Transnationalism

“Where are you from?” These four words, innocuous and friendly conversation starters when asked by whites of whites, are often experienced by Latinas/os in the United States not as innocent interrogations, but as thinly veiled intimations of foreignness and racial difference. Furthermore, for Latinas/os the answer is quite often far more complicated than a simple “Milwaukee” or “Mexico.” What if we are from both Milwaukee and Mexico? What if we are from Milwaukee and Mexico while living in Massachusetts? Then where, indeed, are we from? Where is home now? Who are y/our people? Most important of all, where do y/our allegiances lie?