ABSTRACT
I was born in El Paso; my folks were born there, too. On my mother's side, her father was born in Durango, but I'm not sure where my dad's family was from. They've been in Texas for a long time. My mother's great-great-grandfather was German; that's why I have light hair, skin, and eyes. Yet my sisters are very dark; you would not believe we are related. One of them even has freckles. One sister and I worked together at the University of California at Los Angeles and no one thought we were related because she's really dark with long black hair. We had problems growing up because people thought she was black, and a lot of times they thought I was white. I had my first fight when I was about thirteen, with a girl who said that I thought I was better than anybody else since I was lightskinned. We lived in Mar Vista Gardens Housing Project in Culver City. I don't know exactly why we left El Paso, but we lived in the projects for a very long time, all the way through high school. It's now considered one of the most dangerous ones, with drug trafficking and gangs. When I was growing up it wasn't that bad; it was dangerous, but it's much worse now. My mother was very strict, very traditional. I was literally in the house for eighteen years with my mother. She wouldn't let me go to parties, she was very, very strict. She was afraid because a lot of kids were into fighting and drugs.
