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Sánchez writes that she 5
“religiously read Seventeen
magazine.” This is a photograph
of actor Bella Thorne at a 2014
bookstore event where she section two
signed copies of her Seventeen
magazine cover.
What would Sánchez likely /
find objectionable about this
image now that she is older.
What are your thoughts Erika L. Sánchez
about the image?
Joshua Blanchard/Getty Images

sometimes people think I’m white. “My name is out that I’m compositionally a medley, in part
Sánchez,” I tell them frantically. “Sánchez.” But it’s Iberian, Native American, Greek, Italian, and
not that simple. Earlier this year I took a DNA test African (North African, Nigerian, Senegalese, and
to discover my ethnic makeup. Though I had a Bantu). This information has profoundly changed
vague idea of what it may be, I didn’t have much the way I perceive myself. Suddenly, the way I
information because our lineage records in look makes perfect sense to me. Of course I still
Mexico are difficult to find. I’ve also asked my have days in which I look in the mirror and pick
grandparents about our ancestry, but our family myself apart. But mostly, when I look at my face,
history is murky. I understand something I didn’t before. Regard-
When I saw my DNA results, I was aston- less of what the pervading culture tries to impose
ished. I ran around the room in a frenzy. It turns on me, I contain the beauty of multitudes.

Understanding and Interpreting

1. Reread paragraph 5, in which Sánchez describes the TV shows she watched while growing
up. Explain the effect of this medium on Sánchez, and what she means when she writes, “I
was the wrong color.”
2. What does Sánchez mean by the term colorism (par. 7), and how do her grandmother’s views
on colorism affect Sánchez and her family?
3. At the end of paragraph 9, Sánchez writes, “You could actually buy your whiteness.”
What does she mean by this and how does it relate to her sense of her own self?
4. What attitude is Sánchez trying to express when she writes, “I gave the world the finger”
(par. 12)? What does she reveal about herself as a teenager with this statement?
5. Explain the ways that Sánchez “was internalizing cultural tropes” when she was a teenager.

Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample. 163
Copyright © Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.

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