Getting comfortable

Javier Cortez (center) along with his SJI classmates at Kaufman Stadium, home of the Royals.

After two days at SJI boot camp, I looked around at my peers--and felt weird. The main reason was simple: They are not all white.

I come from El Paso, which is predominantly Latino. Most of my peers, elders, and younger El Pasoans are Mexican-Americans, Mexican nationals, or immigrants. So when I leave the city and travel, the demographics become inverted. I become the minority and I am usually surrounded by white people.

Even when I visit my father’s side of the family in Dallas and stay with my cousins, aunts, and uncles, I am the only brown person. Technically that side of the family is Mexican-American, but most of them don't look Latino. And because all four of my father’s siblings married Caucasians, their children don't look like me. So when we walk around together, we draw stares. People are constantly looking at me when I am with them and I can't help but wonder what they are thinking as they stare me down. I sometimes think it could be: "What is that brown boy doing with those white folks?”

Now, as a visitor in Columbia, Missouri, I finally feel comfortable rather than out of place. I feel represented. All I have to do is look around at my classmates. --Javier Cortez