hay-soos

Most of my life I’ve had to explain to people how to pronounce my name: Jesús Miguel Rodríguez (heh-soos me-ghel roh-dree-ghez). It’s not so bad now, but growing up with such a name can be hard if the people are not familiar with Hispanic culture. In kindergarten, I had a kid (who always had green snot which is probably why I still remember this) called me God because he couldn’t pronounce Jesús.

In tenth grade I tried an alternative, I tried to be known as J. Mike Rodríguez. That didn’t work because I never responded to Mike I remember once in the hallway someone called out Mike! Mike! They were calling me. That was the end of that, I went back to Jesús. My name never made me feel bad, just annoyed having to explain it to people and tell them how to say it correctly. When I became a parent, I decided not to put my children through this, but still wanted them to have Spanish style names so we chose: Adán Miguel, Marco Antonio, and Iliana María. Unfortunately, Adán has the toughest time with his name because most folks think it is Aidan, but it’s Adam in Spanish.

What sparked this rant? the recent Dilbert comic strip. I’ve included the 3/08 strip below, read the rest of the week as well: 3/10, 3/11, 3/12, 3/13, 3/14.