Project Eñye joined Bianca at her college graduation commencement ceremony with Metropolitan State University of Denver as she received a diploma in Entrepreneurial Studies and Spanish.
Watch how Dominguez finds herself torn between the Mexican side of her family that supports her and pushes her to do her best, and the American culture that at times rejects her by underestimating her but also encourages her to be more independent.
TRANSCRIPT
Bianca: I have heard people say Beyonca like, put like a ‘y’ in there somewhere instead of Bianca and then Domingues they say Domingwez they pronounce the ‘u’ and we are not supposed to pronounce it. I don’t pronounce my name any other way to make it easier for others to say it. I think it’s just because I feel like my name is part of my identity because I am very proud to be Chicana. That’s one of the things that I still have, my name. (music) My mom she is from El Paso, she was raised in Jaurez and then my dad he is from Morelos, Guerrelo. The rest of my family is from Juarez as well. My dad wanted a boy when I was born. He wanted a boy and because I came out a girl he left. It hurt me growing up because I have always had like a sense of like I am not good enough, like that’s really cowardly of someone to do just because I wasn’t a boy. When middle school came around my mom did the impossible to not allow me to go to my home school. She came across Denver School of the Arts and she helped me go through the process of the audition, the portfolio, the interview all that good stuff. Luckily for me I got accepted, you know, I was excited because I love to do art, I was very creative. It is just hard going to a school that I liked because of what I did when I would get bullied just because I was like one of the few little Mexican kids running around there. I didn’t have friends. I did but they were fake friends, if you know what I mean, and it made my experience a lot harder just because I feel like I couldn’t fit in. I couldn’t fit in anywhere I guess, but I understood the importance of what my mom wanted to see for me, she wanted something better for me. I told myself after high school walking that stage I cried so much, I cried so much because I was like ‘Oh my God it’s over’ and I told myself ‘ it’s like a new beginning now, I am going to go to college’. I remember going to college I was a whole different person, like I was reborn.
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