By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | Most of us feel comfortable, we had presumed, in our native surroundings. Then a comment this week made me re-think this idea. And it gives a new insight of what it means to live in Gwinnett County, at least to one individual.
This person has lived in Gwinnett four years. He asks: “How in the heck did someone like me, end up somewhere like here?”
He explains: “I was born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where growing up was tough and somewhat of an identity crisis. My father was Mexican, and my mother was from Utah. So I was half this, and half that. And really, I did not feel comfortable in either the Mexican or the American community. I was half-both, and it felt strange.”
He continues: “In New Mexico, we are taught that we are direct descendants of the 16th Century Spanish Crown…and considered anything other than New Mexican, ‘Chicano’ or Spanish, is truly an insult. To put it in laymen’s terms: I was never Mexican enough for my Mexican friends and I was never American/Spanish/Chicano/New Mexican enough for my New Mexican friends.”
Once an adult, he previously lived in Dallas, Chicago and Denver in the United States. The wide Gwinnett diversity allows him to feel most comfortable in this county. No longer is Gwinnett dominated, as it had been since its founding in 1818, by the white community. Now there is a mix of a diverse population from many nations.
One way to look at the vast Gwinnett diversity, perhaps the most current, is through the enrollment in Gwinnett in its public schools.
Sloan Roach of Gwinnett County Public Schools tells us that, as of May 24, the last day of public school in Gwinnett this term, that as in the past years, there are more than 100 countries represented among the school population, speaking far more than 100 different languages and dialects, a total of 178,659 students.
Here’s a breakdown of the ethnicity of the school age population in Gwinnett:
- 361 American Indian, or 0.2%;
- 18,665 Asian, or 10.45%;
- 56,717 African American, or 31.75%;
- 53,393 Hispanic, or 29.89%;
- 42,974 white, or 24.05%;
- 6,549 Multi-racial, or 3.67%.
So in Gwinnett’s multi-racial atmosphere, that very diversity brings comfort, at least to this one person. He feels at home here.
Those children who come here with their parents from “somewhere else” soon have mastered the language, if they had not previously. The parents may be age 35, and the first generation in this country, and the primary home language is other than English. But their children relatively quickly speak perfect English, and often translate for their parents. The offspring do not listen to the same music as their parents, and sometimes have a hard time even speaking their parents’ native language. They are growing up in a culture they are comfortable with.
In essence, they are preparing for their future just like the other students in school, no matter where they were born. All this gives this one person relatively new here great comfort, making him not “half this and half that,” but wholly satisfied and comfortable where he is.
“I will answer that self-doubting whisper: ‘What the heck are YOU doing here?’ I say loud and proud, I am right where I belong, along side a group of people who unite for the common goal of being of service to the rest of the world.”
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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