Grappling with identity and pressures from family is something that many Latinas often face daily throughout their lives. The pressures of trying to meet family expectations often overpower a Latina’s opportunity to construct their identity. “Your Lips” by Yomaira Figueroa and “Sabrina and Corina” by Kali Fajardo-Anstie are stories that underline the effects of trying to negate and accept your cultural roots. This phenomenon of rejecting your race and ethnicity makes it hard for Latinas to accept their race and ethnicity.

In “Your Lips” by Yomaira Figueroa the main character has a difficult time accepting her race and ethnicity. It isn’t because she, herself is purposely conflicted by her race and ethnicity but rather it’s her being outcasted by her proper family. “y pero Palmita, your lips are like your father’s. Tu ves?
They aren’t like ours” (Figueroa 8). Despite all her family members being from the same island and the same blood they reject her for not having lips that each of them have. Instead of embracing their racial and ethnic identities, they reject them and bring down the protagonist for having lips that are from her racial and ethnic background. The lack of communication results in her being outcasted by her family which causes the protagonist to internalize her self-hatred and become confused about her racial identity. She is alienated by her looks because of what her family dictates beauty and worth.

In “Sabrina and Corina” by Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Sabrina is murdered which results in Corina being completely disregarded about her overall well-being. The story itself is depressing as it reads in a way where the main character, Corina isn’t held to the standard of what a main character is because most of the emphasis is on Sabrina and how pretty she was. “such thick, long black hair, they said. Look at her blue eyes in this one. They had always admired Sabrina, copying her makeup and her clothes.” (Anstine 26). Corina is never valued by her family or seems to care about her feelings in this story. This is because most of the emphasis is on Sarina and how pretty she is, how they admire her, and how she is the gorgeous cousin who upholds the definition of beauty and worth. Sabrina was exposed at an early age that looks were the most important thing that she could have. She was stripped of her humanity and seen nothing but as a pretty person with no emotion. The lack of communication makes it hard to open up about problems. In this case, the emphasis on being pretty and disregarding the well-being of someone makes it hard to accept who they truly are.

Both stories demonstrate the results of what lack of communication can do to someone. It is important for families to always communicate with each other because communication results in a healthy upbringing, and in it helps accept racial and ethnic identities.