My Identity

Orlando Yauri                                                                                                September 21, 2016

Understanding the relationship of race as a sociological concept and a scientific concept, in the article “Genetic Genealogy Testing and the Pursuit of African Ancestry” by Alondra Nelson, states that scholars define “race’ is not a biological fact, but a social invention, better understood as an index of power…” (Nelson, 760), which is the concept of the way we look through our skin color and which group of people we most relate to. In the film “Race: The Power of an Illusion, Episode 1,” microbiologist Pilar Ossorio said “there’s as much or more diversity and genetic difference within any racial group as there is between people of different racial groups.” In the film, students were using their DNA to compare similarity and differences in genetics. They believed the result will match the students they thought they were similar too e.g by skin color, same race, etc. In the article by Alondra Nelson, the Y chromosomes DNA (Y-DNA), and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), can be used to trace the ancestral links. It concludes that “an individual can be said to have shared a distant maternal or paternal ancestor with the person who was the source of the matching sample in the reference population” (Nelson, 765), and the students results showed that they have similarities with the other student they least expected. The ones they thought they would have a similarity with were the ones they had the most differences. It can be determine that we can not say we do not have any similarity with someone else because we look different from the outside.  

I have always identified myself as a Latino. Both my parent were born and raised in Ecuador. They immigrated to the United States in the 1980’s and I am the only child born in the U.S. Being born in the United States I am consider an American, but when I am asked where I am from, my instant responds is Ecuadorian. I consider myself as an Ecuadorian American since, I was not born in Ecuador, but I only say Ecuadorian because of my family. I get mistaken by others that think I am Mexican because of my black hair and cause I am Hispanic. When I was younger, it did not bother me to be mistaken as a Mexican, but now I feel the need to correct them. 

I believe that we are all the same and the term Latinos represents different countries from Central and South America. In the article “From Bi-Racial to Tri-Racial” by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, it states how Latinos has classify themselves as White, Black or Other. A big portion of Argentineans consider themselves as White and some Dominicans consider themselves as Black or Other. This shows me that even in the Latino “race,” there is a difference on how we all consider ourselves. I would still consider my race as Latino, but my origin is Ecuadorian, and I was born in the United States which makes me an American. 


Work Cited

Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. (2004). “From Bi-Racial To Tri-Racial:Toward a New System of Radical Stratification in the U.S.A.,”. Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol 27, (931-950) 

Nelson, Alondra. (2008). “Bio Science: Genetic Genealogy Testing and the Pursuit of African Ancestry.” Social Studies of Science, (759-783)

Race: The Power of an Illusion, Episode 1:Difference Between Us (Documentary). (2003). California Newsreel.