We did it first

It always amazes me how life goes full circle. When I was younger, I was embarrassed of telling people that I was Mexican for fear of being ridiculed. Mainly because people are so stereotypical...when I say "Mexican" what do you think of? Most people think of a family of 15 living in a small house and their backyard full of junkyard pieces.
When I was growing up in Mexico (the first 11 years of my life) I would always play in my Mom's parent's backyard. It had a huge pomegranate tree and the back was full of "stuff"....everything from old water heaters, to old metal toys, unused tiles and tools, tires, and even an car that had not run for almost 20 years (looked amazing though...all the grandkids fought over who would eventually inherit it....and still do....all 25 of us). This is what you think of right? a typical Hispanic backyard? and I'm sure other stereotypical things come to mind.

When we first moved to Edmond, Oklahoma, my brothers and I were the only Hispanic kids in our classes. We stuck out like sore thumbs. It kinda sucked, I'm not gonna lie. The only attention I got was people asking me how to say bad words in Spanish (to this day...that makes me mad). I went thru life pretending to be someone I was not in order to fit in, especially in a small town like Edmond, OK.
My mom has always been "recycling" as far as I can remember. She would always go to goodwill and find pieces of furniture and would totally redo them. I thought it was a bit embarrassing, but after I saw the after-product....I was always amazed at what my mom could see that I could not. It took me MUCH MUCH longer to finally see potential in everyday items.

Every now and then my inner Mexican comes out. I love recycling and crafting with leftover material. That's the main reason I did cloth diapers...it just felt more natural to recycle fibers over and over, than to keep throwing away chemicals in a landfill. Even my hubs makes fun of me- I see potential in milk jugs and their caps, wipes cases, formula cans, leftover wood....and it goes and on. I refuse to throw anything away, if I don't have to. Glass pasta sauce jars hold small pasta, formula cans hold dry rice and dry beans. Detergent jugs now act as holders for my own homemade detergent. The formula scoops help me with my garden, and milk jugs are cut to become planters. Our dining room table came from the dumpster...it was so beat up, but with some TLC became our dining room table for free. Our tv armoire shares the same story.

People here in the US are so wasteful, at least they were a few years ago. We couldn't believe the stuff people were willing to get rid off in garage sales. My husband always makes fun of garages sales and how the first ones to arrive happen to be Hispanic....and I'm usually right there too. (that's what makes him laugh). If you had grown up in a place where there was no government assistance to help the poor (if you're poor, that's too bad)....where "poor" people could not afford the clothes on their back, much less an ipad or a smarphone...I mean seeing naked babies running in the street ( and I mean naked..as in no diapers)...seeing homeless people broke your heart (and I truly mean homeless)....it would change your perspective on things. In our culture (Hispanic), we tend to appreciate the things we do have, because we know how hard they are to come by....and family has such a strong bond, because sometimes....that's the only thing we have that's worth anything.
It took me a long time to finally embrace my heritage.....about 21 years.....about 10 years too long. Now, that I am a mom and see how easy people can struggle with money, I see now...the potential in other things. So, everytime I get on pinterest and people talk about their "craftiness"....all I think about...is how late they have discovered that recycling works.....and how now that this is cool, 10 years ago, it wasn't...and I was made fun of because of it. So, to all those who made fun of those poor Hispanics for taking all your "free stuff" and garage saling all day....guess what??? You have just become one of us....Congrats.

PS- and that whole Ombre look that so cool now??? We invented that....it's called dying-your-hair-blonde-and-letting-your-dark-roots-grow-in-afterwards.