblings emigrated, myself and some cousins have emigrated, my niece has emigrated. We all did it at different times, for different purposes and to different places. I feel very identified as a 'immigrant', independently from where I reside. I feel the product and the continuation of a process of immigration which I don't know where it will finish.
My Mom is from Mexico, my Dad from El Salvador. They met in school, my Dad was my Mom's lecturer when she was a postgrad student. I think my background has allowed me to have more empathy to distinct backgrounds, and to understand the nuances of inequality in different societies. Some of the elements I have found in my culture are common to so many others! I also have a better understanding of immigrants and what people go through when migrating to a different country/culture.
I come from a society where racism is combined with classism and with xenophobia. White skin is praised as something 'better' than darker tones like mine. I would (and still) be praised if my friends/partner were from a 'Whiter' background and be judged if they would not. Same happens backwards. I still remember an old partner's Grandma, pejoratively describing her own skin colour, which is the same as mine, over dinner. Standards of White beauty should not be taken as hegemonic, and should actually be combatted. To identify and value yourself outside them is an act of resistance. I am still trying to find value and beauty in my background and my skin tone. I think that to solve this would have been more difficult back home, where racism/classism is so embedded in our daily activities.
Living in such a diverse context like the one London can offer, I realised about all the bias I had against myself. Listening to the experiences of people from completely different cultural backgrounds than mine who also have lived different ways of discrimination has helped very much. It has been a slow process of self-care and self-love. I am the only one of my family living in the UK. For most of my life, half of my family lived in Mexico and the other half in El Salvador. Because of the security problems in El Salvador, now all my family migrated to Mexico. My niece and younger cousins have or will migrate at some point too from Mexico to other 'global north' countries.
I also remember the first time I emigrated outside Mexico and faced what was to be an immigrant. It was that experienced that allowed me to cherish and value the different members of my family who have done the same decades ago. It shaped me in the way I see myself, my family and in general anyone who emigrates. Being a 'migrant' became more primordial to my identity coming from a mixed background of two countries in which an important share of their population is known for emigrating because of economic and security reasons.
Central-american heritage does not have the best reputation in Mexico. For a long time I was ashamed of it. Any immigrant that have to endure racial/xenophobic discrimination could get ahead with their goals.
I am often labelled as exotic, depending on the tone I can feel flattered or offended. Moreno, which is the proper term I would describe myself in Mexico and Prieto, an offensive term to refer to people with brown skin tone.
As long as I can remember I have always had family living abroad. So, apart from the usual sadness that comes from being far away from your loved ones, I don't really feel the separation as something exceptional, but as something that has always been there. I don't follow any particular tradition, but I always try to talk with my relatives about the countries we come from. By listening to their memories or stories of life I feel I can connect with my culture(s). By sharing their experiences with me, I feel the culture is kept alive within me.
I would say that the Turing is a diverse place, with plenty of representation of different backgrounds. I feel recognised by my team and managers to come from a mixed-heritage background.