“I would advise my past self to love who you are and appreciate where you came from. My past self struggled a lot with identity, but more so with the groups I fit in with since I’m mixed and come from different backgrounds. I never felt like I fit in [with those groups], so I tried to fit in in other places. When I was younger I felt ashamed of being Hispanic because when I was by my family, that’s all they would point out. Most of my family is either just black or black and white, and I’m like four other things. I just felt like I didn’t fit in with being Hispanic. You know, I didn’t know anything about it [being Hispanic]. I just wanted to be seen as black, but I wasn’t seen as that either, so it was hard for me. I would just tell my younger self that it doesn’t really matter what race you are. What matters is who you are as a person,” Sr. Julia Calel Jones.
