Wednesday, June 8, 2022 — 5
Michigan in Color
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Call me Tavo: Working-class salience, 
nicknames and parents

Over the past several weeks, 
I’ve 
experienced 
elevated, 
irregular bursts of imposter 
syndrome and survivor guilt. 
As a first-generation college 
student, I have been submerged 
in a grueling and expedited 
process of upward mobility and 
assimilation. It feels like I have 
been worlds apart from my 
family, particularly my parents, 
over the past several years. 
As a result, one particular 
topic I’ve reflected on lately is 
family, specifically my parents. 
It’s pretty apparent from my 
previous 
articles 
that 
being 
first-gen means a lot to me. In 
addition to my hyperawareness 
of social class, my first-gen 
identity 
is 
interwoven 
and 
inseparable from my working-
class upbringing. It is rooted 
in my family tree and exists 
precisely 
because 
previous 
generations did not go to college.
For as long as I can remember, 
I’ve always been reticent to 
share details about my personal 
life with others, especially in 
most spaces at the University, 
like Ross. I think every working-
class student’s worst nightmare 
is for their background and 
family to be ridiculed by their 
peers. This fear is best captured 
in one scene in the “Hillbilly 
Elegy” 
film. 
The 
initial 
enumeration of accomplishments 
and credentials that impresses 
others. The awkward silence 
that follows when one shares 
details about their family and 
the working-class setting they 
grew 
up 
in. 
The 
tone-deaf 
questions and classist remarks. 
The dramatization in this brief 
instance highlights how out of 
place someone from a scrappy 
upbringing can feel among some 
upper-class peers and in various 
elite spaces, both of which 
might 
purportedly 
espouse 
egalitarianism.
To avert similar scenarios, 
I frequently code-switch and 
compartmentalize the different 
spaces I traverse as a defense 
mechanism — as though I am a 
chameleon that can blend into 
and adapt to many environments. 
One particular area where these 
partitions are evident is how 

people refer to me. Some past 
nicknames 
of 
mine 
include 
Goose, Gucci, Gus Bus, Gussy 
and Gustavito. But my primary 
nickname is Gus, which is what 
I usually went by prior to college 
— and still do either for the sake 
of my own or for someone else’s 
convenience if I’ve repeated my 
full name more than three times 
in a personal introduction. 
Over the past month, I’ve 
shared another nickname with a 
few people. My family, primarily 
my parents, actually refer to 
me as Tavo. Most people are 
familiar with Gus as a nickname 
for Gustavo, but Tavo is another 
nickname that exists in some 
Spanish-speaking communities. 
My parents have always called 
me Tavo, yet even native Spanish 
speakers might not be familiar 
with this uncommon nickname. 

The only time I’ve ever been 
called Tavo by a non-family 
member was from a stylist 
over a year ago at a salon in my 
hometown. Most of the stylists 
and clientele are native Spanish 
speakers, and upon hearing my 
name, she instantly knew my 
family referred to me as Tavo. 
And so, hearing my nickname is 
endearing and creates a sense of 
closeness if someone outside of 
my family calls me Tavo. 
Up until recently, I had never 
told anyone outside of my family 
about 
this 
nickname. 
This 
nickname usually slips my mind 
as I tend to forget about Tavo 
outside of home. But lately I have 
been reflecting on the drastic 
transformation I’ve undergone 
through college. Even though 
I feel like I have lost traces of 
my working-class Latino roots 

over the past several years, my 
nickname serves as a reminder 
that my upbringing and identities 
will always be an indisputable 
part of me. Additionally, it felt 
special to be known as Tavo by 
my family only, though this is 
a minor reason. As I’ve begun 
sharing this nickname, I have 
become aware that others love 
this nickname. 
I am Gustavo to most, Gus to 
others and Tavo to a few. Feel 
free to call me Tavo!
I typically possess a reserved 
demeanor, 
since 
I 
struggle 
to 
convey 
my 
feelings. 
But 
sometimes the internal strife 
from constant code-switching 
can be overbearing at times, 
resulting in frequent glitches in 
my thought processes, making 
my 
partitions 
flimsy 
and 
rendering me vulnerable. When 

