My family is very large in total, but the vast majority of it is on my mother’s side. And the vast majority of that consists of women. The oldest relative I have ever known is my great-grandmother from my mother’s side, the matriarch of our family. In a small campo outside of the capital of the Dominican Republic, she had ten children, eight daughters and two sons, all of which are living in the US today. Most of these children, my grandmother, and most of my great-aunts and great-uncles, got married and had children. Some of them back in DR, some of them here. Continue reading Dominican-Raised, Brooklyn-Born Woman
Category Archives: Immigration Narrative
Il Passato
It’s hard for me to imagine having to choose between love and family. If I could marry the person I love, but my family would disown me, would I do it? It’s possible that it wouldn’t work out, and then what? Luckily, this question is one that few of us have to face today, thanks to the general open-mindedness of many Americans in the twenty-first century. Unfortunately, though, this was and still is a somewhat common occurrence in other places, where interethnic conflict prevails over love and happiness. Continue reading Il Passato
Taiwan
My family moved around a lot during the first decade of my life, which is to be expected I suppose for my parents themselves, have made several migratory journeys themselves during their own lifetime. Continue reading Taiwan
Filipino Parties
Both of my parents came to America from the Philippines, but that fact has never been a topic of conversation in my family. Whenever we talk about the Philippines in our household, usually it’s only about family that currently live there or about the various things my father did as a child. I like to imagine my parents coming here, to America, when they were young. Continue reading Filipino Parties
Men of the Green Isle
The Irish are a proud people, who for the majority scorn British rule over the Northern areas. Controversial British rule over the Northern region of the island gave birth to the Irish Republican Army, or IRA for short. The IRA is and was a group of Irishmen who strongly believe that the whole of Ireland should be its own sovereign state that did not have to answer to the United Kingdom. The British and IRA have battled for power for the majority of the 20th century, finally slowing down in the late 1990’s. Of course, there were times of relative peace on the island, but when one group began to prod at the other, all hell would break loose. Continue reading Men of the Green Isle
