Vinnie Pizzimenti is an American citizen, although she was born in Bogotá, Colombia. At the age of two years, her parents adopted and took her to Brooklyn in New York City. Even though she grew in the American culture, she always has felt a connection with Colombia, that is why one her majors are in Spanish. Now, with a Master in Social Work, Vinnie has started to be part of the Latin community in South Jersey.
How was your childhood?
My parents have Italian roots and my sister was also adopted from Colombia. None of us is biological related. The case with my sister is interesting, because we are from the same place, but she never wanted to speak Spanish and never felt the same connection with Colombia as me, despite we were grown in the same way. My parents do not know that much about Colombia, they visited some tourist places when they picked me, but that is all.
My neighbor and my school were places full of white people. I was the only Latina in the graduation class and there were just two afro Americans. It was not a multicultural place, but that change when I started in Stockton. That was the first time that I could see other Latin people in the corridors. Then I started to collaborate with the group Los Latinos Unidos. Suddenly I discovered that I was different, because they grew up in the Latin culture. I felt like outside of all the cultures, because I’m Colombian but I did not know nothing about the culture. That was confusing for me because I look Latina and the people look at me like that, but I didn’t know how it feels being Latina.
What do you think about the actual situation of the Latin community here?
The Latin community is growing, and the Spanish is the second most frequent language, and I am happy for that. But the white people it is scary. I mean, they are used to have all the privilege and now that they feel like afraid of lose it. That is what make people start doing stupid things. There are a lot of white people afraid and that’s why we have the president we got it.
And what is your opinion about the assimilation claims by some politicians?
But what’s exactly the American culture about? I think that for language, for example, it’s beneficial to the immigrants speak English, like they can have an easy life if they know it, but it does not have to be mandatory. Most of the immigrants work more hours than the Americans. That is the American culture they are assimilating but none cares, the culture of work.
Do you have face some kind of discrimination because of your Latin complex?
I’ve not face discrimination, no one has called me a bad name just because of how I look. [though] Maybe when I was dating, I tried with the apps and most of the times you can fill a form of the type of person you’re looking for, like people with majors, masters, Phd… Well, most of the times the guys preferred white women, none Afromericans and a few time Latinas.
You have a little son, have you ever talked to him about his Latin roots?
When we go to places where people speak Spanish he feels left out and I think he doesn’t like for that reason. Right know he doesn’t see to the physical differences between people, I’m sure he will when he grews, but I think that going places where he can’t understand its intimidating for him. One time we went to a car wash and the workers were from Mexico, so he couldn’t understand. I said to him “well, I know Spanish, so one thing you could do is learn too, because the more languages that we know, the more people we can talk”. He knows where I came from, but he doesn’t understand the implication. But what I have tried is speak about racism. One of his best friends in school is from Sri Lanka and her family have very dark color skin. So I tried to explain to him that in this country there are many people who are not nice to other people because of the color of the skin or because they come from another country; then he said “oh, that’s mean”, so I explained him it’s our mission to speak up for the people that could not do it.