I feel most out of place, I shut 
down and become timid like a 
whimpering lost puppy.
Reminders of occasions like 
Parents 
& 
Family 
Weekend 
slightly sting me every time I see 
an email or retrieve a physical 
letter from the mail. Although 
I am generally able to tune out 
these occasions, there is always 
a slight amount of residual 
envy that singes me whenever I 
see hordes of Wolverines with 
their parents — who are visiting 
for football games or other 
occasions — in clusters across 
campus. Long-distance travel 
and 
lodging 
for 
graduation, 
Parents 
& 
Family 
Weekend, 
Campus Day and a bevy of other 
occasions aren’t for working-
class parents like mine.

I have always been passionate about 
helping those less fortunate than myself. 
From as early as I can remember, I 
committed myself to one day go to 
medical school. In fact, growing up, 
I told myself that I would one day 
become a trauma surgeon because 
I believed that saving someone’s life 
was the greatest way one could help 
someone. However, during my first year 
of college, I realized that rather than 
going down the pre-med track in order 
to help others at the individual level, I 
was more passionate about making a 
direct systemic change and addressing 
the inequities that are so rampant in 
society today. 
By the time I started my sophomore 
year, I knew that the pre-med trajectory 
I had planned was out of the picture. I 
knew that I wanted to apply to both 
the School of Public Health and the 
Ford School of Public Policy, so I made 
sure to register for their prerequisite 
classes. Since I was unsure whether 
or not I would be accepted by either 
school, I decided to use my sophomore 
year to fulfill the general graduation 
requirements. I still needed credits in 
the humanities category, so I decided to 
take LATINOAM 311: Latinx Cultures 
and Communities. After all, I never 
formally learned my Mexican culture’s 
history in school. Due to my limited 
opportunity to learn about the rich 
Latinx history, much of what I was 
exposed to growing up covered Spanish 
colonialism.
Besides the random stories my father 
would tell my siblings and me during 
our Christmas dinners or our 22-hour 
drives to Durango, Mexico, I had no 
formal education of my Mexican roots. 
Though I learned something new 
through every single conversation I had 
with my father regarding topics such as 
Mexico’s independence from Spain, I 

never fully understood the more recent 
history of Mexicans in the United States. 
That was until I took LATINOAM 311.
Compared 
to 
the 
static 
memorization of the intricacies of 
human anatomy in pre-med trajectory 
courses, LATINOAM 311 gave me the 
opportunity to explore the rich history 
of my Mexican culture. Once I realized 
I was more interested in academia 
regarding the social determinants of 
health rather than the required pre-
med courses such as organic chemistry 
and animal physiology, I knew that I 
should be taking courses that explored 
the communities these determinants 
are affecting firsthand. I never expected 
that taking this course would expose 
me to the different ways in which social 
and community context play a major 
role in the health outcomes of Latinx 
households, while also allowing me 
to learn about the history of Mexican 
families, including mine.
In LATINOAM 311, I had the 
opportunity to learn about the formation 
of 
different 
Latinx 
communities 
and their larger significance and 
contributions to Latinx and United 
States history, society and culture. 
In all honesty, when I was a pre-med 
student there were times when I would 
completely disregard the readings 
required for my classes; it was difficult 
for me to find some sort of motivation to 
push me through chapters of chemical 
compounds or the molarity formula. 
However, LATINOAM 311 was one 
of the first times I went out of my way 
to further research some of the topics 
we were covering in class, such as the 
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the 
Young Lords. While the material we 
covered in the course did touch on the 
history of Mexico, the course served 
as a bridge for me to make sense of the 
disconnect I had between my family’s 
history and the communities that were 
portrayed through pop culture. 

Read more at michigandaily.com

YASH APRAMEYA/MiC

IRVING PEA
MiC Columnist

MADISON GROSVENOR/TMD

GUSTAVO SACRAMENTO
MiC Columnist 

Read more at michigandaily.com

My case for taking 
Ethnic Studies classes