In Martha Menchaca’s book “Recovering History, Constructing Race The Indian, Black, and White Roots of Mexican Americans,” Menchaca documents her venture into finding her family’s black ancestry. There is a point in Chapter 1 where she writes how although her father displayed physical characteristics similar to those shared by African Americans, her mother dismissed her claims by stating that her father’s, “distinct nose was a marker of our Roman heritage and his curly black hair a characteristic inherited from Spaniards of mixed Arabic blood” (4). This triggered a series of memories from my adolescence. Unlike my siblings, I was born with a darker complexion similar to my father’s brown skin. Growing up, this made me an easy target amongst