Choxa: Exploring the Beauty and Diversity of Central America, Part 1
by Melissa Orellana
Illustration by Jessy DeSantis
"We can't play with you because you're Mexican and don't go to church."
"But I'm not Mexican," I retorted, "and I go to church every Sunday."
"Well. Same thing." She shrugged, her bobbed hair bouncing as she walked towards her blonde friend who had observed the ordeal.
Instead of being offended, my eight-year-old self was confused. Why were they assuming? And why did it matter? I sat alone on the tire swing, where I had met the girls all week and we had played together with no hesitation. These girls were my age, in my grade, and outside of recess I had no interaction with them, especially being a new kid at school. My developing brain could not fathom where they received their intel.
Moving from Los Angeles to southern Oregon was eye opening: I was not speaking Spanish daily as I had in preschool, my teachers only spoke English, and the school was primarily white. Every year it was the same handful of minorities in class - one black student, maybe an Asian, probably two or three other Latinxs including myself. And every single year, I was the only Central American. I did not see this as a problem, however, even when asked the "What are you?" question or constantly being told I was Mexican, or even when the majority of my Mexican peers ignoring me because I was not one of them. Instead, I took it as an opportunity to educate others about El Salvador, mentioning my family’s background and the civil war.
In the last twenty years, El Salvador and the majority of Central America has sprung to the forefront of the majority of immigration news headlines, causing uproars, misunderstandings, and heated debate. Through this series, we will venture through lesser-known parts of Central America, including its beautiful people, landscapes, customs, culture, and more. Central America is not a lawless region, and it is not just caravans of migrants making their way north. Together, we will explore all the beauty and diversity Central America has to offer.
This is a part of a series of posts highlighting the diversity and beauty of Central America. Choxa means sky in Q’eqchi, symbolizing that the sky is the limit.