Junot Diaz’s impact on the literary world
Junot Diaz, born on December 31st 1968 in the Dominican Republic, is a Latin American author. He immigrated to America at the age of six with his mother, two brothers and two sisters. After arriving in America, he lived in a predominantly Dominican neighborhood in New Jersey. He struggled in school as a child; however, he developed a love for reading and writing at a young age. In order to pursue his interest in writing he continued his education and later attended Rutgers University and received his Master’s degree from Cornell University. He currently teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and works as an editor in the Boston Review. Junot Diaz is a prize-winning author who has won many literary awards for his work. He was awarded the Pulitzer prize in 2008 for one of his books: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. He is also the recipient of many other literary awards and recognitions such as the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, PEN/Malamud award, Dayton Literary peace prize and the Guggenheim Fellowship. Junot Diaz appeared in the New Yorker’s list of “20 Under 40” in 1999 which recognizes authors who are the main focus and contributors of that generations’ world of literature. He co-founded the Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation in 1999, with Victor Diaz, Diem Jones and Elmaz Abinader. Voices of Our Nations Arts provides an opportunity for writers of color to work on and learn about the art of writing. Around 2400 professional writers from around the world have participated in VONA in order to nurture young writers. As a Dominican immigrant, Junot Diaz has contributed to the world of literature by educating his readers about the Dominican culture and the immigrant experience.
Junot Diaz, even though raised in New Jersey since he arrived to America, has a strong connection to New York City. He discussed much of this personal connection in the article “About my immigrant relationship to NYC” in the New York Times. His close connection to New York City comes from his father because his father lived here before Diaz and his family arrived. Diaz’s father arrived in New York City in the seventies and worked many low paying jobs to support himself. During this time, the immigrants in the city lived in fear due to the many unsanitary and dangerous living conditions that killed people almost every week. Diaz’s father did not feel comfortable bringing his family to such a neighborhood so he moved to New Jersey as soon as his family arrived to America. In the article, Diaz mentioned that after moving to New Jersey “New York went from the Oz [he] dreamed about in the Dominican Republic to the distant sight of the Verrazano Bridge” (Diaz 1). He visited New York City every weekend and dreamed of living there, and he was able to achieve this dream once he moved to New York City when he was twenty-six years of age. He mentioned that he lived in Brooklyn like every other college graduate. His life was on a budget, but he was happier than he has ever been. He felt a certain type of freedom by living in New York City. He was able to take the D train in the middle of the night to go find inspiration, and for some unknown reason it made him content. He believed that it didn’t feel dangerous “and the view it afforded of New York was beyond words” (Diaz 1). Despite the fact that Diaz wasn’t able to live out his immigrant dream of living in New York City as soon as he arrived to America, eventually he had the opportunity to do so. Even though it was his father’s connection to New York City that brought him here, it was the vast opportunities and inspiration that kept him in the city wanting more.
As a Latin American writer, throughout the years, Junot Diaz wrote many books that depicted the hardships of being a Dominican immigrant in the United States. His book Drown, which is a collection of short stories, is a semi-autobiography that shows its readers the life of the Dominican immigrant who tries to reach their version of the American dream. Islandborn is Junot Diaz’s first children’s book which shows the lives of Dominican girls living in the Bronx. This book has personal meaning since Diaz’s goddaughters are immigrants living in Bronx, New York. A short story by Junot Diaz, How to Date a Brown Girl, is a piece with the main character being a boy who appears in Diaz’s other books such as Drown and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. This story provides its readers with the underlying message of the cultural norms and expectations of a Dominican family surrounding romantic relationships. The book that received much recognition from its readers and the Pulitzer prize from the literary world, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, tells the story of a Dominican immigrant named Oscar. In this story, Oscar takes his readers on a journey where he attempts to navigate his life while trying to explore his newfound purpose to be an author and finding love. Many of Diaz’s books were translated into many languages such as Japanese, Spanish, Korean and Italian to provide his readers all around the world with an opportunity to enjoy his work and understand the immigrant experience.
One of Diaz’s books that has been translated in to many languages is the short story collection, This is How You Lose Her. This is How You Lose Her consists of many short stories that portrays the life of Dominican immigrants and their cultural standards. One of the interesting works in this collection is “The Pura Principle”. “The Pura Principle” is focused around the main character Yunior who appears in other works by Junot Diaz. In this short story, Yunior is a high school student who lives with his brother Rafa and their mother. Yunior is portrayed as an irresponsible teenager who engages in reckless activities. Rafa is a cancer patient who spends most of his time in hospitals receiving treatment, and their mother, addressed as mami in the story, spends time with religious groups in hopes that her son’s condition improves. Once Rafa returns from the hospital, he starts spending his time carelessly by partying and having relationships with many women after regretting his failed relationship with Tammy who he abused. Tammy left Rafa to marry another man which affected him greatly. Yunior sees his mother’s pain caused by Rafa’s actions and tries to reason with him. Rafa attempts to move on with his life, and meets a girl named Pura. Rafa and Pura gets married even though they do not receive mami’s blessing because she is suspicious of Pura. Finally, the story ends with mami’s suspicions being true and Rafa reuniting with his family.
