Inauthentic?

I spent the first 19 years of my life in Guyana. I was born there, went to school there, earned a pay check there, fell in love there, and then ups an left for the United States. I have now lived away from Guyana for a longer time than I lived there. Does that make me an inauthentic Guyanese? And if so, when did I become that?

-- Charmaine Valere at Signifyin' Guyana responds to Michael Gilkes's recent letter to the Stabroek News and Ruel Johnson's Antilles interview, taking on the subject of cultural authenticity.