Friday, August 17, 2007

I'm a Chameleon

I think I am a woman of a thousand looks. Or three. Yesterday I was walking home and a Jewish man asked me "are you Jewish?" I told him "No" and smiled and he said "Have a nice day." This has happened before.

Then, because of my somewhat ethnic last name, people have totally mistaken me as a Latina. This is really funny because a) the name's actually Italian in origin and b) they speak to me slowly as if I may not understand English, or they'll say slowly but suredly, "Oh, so do you speak Spanish?" and I have to say back to them "nope." They also mispronounce the name, which has double l's and give it the ya sound.

BUT, one time I met a woman who was actually Sicilian (where the name comes from) and she saw my name (I was wearing a name tag) and she got all excited and thought I was from Sicily too but I had to let her down.

So far, I'm Jewish, Hispanic, and Italian. So much cooler than my actual ethnic background. The question is: How do I use this? And do I use it for good or for evil?

3 comments:

Brooke said...

I think you use it to have fun. Maybe you should join all these different clubs and stuff relating to various ethnicities. Become an insider. See what they're all about. That could be a fun adventure.

(People think I'm Hispanic or Greek. I'm neither.)

)en said...

Greek?? Dang, that's cool.

KamilahNYC said...

So fun! People think I am ethiopian and try to speak to me in their language...and then get mad when I don't respond!!
People also think I am latina.