Daily Podcasts Video Research

Growing Up Latina and Jewish, I Was A Contradiction

JL;DR SUMMARY Laura Limonic reflects on her experience growing up as a Latina and Jewish immigrant in the United States, navigating identity complexities. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

JL;DR members get full summaries of all articles in the archive, including this one. Donate & start reading »

Tags

IdentityArgentinaImmigrationAmerican JewsCultural DiversityPrivilegeEthnicityRaceLatinosLatina Jews

Places mentioned

Newton, Massachusetts, United States
"When I was in junior high school in Newton, Massachusetts, a middle class suburb of Boston with a large Jewish population, my friends could not believe that I, a blonde blue-eyed Jewish girl, had a brother named Fernando."
Argentina
"He was born, and named in Argentina, where Jewish boys have names like Pablo, Jose, Federico, Mateo and Fernando."
New York City, New York, United States
"I moved to New York City in the mid 1990s and rented an apartment on Avenue C and 7th Street on Manhattans Lower East Side."
Costa Rica
"My Costa Rican Jewish roommate and I were the hueritas (i.e. white girls) who spoke Spanish."
Venezuela
"Once, when my parents were picking me up from a ski trip in the JCC parking lot, they overheard a set of parents chatting in Venezuelan Spanish."
Chile
"Eventually I left Newton and went out into the big wide world of ethnicities and race and religious groupings, where I once again did not fit in so seamlessly."
Colombia
"Among my colleagues were Puerto Ricans, Colombians, Mexicans and Brazilians."
Mexico
"Among my colleagues were Puerto Ricans, Colombians, Mexicans and Brazilians."
Brazil
"Among my colleagues were Puerto Ricans, Colombians, Mexicans and Brazilians."

Support this source

This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 57648
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2025-07-24 05:31:21 UTC
Curated 2025-07-24 08:31:43 UTC