In honor of Hispanic Heritage month, Grayslake North Spanish Teacher Tracy Gaona shared her experiences of growing up in a Guatemalan household and its impact on her as she grew into adulthood.
Hispanic Heritage Month is a two-month celebration lasting from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, that celebrates and recognizes the Independence of Latin American countries which gained their independence throughout those days. Guatemalans celebrate their Independence Day at the start of the month on Sept. 15.
Despite being proud of her heritage, Gaona states that she and her family don’t tend to go all out for Guatemalan Independence Day.
“The truth is, honestly, I’ve never done anything super big to celebrate the Independence Day of Guatemala,” Gaona said. “We mention it in my family, but it’s nothing big where there’s fireworks, or parties, it’s not like that. Because, honestly, we’re here in the United States, whereas in Guatemala it would be different.”
Tracy Gaona recalls as a child, she and her family would visit Guatemala during the Christmas holiday as a family tradition, involving her, her parents, and her older brother.
“Every December, I would always visit Guatemala for Christmas with my parents and older brother. I always had a week left of school, and we would stay in Guatemala for two to three weeks to be with the family, and Christmas was always a special time,” Gaona mentioned. “We would all join together, and we would always eat and wait until midnight, and there was always that you would wear that day, like a new outfit.”
Some Guatemalan foods that are nostalgic for Gaona are Guatemalan tamales and Guatemalan ponche, a type of tea made out of all types of fruits from the country.
“At midnight, we would see Jesus, we’d give presents, and we’d always eat tamales that are Guatemalan, they aren’t like Mexican tamales,” the Spanish teacher said. “And then we’d have the typical food, and the beverage of that night was always a ponche, which is like a tea with fruit.”
Although the Spanish teacher is of Latin American ethnicity, one of her experiences growing up was often getting confused for Mexican, which she didn’t take offense to. Her reasoning for not getting offended when getting confused for being Mexican was since “The truth is, nothing negative, but I feel like they (the people) would always know me first, but they would always have curiosity, and that’s okay.”
“If they have curiosity of where (she’s) from, or ‘¿de dondé sos?’ like we say in Guatemala,” as Gaona explained. “But the people always believe that I’m Mexican many times, so then when they say something, don’t understand something, a word, a Mexican food, I say, ‘Well, it’s because I’m from Guatemala,’ where it’s a bit different, but we are neighbors with the Mexicans, but I do believe that in general, the people do know I’m Latina, but they still always have that curiosity about where I’m from, because I’m not Mexican, but I am (Latin American).”
Gaona is overall glad to be celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with her students this year, being interested in learning more about where her students come from.
“It’s beautiful that we recognize and have (two months) where we can have more conversations about the diversity, the people, where we’re from, and learn who they are,” Gaona said. “Many questions come out, many beautiful themes where I get to know my students, their families, and how they grew up.”
