I lived in Peru until I was 19 years old. Where is normal for most people to go to college after high school, there are only a few people who leave their cities to study in another one, a lot of people live in their parent’s house after their thirties and even move their spouses and children together. I grew up with both of my parents, my grandma and one uncle. All that is very common.

However, not everyone has the opportunity to leave and move to another country. At first, adapting to a new culture seemed like a curse, I experienced a lot of shame and isolation for not knowing how to interact, what to say, or for not knowing what people were talking about even understanding the meaning of each word. Until it didn’t, and I started learning and putting the effort to blend in. If I kept rejecting this new reality it would only keep rejecting me. I went back to Peru a couple times and the first time I remember one of my cousins telling me that I changed, as well as feeling a little out of place when hanging out with the people I used to hang out with.

In the book Hijas Americanas, I could relate to Lucia in “Knowledge is power” She says ” I am a firm believer that experience provokes awakenings, and that awakenings encourage growth and healthy change” The pressure of expectations changes when your world changes, and suddenly you can see what’s significant and positive about what makes you different.” (Molinary, 161) In that context, Lucia is talking about wanting different things than what was expected from her culture, since the people close to her were not in favor of continuing their education she felt out of place and like she was wrong for wanting those things and thinking differently than the others. Later She talked to her students about the changes we all go through in life, the ones that come with age, as awakenings that drag us closer to who we are.

Moreover, the terms acculturation, retro-acculturation, and enculturation were unknown to me until I read this book. Without knowing I was living these terms I moved to New York. I’ve had a couple “awakenings” since then. However, they are more related to culture than to education. Fighting my own thoughts about how to present myself in my household and how to present myself to the world, how to talk to my family and how to talk to my peers and friends, sometimes faking small parts of myself to keep myself safe in both areas.

Even though I haven’t forgotten my Peruvian roots because I think I will forever be an outsider, I think I had to leave some parts of my culture in order to build a pleasant life in New York, and I like so far how much I’ve changed. I like what I’ve learned from other cultures because I’m only growing and picking up the good stuff which by staying in my country might have never happened.