Throughout this short story, Junot Diaz uses the characters to show a very important theme in the immigrant community: family. The idea of family and family always being together through the struggles and the accomplishments is important in the immigrant community. This is a major cultural difference between the American and mostly Asian, Latin American and Middle Eastern cultures. In immigrant families, it is common to see a larger group of people including grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins living together in one house. This is because of cultural standards where people greatly value the idea of family and being with each other for a long period of time. This is also related to chain migration, also known as family reunification, which is seen now and in the past where the first wave of immigrants comes in and gets established then sponsors their family members. Throughout the story, Diaz highlights how mami refuses to give up on Rafa no matter how rude he is or how deeply his actions hurt her. When Rafa first introduced Pura to his family, even though mami didn’t like her, she was willing to tolerate her for Rafa’s happiness. Mami believed that as long as she tolerates Pura, she will be able to keep Rafa around. Even when Rafa marries Pura, moves in with her, and mami asks Rafa to leave her house because of how hurt she was, she was still sympathetic towards him. She lets him come and go as he please, take things from the house as he please and doesn’t question anything about his newfound life with Pura. This concept of the love of family is also seen through the relationship between Rafa and Yunior. Similar to any other siblings, Rafa and Yunior argues most of the time; however, when Rafa needed Yunior he was always there for him. Yunior was willing to carry Rafa to the hospital without hesitation at one point during his cancer treatments when he was severely ill. He also tried to reason with Rafa at all times when he believed that Rafa was hurting mami. However, similar to mami, no matter how much he despised Pura, Yunior was willing to tolerate her in order to have Rafa in his life. Even though all these acts of tolerance and kindness among the family members are significant, the most important part of the story was when mami and Yunior accept Rafa back into the family after Pura lies and leaves him. These simple actions show a strong bond that exists between a family. Diaz uses Yunior’s family to show this bond in Dominican families and other immigrant families that have to face many hardships after moving to America. He shows his readers that the bond of family is unbreakable no matter how difficult a situation seems to be.
One of the significant literary techniques that Junot Diaz uses in all of his writing is symbolism. In addition to the theme of family, which is portrayed all throughout the story, Diaz uses his characters and their experiences to symbolize certain aspects and standards of the Dominican culture. Yunior, the main character and the younger brother in the story symbolizes the newfound sense of freedom among the younger immigrants who come to America. Since mami is a single mother, and she is busy with his older brother, Yunior spends most of his time engaging in reckless activities and falling behind in school. It is common for many immigrant parents to be extremely involved in their kids’ lives because of the culture that they grew up in. However, in America, most children are more independent; they are taught to make their own decisions at a young age whether they might be good or bad. Yunior represents this independence and the abuse of such freedom that is common among the younger population. Rafa, the older brother and mami’s favorite literally represents the child in the family who gets away with everything. The symbolism between Rafa and mami has a connection because mami represents the parent who will do anything for their child and Rafa represents the child who abuses this maternal love. Rafa’s symbolization is related to mami’s symbolization because she represents the love of a mother who will sacrifice anything for her child, no matter how strained the mother-child relationship might be. Through most of his writing, Junot Diaz explains the typical stereotype of a Dominican man. He shows how Dominican men are expected to be tough and unemotional. In the story, Rafa is portrayed as the opposite of how a typical Dominican man is expected to be. He requires a lot of support from his family throughout his cancer treatments which causes him to be emotional at times. Rafa feels like less of a man because he has cancer, and he is not able to live up to the expectation of a typical Dominican man. So, he engages in activities such as dealing drugs, stealing money and getting in to fights to show that he can live up to the standard of being tough. Lastly, Pura is a significant character in the story because she represents a struggle faced by not only Dominican immigrants but many other immigrants who come to America. Yunior explains how Pura is a new immigrant which he then explains is an immigrant who came to America without the proper documentation. Mami is suspicious of Pura because she believes that Pura is after Rafa’s legal immigrant status, and mami is found to be correct at the end when she leaves Rafa with their kid after marrying him. Pura was never interested in Rafa, she was only interested in attaining the proper documents to be a legal immigrant in America. Diaz incorporates Pura into the story to show that this is an issue faced by many immigrants because they are deceived by others into marriage in order to gain immigration status. This occurs between immigrants and individuals from the country that they emigrated from and between documented and undocumented immigrants. Overall, throughout “The Pura Principle” Diaz uses symbolism to bring attention to many of the issues faced by the Dominican immigrant community in America. However, the ability of individuals of various immigrant communities to relate to these issues expands Diaz’s audience and makes his writing appealing to many people.
