Cultural Identity Richard Rodriguez expands on the idea that culture should be used as an identity and not race, in his essay “Blaxicans and Other Reinvented Americans.” This is evident when the author states, “Culture is fluid. Culture is smoke. You breathe it. You eat it. You can’t help hearing it-Elvis Presley goes in your ear, and you cannot get Elvis Presley out of your mind” (91). This Indicates that culture is not something we just view, it is something we intake, something we can grasp. We soak up culture as it is all around us whether we want it to be or not, it influences us in ways we cannot explain. Rodriguez continues by saying, “I come to you as a man of many cultures. I come to you as Chinese. Unless you understand that I am