7.

The following question refers to “The Secret Latina.”

An important purpose of this essay is to persuade you that

children with parents from different cultures may have problems adapting.

what is most important is not your heritage, but what is in your life today.

by embracing her mother’s heritage, Chambers enriched her life.

researching your ancestors and family history will enrich your life.

Veronica Chambers is the author of the essay "The Secret Latina", in which she describes how her mother's influence guided her to a life that is culturally rich. The purpose of the essay is not to convince readers that they should do the same. Chambers is simply sharing her own experience of finding her secret identity as a Latina. Being the daughter of a black man with a Hispanic woman and having grown up in Brooklyn, Chambers was always mistaken to be Puerto Rican by others. But her Latin culture was never lost, she was surrounded by it - her mother would cook Panamanian food, speak Spanish at home, dance the salsa at parties... And Chambers dreamed of being like her.

She broke the only barrier that was preventing her from enjoying her Latin origins completely: the language. After learning Spanish, she went back to Panama - where she was born - and experienced what it was like to be herself. Chambers is a black Panamanian, even if people did not see it. Study the excerpts below:

When she spoke Spanish, her words were a fast current, a stream of language that was colorful, passionate, fiery. I wanted to speak Spanish because I wanted to swim in the river of her words, her history, my history, too. [...]

I soon realized that by speaking Spanish with her, I was forging an important bond. When I'd spoken only English, I was the daughter, the little girl. But when I began speaking Spanish, I became something more - a hermanita, a sisterfriend, a Panamanian homegirl who could hang with the rest of them. Eventually this bond would lead me home. [...]

Now I am a grown woman, with hips to spare. I can salsa. My Spanish isn't shabby. You may look at me and not know that I am Panamanian, that I am an immigrant, that I am both Black and Latin. But I am my mother's daughter, a secret Latina, and that's enough for me.