(shrug) It's just the way that things are... I guess.

I grew up in Central California (Parlier, CA), and back in grammar school I had to endure the frequent teasing I got because of my asian heritage. I had to endure the frequent reminders that Japan lost the second world war (as you may have guessed, I'm of Japanese ancestry). I was frequently called a racist -- merely because I wasn't of a minority ethnicity (e.g. I wasn't Hispanic or Black). I couldn't say anything about Hispanics, because that would be racist. On the other hand Hispanics were allowed -- because they were a minority. This of course always seemed curious to me -- the thing about "minority"... I was often categorized along with other "whites" (i.e. non-Hispanics) as being part of the majority -- which comprised about (at most) 20% of the population in the area... as if that really made any sense at all. Quickly learned that the political definition has nothing to do with the definition found in the dictionary.

I still have to shake my head in disbelief with regards to my reclassification as a bilingual student -- in eighth grade! Here I was, in the same school district from kintergarten through eighth grade -- and nobody seemed to realize that by definition I could be considered bilingual (was fluent in both English and Japanese) -- it hadn't been considered simply because my second language wasn't Spanish. Anyway it wasn't until I was in eighth grade did anybody even think of testing my Japanese-language proficiency to see if I'd qualify as bilingual -- and apparently I did qualify as such. Obviously there was only one reason to reclassify me -- to secure more funds from the federal government.

With regards to Cinco de Mayo... I've always found it puzzling that it seems to have such significance for Mexican-Americans -- more than the actual Independence Day for Mexico. Most of the folks I know that are from Mexico seem to be puzzled in the same way too..