Memory Monday

Because of AJ's quotable today in church I thought I would share this story for Memory Monday.

When Dionys and I first met I liked to hang out with him just to practice speaking Spanish. He was very patient with me and it was easy to try to speak to him. As the relationship progressed, my Spanish got better and so did his English and we noticed that we had a lot of cultural differences, I mean we were from two different countries, so we dealt with those as they came. Three years after we met we were engaged and driving back from California together. We stopped to get gas and I ran in to pay. While I was inside this guy, who had no idea who I was or who Dionys was, asked me, "How are you doing in your interracial relationship?"

I stopped and thought, interracial relationship??? What is he talking about? Then it hit me. Oh, other people see us as black and white. This whole time I had thought we were Dominican and American. Yes, we had cultural differences but what did that have to do with race? I know it probably sounds silly because I guess it seems pretty obvious but never in the three years that we had known eachother had I ever thought of our relationship as an interracial relationship, and I still don't. However, because of this one little question from a total stranger I now know that other people do see us as black and white. It's funny how somethings hit you at certain times. Still it seems weird that other people see him as black and me as just white. But I'm reminded of it everytime we go somewhere and all the black guys give Dionys the "whatup" nod. Or when we're in Mexico and people look at me when we're out to eat or at the store because they think I'm the one that speaks Spanish, not him. At least it gives us something to laugh about.