I guess I would be called Puerto Rican because of where I was born and American again because I ws born on American soil. I look to most all like a Rastafarian but am not. People see the dreads and my skin color and make their assumptions. My daughter is a brown skinned princess (24) my granddaughter is very fair skinned and most people ask is she mixed? As if it matters. Yes, she has a bloodline that transverses the atlantic at different times. My ex looked like Pocahontas but is Puerto Rican like myself. My son looks like the new face of American slightly rounded tip of nose and a healthy tan. He has issues with race. He tells his friends he is Hawaiian. His mother is of Scandinavian descent. He is making his choices at 13. I taught him about his lineage and that is part of his background does not define him as a person. I told him if you add 1 ounce of chocolate to  15 ounces milk you have chocolate milk and if you add 15 ounces of milk to 1 ounces of chocolate you have chocolate milk. My culture by definition is mixed African, indigenous Indian/Native American and Spanish….I am reminded in the town I live in about my color…my fiance (in my flickr pix) is very fair skinned and 5′ 4" I am 6’1" we were pulled over in my pick up truck for no other reason than my color and hair. The officer stared at her hard..may be thinking  what is a nice white girl like doing with him..we are both PR I am 46 and she 41…we have known each other for 27 years, (long story) He "let me off" with a warning. I was pissed and she wanted to take a shower…One mile from my house in the mountains of NY Race to me equals the Spanish word Raices which means roots…where we are born but not who we are….my ex-girl came up from Florida to stay with and we went to Rockefeller plaza to see the tree…coming back on the train a white officer comes into the train and looks hard at her son…he is young 19. 6′ 3″and had a starter shirt on….the officer put his hand on his gun and Maria ran to the boy and shielded his body with hers willing to take a bullet for her son. I had my camera and a London fog trench coat he looked at me and I at him. I didn’t move because I did not want to be in the morning paper as another dead black/Puerto Rican man..I was prepared to yell I am on the job to stop the officer if he drew the gun and than explain, this a good kid tall but a kid from Florida…we walked away from that one…reminded why I don’t like the city and only guns for hunting deer. sorry for ranting