About Jonathan Carter
My dad is a funny, loveable hard worker who one day I aspire to be like. Some don't realize who he is and how he defines himself. Jonathan was born in Miami and eventually settled in a small town near Chicago. His experiences have shaped him into who he is today.
At school did you feel like you were treated differently in relation to cultural background?
I wasn't really treated differently because of my name and also my lack of speaking Spanish. I didn't realize otherwise that I was different.
Dad can you describe yourself ethnically and culturally and tell me about where you grew up? What made you different?
Yes, thank you. I'm the product of a Cuban mother and American father. I was born in Miami but I moved to a small suburb of Chicago when I was only about three years old. When I moved to the town I grew up in it was a very Caucasian, very affluent suburb of Chicago where there are not many Hispanics or people of color.
Did you find yourself different from the people [where you lived] on your background?
I didn't understand it at the time but growing up there we were different, but we weren't treated as such. My mom made sure that we would fit in and be treated the same
When you were more aware of your cultural background did you seek out people that shared in your otherness? And if so, how were you received?
I did seek it out after I left that small town and went away to college. I joined Hispanic cultural student groups and met other Hispanics from Mexico, South America and other parts of the world.
At what age did you become aware of your otherness?
It wasn't until I was about 15 when I was taking the PSAT test at High School, and after the test one of my friends asked me what I filled out when it asked me for race and ethnic background. I looked at him kind of strangely and I said, "the same as you, you know, white Caucasian,” to which he replied, “No, you're not.“You're Hispanic.” That was really the first time I realized that I was different
““My mother made sure we would fit in and be treated the same.””
“I didn't realize I was different until I was about 15 years old.”
-Jonathan Carter
Before you were talking about how your mother kind of was ashamed of your cultural background and didn't really speak Spanish to you. Why did she not teach you Spanish and why did you not speak it at home?
My mother left Cuba when she was about 18 years old after Fidel Castro came into power and it was very difficult there. After growing up in Miami and kind of being a witness to racism and bigotry she was very afraid of her kids experiencing the same thing. I know she made sure she gave us very American sounding names and she also wanted to make sure that we didn't have any kind of accent. She wanted to focus on her English and not speak Spanish.
So how did her view of her own culture make you feel, did she feel like being Cuban was something to be ashamed of or hide?
I didn't feel ashamed of it but at the same time I wasn't proud of it until later in life; after going away to college and starting to understand it more. I realized that she had a lot of hard feelings about it and didn't teach us kids to be proud of it.
Did you question your cultural identity, and how do you process those feelings?
I didn't question it. Like I said, when I became a teenager and between the end of high school, beginning of college. At one point I even told my mother I want to change my name and add her name because in Hispanic culture it's very common to have two last names; your mother's maiden name and your father's name. I told her that I wanted to legally add her name, Gonzales, to my name and of course she refused that idea and got very upset about that.
