American Like Me: Sean Keough

By Elizabeth Macanufo 

March 2011

"I'm a walking example of not being able to judge a book by the cover," says first-year University of Southern California student Sean Keough. With red hair and blue eyes, Keough physically identifies with his father's Irish roots. But, he has spent most of his life learning about the Mexican heritage he inherited from his mother. His quest to immerse himself with Hispanic culture and to provide a positive role model led The National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA) to award him with a Consortium fellowship. 

Growing up in a heterogeneous town in the Great Plains region, Keough remembers blending in with his Caucasian classmates. "No one ever thought that I could be Hispanic." He noticed his neighbors treated his mother differently. "When people started to learn that my mom was Mexican," he remembers, "they assumed she was uneducated and a migrant worker."

Keough's parents encouraged him to ignore the comments. Having previously lived in more diverse communities, his parents recognized that tolerance and acceptance remained possible. Keough stayed defensive. "That's when the fire was lit," he says. He began a quest to understand more of his mother's background. "I focused on exploring the other half of me, the Hispanic part of me."   

Travelling to Mexico for the first time as a teenager with his parents and two sisters, Keough met many relatives for the first time. Speaking only English, he left determined to learn Spanish to properly communicate with his family. Still a victim to comments about "dumb Mexicans," Keough concentrated on mastering his ancestor's language.

Keough chose University of Minnesota for his undergraduate university. While his classmates flocked to Europe for their study abroad opportunity, Keough returned to Mexico. "I wanted to immerse myself in the culture, learn the language and build my relationship with my family," he remembers.

Instead of a warm welcome from his relatives, Keough felt shunned. He learned his family resented his American upbringing and didn't understand why he travelled to Mexico so infrequently. To build his relationships, he travelled by bus 12 hours each weekend from Universidad Regiomontana in Monterrey to Aguascalientes.

His efforts paid off. "My family helped me fill in the blanks about my Hispanic heritage," he says. "I learned so much about myself." Keough recognized the importance of family in Latino culture, and why his mother immigrated to the United States at age 16 to pursue an education. "Family is the strongest aspect of your life, but it can also be the biggest weakness," he assessed. "The sense of obligation to family can get conflicted between advancement and immediate needs."

Keough returned to Mexico after college working for a management consulting firm. For five months, he concentrated on improving his Spanish and learning proper professional etiquette. Finally, his family began inviting him to events. "I felt like I arrived because they began including me," he says.