My Family

I am extremely proud of being in a huge family who always treated everyone equally. My grandmother raised us all plus some. She was everyone’s mother regardless of your race, religion, sexual orientation, or how much money you had. My grandmother fed everyone and anyone. She had a heart of gold and a smile that would melt your heart. She taught me unconditional love and love without boundaries.

So when you ask what I am proud of my answer is being loved unconditionally and being raised to be what ever I wanted and being treated equally to all my cousins as well as my aunts and uncles (the ones that were 8, 7 and 5 years older than me). We played sports together, we lifted weights together, and when one of us got in trouble we all helped each other to get out of it or we all got punished together. Growing up in my family we had a lot of different religions, races, sexual orientations, and backgrounds around us from the wealthy to the poor but we growing never saw that all we saw was love happiness and fun surrounding us.

My aunt was married to a woman and never once did I ever question it, nor did I ever feel the need to because all I saw was love. My family all dated outside of our race so being surround by many different backgrounds and different up bringing was and still is something I love the most about my family because we never looked at anyone as different or odd we only saw others for who they were and we loved so deeply because we all learned from one another and still continue to. I do not want to make it seem like my family is perfect because we are far from it. We’ve fought, we yelled and screamed at each other, but no matter what it was that we disagreed on when we needed each other we were there for one another and dropped everything for one another.

So to answer your question Crissy and Bree- I am proud of being raised by a tribe where no one was the same yet everyone was the same. I am proud to have been raised with no money and learning to survive with the bare minimum, but raised to lead with love and acceptance. I am proud to be in a family of Puerto Rican, Colombians, Cubans, Dominicans, Mexicans, Italians, Irish, German, Spaniard, African Americans, Indians, Christians, Catholics, Jehovah Witness, non religious, educated, non-educated, wealthy, poor, college graduates, high school drops outs, jail birds, druggies, alcoholics, sober, pot heads, homeless, struggling hard workers, travelers, basketball players, softball players, baseball players, football players, soccer players, golfers, dancers, singers, musicians, artist. My cousins all 75 of us ranging from the oldest who is 49 years old to the youngest who is one month old today 6/8/2019. We are all different yet the same. You put us all in the same place at the same time and I guarantee you will feel the love, hear the love, and see it all right before your eyes. You will know what the meaning of family is all about. We are all different yet the same. I am proud to have been raised with to love unconditionally and without boundaries and I am proud to raise my kids to do the same. I am proud of who I am because I am all those who have shown me love and who continue to show me love.

This story was submitted by an awesome human named Lumilda!