My parents immigrated from Mexico in the late 80s soon after getting married and began a new life in the NYC borough of Brooklyn. Although the neighborhood in which they landed was not as highly recognized as it soon became, they always expressed that they felt they fit in with the other Hispanic families that resided there. Within the first year of moving to the US, my parents opened their business, which is the first Mexican bakery in Brooklyn. It slowly but surely became successful.  As time moved on, so did specific groups of people in the area, and it was clear to see that many white families were starting to move in. I feel that being able to have grown up in Park Slope was a privilege, yet one I had no control over. Although Park Slope was not always this way, it is now known to have some of the most lavish brownstones in Brooklyn, great elementary and middle schools, restaurants on every corner, parks for your little ones to run and play, etc. Due to my parents’ hard work, I was able to attend private schools growing up, with friends whose parents were part of huge companies, including me on their vacation trips, and was fortunate enough to travel the world growing up. Yet still, it was very clear to see how I stood out as the only Mexican girl in my all-white school. I am privileged in a way where I was given opportunities that others have not been given. I experience religious privilege because I can easily find a place of worship. I also have heterosexual privilege where, unlike many others, I do not have to feel the anxiety of coming out or being treated poorly due to my sexual orientation.

 Being a Mexican-American woman in the United States is oppressive in many ways. Not long ago, my family, and I experienced discrimination by being told to “go back to our country” when simply speaking Spanish at a bagel store we have been going to for over 15 years. Like many women of color, I have also experienced a difference in pay, compared to the other women at work, for doing the same job. Being able to physically see how one can move ahead, or backward, in life, due to their sexual orientation or race, was very emotional for me to watch. After watching the video and doing the readings I understand that to be oppressed means to be restrained or restricted to do something or be someone due to things I can’t control, such as being a Hispanic woman. To be privileged means having the ability to do something or have something due to my gender, or another example, ethnicity, that others cannot have or do because they are at a disadvantage.