Define: foreigner

Our story is not a rare one, I am sure. But it does leave one in a strange sort of limbo when it comes to that feeling of belonging that most people have for a nation. We lived in Mexico most of our childhood. So most of our grade school was in Mexico(a great thing, as we would later find out). We moved across the border to El Paso, TX. Where we went to middle school, high school, and some college. We eventually graduated college from New Mexico State University. So most of our socializing, and all of our teenage years were in the US. At home, with family, we were Mexican, we felt Mexican. At school, with friends, at work, we always spoke English. This means we would never learn the lingo that people used in Spanish. So even though we could communicate with people when socializing in Spanish, to them, we were never true Mexicans. And in the US, even though we spoke English, studied there, worked there, we were always Mexicans. At 22, we moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, pursuing a job opportunity. We have been in Milwaukee until now (September, 2010). Needless to say, although we like Milwaukee, we definitely do not feel like we are from here either.

In Mexico, we are not true Mexicans. In the US we are not true Americans.

So this is why we really identify with this song....

A ship awaits me at the port

I know not where it will take me

I don't seek grandeur

I leave without thinking of the return

I don't mourn what I leave behind

I just know that what's left

I can carry in one bag

But where I am headed, I am known as a foreigner

Wherever I roam, I feel a foreigner

I am also a stranger in my homeland

even though I truly love it

but my heart counsels me:

nationalism, how it frightens me

No homeland, no flag

no race, no class

no limits, no borders

Foreigner, I am

Enrique Bunbury - 'El Extranjero'