I Grew Up To Be White. One Seat On A Plane, I'm Back To Being Latina

My name is Lourdes, named after the Our Lady of Lourdes. My friends call me Lady. My mother and grandmother went there to pray and my mother got pregnant. My family name going back to 1880s is Campos. They settled in New Mexico and our family still ranches the same land. My father is a doctor, my mother a lawyer, we are city creatures. By heritage? Latina, but pretty white by now.

I met him on a flight to Chicago, on my way back to NW. After graduation I was accepted at Columbia Law School, my mother's Alma Mater. He was oilfield on the way to meet with some lawyers. He told me then, he wanted a Latina. Family, cooking, kids, affectionate. Little did I know then, I had met my husband.

I never made it to Law School, I made it out of undergrad seven months pregnant. As a Latina with a husband I was destined for a houseful of kids, family get togethers, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, little me and little him. Until the next two. We moved to New Mexico to be close to my extended family, he got along with my grandfather, they spoke Spanish. Not knowing I had married a pure blood Hispanic. White Hispanic.

After I had filled every chair at the table with little faces, I went to law school. Not Columbia, local. It was my grail. He, my husband, wants all of us to speak Spanish. We try, it's hard.

As an impartial witness, yes Hispanics go macho on you. They are hot blooded. And no, you don't talk about it, you accommodate him. In addition to a houseful of kids, cooking and family, Latinas are affectionate, respectful and accommodating. If I had a wife like that I be macho too.