Puerto Rican White Girl

Whenever I introduce myself to people, they usually comment on what an interesting and unique name I have.  In English it's pronounced Hay and dee.  I respond by telling them my name is Spanish and that in Spanish the H is silent. The best way I can describe the Spanish pronunciation is to link the Spanish word hay (as in the way Ricky from I Love Lucy would exclaim "hay, hay, hay" when he was exasperated by Lucy's behavior), and add the word, day.

Usually then people ask me "So what are you?" I know they mean what ethnicity are you but inside I want to answer "Well I'm human and the last time I checked I was female."  But I respond by saying, "I'm American and my parents are from Puerto Rico." People usually respond with surprise, even shock.  "You don't look Puerto Rican," they'll say.  That's because I'm a white Puerto Rican.  Sometimes I'll smile faintly.  If I'm in good spirits I'll say, "Puerto Ricans come in many shades," and  I may launch into an explanation of Puerto Rico's three racial groups: Native Taino Indians, the Spanish conquerors, and the African slaves they brought with them to the island.

My parents came to New York from Puerto Rico in 1957.  Along with thousands of other Puerto Ricans, they moved to the South Bronx.  I have three older sisters and one brother who were born in Puerto Rico.  I was born in the Bronx, along with a younger sister.

My mother's family had what I would call the more Taino features--olive skin, brown eyes.  My father and his family had Spanish features--fair skin, green eyes.  I have cousins who have blond and red hair.

Puerto Rico had a strange type of caste system when it came to skin color.  The whiter you were, the better you were regarded on the social scale.  You were part of the ruling elite and even if you weren't directly, if you were just as poor as your darker brothers and sisters, you had the opportunity for  better education and better jobs.  My father's family certainly had these attitudes.  I would often hear my father and his brothers and sisters make disparaging remarks about other Puerto Ricans  because they were darker.  If one of my sisters had a boy who was interested in them and he was darker than we were, he would fly into a rage. My father despised one of my older sister's first husband because his complexion was darker. He was deadset against their marriage and almost boycotted their wedding.  It took massive amounts of pleading by my mother and sister for him to change his entrenched position.

So it was into this storm of complexion paranoia that my mother married into.  At the ridiculous age of 14 in 1945.