You know that stereotype about Latinos being overly emotional people? Well, it's just not true. Not in my family anyway. I remember one balmy summer evening when I went to go see The Joy Luck Club with my mother, the perfect mother-daughter bonding film. By the end of the exceptionally touching movie, I was sobbing so hard we had to wait until the other patrons had left the theater and I had wiped the trails… nay, four-lane highways, of mascara off of my cheeks. My mother just sat and stared from the seat next to me.

"Why do you do this to yourself?" she inquired.

I gaped at her. "What do you mean?" I asked sniffling into the thirtieth tissue.

"I mean, if you know films like this do this to you, why would you put yourself through this?"

I just stared at her. She really didn't get it. "Going through this" was exactly why I went to films. To feel, to think… to cry. "Mom," I attempted to explain, "I enjoy expressing my emotions! It was a wonderful touching movie and I am just honoring it!"

She shook her head and sighed. "Emotions like that are signs of weakness," she lamented.

I glared back at her with fury.

"You have the same feelings, mother," (I always called her mother when I was angry, like she always used my middle name when she was pissed at me), "you just bury them and they come out in bad health. THAT is a sign of weakness!" The argument went on as we left the theater and walked up Seventh Avenue, our raised voices echoing off the closed storefronts.

I have since had this same "discussion" with many people, mostly men, but all ending with the same "agreeing to disagree" conclusion. I just don't get it. I love to cry, laugh, yell, and express pretty much every emotion that blows through my psyche. There is such a feeling of relief to let them out, to guffaw in public or, yes, sob. A colleague and I were actually shushed at an outdoor university gathering for laughing out loud. Yet people like my mother feel that bottling up is the best option. Hell, I'm not sure where my cap even is, so bottling is out of the question for me.