U.S. identity is still shifting to many hues.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Byline: Joe Rodriguez

Baby-faced and with a few more inches to grow in the summer of 1964, I had no idea how much America would soon begin to change and how I would fit in.

My experience would be much different than that of my parents, grandparents and generations of Mexican-Americans before them. They strove for acceptance by white America even as they were legally banned from certain schools and systematically denied higher education, good jobs and professional careers.

Yet some of them, maybe most of them, would tell you they never intended to establish a bona fide, blended culture. For example, my Aunt Bea Cortez. Almost 90 now, she still insists, "I'm not Mexican. I'm ...