My name is René, like my grandfather and my father. I am René, the third. In El Salvador, René is a name only for boys.
One morning, my new teacher called role. When she said “René”, I was ready to say “here” with pride. But someone else answered to my name. She was Renee, the girl. I could not believe it. Here, in the United States, René was a girl’s name!
That afternoon my classmates teased me, "René has a girl’s name."