Racial observation

You know, I remembered something that I've been meaning to blog about for the past couple of days. I was born in California to Mexican-born parents. My mom was born in the state of Michoacan Mexico and her family moved to Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco. My dad was born in Mexico City (I'm pretty sure, I'll have to confirm that with him) and also moved to Guadalajara. From there, my dad moved to California with his family (yes, legally). He returned to Mexico to marry my mom, then they both moved back up to California. Anyhow, what I'm getting at is that my parents are Mexican by birth and upbringing (but now US citizens), my grandparents are Mexican through and through. I'm an American citizen, and I consider myself Mexican-American culturally (having a Spanish-speaking family, I learned English and Spanish concurrently as a child). However, the standardized forms have squeezed me out more and more over time. I remember there being a Hispanic bubble back in the day. Then, I had to say yes or no to Hispanic origin, then pick a "race." I always picked other and then wrote/typed in "Hispanic." I took a survey a few days ago from a reputable company that I have taken surveys for many times in the past 5 years or so, and that option was no longer there. They didn't ask me if I was Hispanic or not, and there was no place for me to type in what my "other" signified. So basically, I had to choose between being Caucasian for the purposes of their survey, or an unspecified other, a statistic that can be overlooked, a person without an origin or classification. Honestly, I'm not comfortable re-assigning my heritage every time the powers that be re-design the forms. I'm not comfortable saying that I'm Caucasian, or black, or native American. To be quite honest, I could possibly be descended from "Caucasian" Spaniards, or indigenous Mexican people, I don't know. There's no "Native Mexican" bubble (or radio button) on those forms, there's no "I don't know, but they all meshed together hundreds of years ago and here I am," and there's no Hispanic. It's like we don't exist any longer. With the ongoing talk about the Hispanic vote, marketing to Hispanics (as opposed to translating your English ads, they've realized that Hispanics have different cultural references and purchasing trends), Hispanic-owned businesses, Hispanic scholarship funds, and even a Hispanic Heritage Month, I think we deserve a bubble, I think we deserve a radio button, I think we deserve a choice. I mean, look how many of us there are in the United States! By the way, feel free to substitute Latino or Chicano, personally I do not take offense to being Hispanic. I'm just not ready to be a Caucasian of Hispanic origin, or much less to deny my heritage completely.