Kim 1

TaeJin Kim
Prof. Lisa Packer
English 2010
22 March 2015
The Tag
Maria (pseudonym), was born and grew up in Mexico. I met her in
Seoul, Korea last year at a meet up while she was traveling Korea. We
became best friend since that time. But she hesitated to talk about her
past. It took a lot of time to persuade her to talk about her past. I asked
her to participate in the interview through Skype.

Kim 2
Maria is Asian Hispanic.
Her biological father is Korean.
However, her mom has taken
care of Maria as single-mom.
Maria was born and raised in
Cuernavaca,

which

is

the

capital city of the State of Morelos, nearby Mexico City. She had been
through hard life due to her appearance, which is not common in Mexico.
Maria just graduated from the high school last year. Maria used to get
teased and bullied because of her unique appearance. She has half Asian
face and skin color unlike most of Mexicans, and her weight used to be
76kg (168 lbs.) with 163cm (5.3 feet) of height when she was 13 years
old. She still has same height since that time. Maria was suffering obesity
because of a lot of stresses. A lot of her classmates made fun of her
obesity and distinguishable appearance. She said, I think lots of people
around me thought I am not pretty because of my uniqueness, Ive
suffered unfairness for my entire school days, because of the thing I did
not even intend to be, she stopped telling the people about her family,
because she thought it was pretty problematic.

Often the people stare at her due to her uncommon appearance,

unlike most of Mestizo (Genetically consisted of White European [mostly
Spanish in Mexico] and Native American ancestors; TaeJin Kim) who are
majority of population in Mexico.

Kim 3
Maria told me one story, When I was in the kindergarten, it was like
when I was 4 years old. My class was doing a play, and I really wanted to
take a role. But my teacher did not allow me to be in the play. So I asked
my grandma and mom to tell my teacher that I want to be a part of the
play. When I was doing rehearsal, the teacher said to me, you know what?
I just chose you because your mom asked me to do this. Unless that, I
wouldnt have let you to be part of this playyou are not pretty. And I
became really scared of seeing people.
When Maria was suffering adolescence, in her middle school and
high

school

days,

her

nickname used to be hippo,

or

an

elephant.

Maria

had

become more timid person

and
had

self-harm.
to

She

suffer

even
severe

depression. As she reminds of

her school days, I even thought of committing suicide. I lost my word
when she told me how she was feeling about depression.
Maria eventually decided to lose her weight, for one and half year.
As a result of her hard effort, she could lose 11kg (24lbs). She went to
nutritionist and got some feedbacks, and followed the advices. She tried
to eat more fruits, veggies, and try not to eat the food that contains a lot
of fat. She said, I think the hardest part of being on a diet was to fight
with myself. I also have an experience of losing weight, which I lost 15kg
(33 lbs.) in four weeks while I was being trained in the military boot camp,

Kim 4
as I was extremely stressful about the military training. Considering my
experience, to lost weight is never easy work to do.
One day, I asked her that Dont you think youre just a Mexican?
You were born and raised in Mexico. And she answered, You should not
try to tag me. Most of the people Ive seen just tried to tag me who I am. I
am just myself. I know who I am. Do I necessarily have to be someone
who others think about? I couldnt say anything about itI knew she was
right.

Kim 5
Work Cited
Byeon Bucio, Michelle. Personal Interview. 14 Mar. 2015.