Quien Soy Yo? Cajitas Project

My name is Susana Lopez, I was born and raised in El Paso Tx. I consider myself a Mexican American since I was born in the United States. However my parents and grandparents come from Mexico. Which makes me an American with Mexican roots. I come from a big family which includes four brothers and three sisters including me. Coming from a big family has always made me feel special in a way that I know I will never grow alone and I will always have my brothers and sisters in case of anything.  I will start with my great grandparents from my moms side they come from Tamaulipas Mexico, a small town located in the east northeastern Mexico. There has been three generations raised and born there which were my great grandparents, my grandparents, and my mom. My mother was raised and born in Tamaulipas Mexico. When she became an adult to went to live to Juarez Mexico. This is were she met my dad and married him a few years later. My dad's family comes from Chihuahua Mexico, my great-grandparents came from Chihuahua and also my grandparents, which unfortunately I never got to meet. This made it two generations from Chihuahua then my dad was born in Ciudad Juarez Mexico. This was still close for my dad to visit since Chihuahua is only two hours away. After my parents met and got married the decided to leave to California, this is were my older siblings were born and raised for a few years. This was until my mom got pregnant from me when they decided to go to El Paso. Me and my younger brothers were born there and that's were we were raised. Me and my siblings are the first generation from our family to be in the United States. Knowing we are the first generation makes me happy because I know we will be getting other opportunities my parents or grandparents were not able to reach because of their circumstances. It also makes me feel proud that we were able to learn a second language and become bilingual. not only that but also being able to graduate from High school and be first generation to attend college. This was something my parents were very proud of. Since they did not get the opportunity themselves when they were young. Family has always been very important to me and I value everything that comes or has to do with them. This is why doing the Cajita project for this class made me very happy and emotional at the time. I really enjoyed being able to look back at important things and moments that we really value. At first I couldn't really find many things since I have stuff put away everywhere, but once I began looking I found many great memories of my family. I even found a memory card from my camera from ten years ago. Going back and being able to look at all those memories from the past can make you value your family and friends more. Not only because they are special to you but also because you can go back and look where you come from and what makes your family so special to you. I really believe it is important for us to know where we come from and to never forget how we got to where we are at now.