MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
NPR has been asking people around the country what the 250th anniversary of America means to them. Maayan Silver from member station WUWM spoke to an education advocate.
GISSELL VERA: (Speaking Spanish).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Spanish).
MAAYAN SILVER, BYLINE: Gissell Vera is ordering carne asada tacos on her favorite patio in the city of Milwaukee, La Fondita restaurant. The patio is punctuated by a string of international flags and a steady drumbeat of cumbia.
VERA: The music, the colors, the language, all of it is part of me. And I am a proud American.
SILVER: Vera is a U.S. citizen but comes from a mixed-status family. Her parents emigrated from Veracruz, Mexico.
VERA: My family has particularly always been grateful for this country and the opportunities that it's provided us. Although there is always a fear and uncertainty of what immigration reform could - how it could impact us, we choose to live every day without fear.
SILVER: She's 25 years old and says older generations were taught, for survival, to not speak Spanish. But now younger generations embrace Latino culture. Even so, Vera says there's a phrase she's heard many immigrants use to describe their relationship to the United States.
VERA: Ni de aqui de aya, which meant that you're not from there, meaning Mexico, and you're not from here, meaning the U.S. It's almost like a limbo in which we existed. And I think that now I'm very proud to say that I am de aqui and de aya. So I am proud to be from here and from there.
SILVER: She'll join her family for a cookout on the Fourth. Instead of hot dogs, they'll be grilling carne asada.
For NPR News, I'm Maayan Silver in Milwaukee.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE BUDOS BAND'S "HIDDEN HAND") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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