That’s Not My Name
My name is Omar. No not Omar, Omar. When you read that I bet that you were reading oh-maar, but my name is pronounced oomahd. It’s funny I’ve been going by both names for most of my life. Almost like I’ve been living a double life, but I didn’t choose the other life. The Americanized Omar is what I’ve been using since I started school 15 years ago, because my kindergarten teacher told me that I was pronouncing my name wrong. I don’t know how I was pronouncing my name wrong, but after arguing and trying to get people to say my name right I gave up. It was easier this way I told myself. All my friends already started calling me by the proper pronunciation. The lies I told myself because, even at that age, I knew I had to be an Americanized version of myself to be accepted. I became ashamed to be anything other than the Americanized Omar.
It wasn’t until recently that I felt the need to reclaim my name. It was after I listened to two interviews: Diana Moreno and Gabriella Nuñez. Moreno talked about how she lost her culture coming the United States, and how she began to say her name as Diana (die-ana) instead of Diana (dee-ana). I felt this wave of relief come over me. She understands. She knows what’s it’s like. She reclaimed her name. There must be others like us.
That’s when I met Gabriella Nuñez.
“It’s not because I’m Hispanic, you said it wrong because my name is pronounced Nuñez”- Gabriella Nuñez.
Nuñez talks about how people constantly say her name wrong and whenever she corrects them, they get annoyed. Why are they getting annoyed? They are saying her name wrong, if it happened to them surely, they would understand.
Nonetheless, Nuñez speak of hope. She hopes that one day people will be able to pronounce our names correctly, but she doesn’t see that anytime soon.
These interviews are almost four years old. Americanizing names is not a new issue and maybe to some it is not important, but without our names who are we? Names are gateways to our family, culture, and future. It’s the only thing that we have our entire life, so why are we going to let someone take that away from us?
This isn’t just a Latino issue either. This affects anyone who had to Americanize their name. For every Latino that had to go through this, there are Asian, African American, or Indigenous people, who experienced the same problem.
We Americanize our names to be accepted. Throwing away, or setting aside, our culture to be a part of the majority. Not anymore.
We shouldn’t be ashamed of our names. If people have trouble pronouncing our names, then we will be patient and teach them. We are not going to butcher our names, to be accepted by our peers. That is not who we are.
My name is Omar Sanchez. I’m proud to say it. I refuse to be the Americanized Omar anymore.
BY LDAPFAMILIA