In addition to appealing to a larger audience, Junot Diaz has the ability to inspire other authors and the literary community as a whole. One of the factors that helps his ability to inspire and contribute to the literary world comes from his Latin American background as a writer. Many believe that his background alone is able to inspire individuals because he is able to openly discuss certain topics, mainly regarding the Dominican culture, that would otherwise go unnoticed. As previously mentioned, “The Pura Principle” is only one of the many stories that depicts the standards of the Dominican culture. Christopher Gonzalez is an author that analyzed the work and life of Junot Diaz in order to show how his work as a Dominican-American writer contributed to the work of other Latinx writers in the United States. In an article, Michelle Ramos Pellicia, analyzes Gonzalez’s book about Diaz’s writing, his use of language and the Latin culture. For example, Pellicia mentions how in his writing Diaz uses “English, Black English, Spanish, Dominican/Carribean Spanish and code switching” (Pellicia 2). He does this in order to relate to the multiple types of Latin Americans living in the United States. Some immigrants and children of immigrants hold on to both languages; however, there are individuals that do not use Spanish after immigrating to America. Diaz believes that the use of different linguistic techniques gives all different members of the Latinx community the ability to engage in his writing. Another book by Diaz that Gonzalez discusses in his book is The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Gonzalez gives his readers an insight to how Junot Diaz uses this book to focus on the forgotten African ancestry of the Dominican people. He believes that Dominicans choose to ignore the aspects of the African culture in their background but it is evident in their language, customs and clothing. In this novel, the author connects the supernatural curse fuku to Africa and the Dominican Republic showing the relationship and roots between the two geographical areas. Diaz’s idea to educate Dominicans about their cultural backgrounds can be important, especially to immigrant children who might be feeling a sense of disconnect from their culture of origin. Lastly, Gonzalez also briefly focuses on the short story collection This is How You Lose Her. In this collection of short stories, Diaz focuses on his main character Yunior and his inability to express his emotions. Through the use of Yunior, Diaz attempts to show cultural standards and expectations of the men in the Latin community. Gonzalez analyses this work and explains how Yunior portrays the expectation of the Latin man to be strong and emotionally closed off which gives rise to the common stereotypes that exist in society. However, throughout the short stories, Yunior’s emotional and character development teaches young Latin American men the importance of vulnerability and expressing their emotions in maintaining healthy relationships. Overall, Gonzalez’s work deeply analyzes the importance of Junot Diaz to the Latin community and his contribution to keeping the culture alive in America.
As previously mentioned, a noteworthy technique in Junot Diaz’s writing is his ability to focus on topics that seem controversial or unnoticed by the public. Diaz uses his writing to show elements of sexism that exist in Dominican culture as well as other cultures around the world. In an interview that was conducted with Diaz, he mentioned that there are certain models of women in his mind that he uses in his writing. He stated that his female characters are the “doppelgangers of the male narrator” (Arce 5), and he uses this as a way to show how women are judged differently for the same acts committed by men. Women and men are held to different standards simply because of cultural expectations, and Diaz believes that this is an example of “masculine privilege” (Arce 5). He used one of his works, “The Sun, the Moon and the Stars”, to explain this situation. In this short story, the male, Yunior, and the female, Magdelena, are dealing with Yunior’s infidelity which is threatening their relationship. Diaz explains how Yunior and Magdelena are very much alike in their personalities; however, Yunior’s inability to take responsibility for his actions is related to his “masculine privilege” (Arce 5). Yunior believes that Magdelena is supposed to forgive him for his actions so they can move forward with their relationship, but Magdelena wants Yunior to admit his faults so their relationship can heal in a healthy manner. Overall, Diaz’s use of doppelganger personality in his male and female characters helps him depict the larger idea of sexism that exists in Dominican culture which is a result of the double standards.
Although there are many highlights and accomplishments in Junot Diaz’s life, he had to face many struggles after he arrived in America. One of the hardships he had to face was coping with anxiety. Diaz stated that his anxiety started after coming to America because he felt as though he was different from everyone else because of his cultural background. He believed that the language differences created a barrier between him and other people so he “would speak it at home, amongst friends, but never in public” (Arce 8). He was ashamed of speaking Spanish because it made him feel powerless. Finally, once he reached the age of 25, he accepted and embraced his Latin American identity. He started speaking Spanish and English on national tv and radio in order to allow the public to view him as a writer with two strong cultural backgrounds: American and Dominican. In addition to his struggle with anxiety, in an article that was published in the New Yorker less than two years ago, Diaz revealed that he was a victim of childhood rape. In his novels and short stories, Diaz mentions the trauma of childhood rape and how it affects one’s life; however, when he was questioned in an interview, he did not mention any personal connection to these events. In the article, he explained his reason for keeping it a secret which he also mentioned in his novels. Diaz told his audience that a Dominican man is held to certain standards and an incident such as rape is an act that would strip a Dominican male of his manhood. In his novels he described how Dominican men aren’t able to express their emotions because of cultural standards, so as Diaz described his traumatic childhood it allowed the readers to see how he had a deep personal connection to the stories that he wrote. This event of childhood trauma caused a great amount of emotional pain on Diaz which led to a suicide attempt when he was only 14. He stated that the trauma “threw [him] completely out of orbit, into the lightless regions of space where life is not possible” (Diaz 6). According to his interview, it took him many years to cope with the situation because he felt as if “more than being Dominican, more than being an immigrant, more, even, than being of African descent, [his] rape defined [him]” (Diaz 6). Even though the trauma is extremely tragic, he finally found his writing to be his safe space where he was allowed to express himself and be free of judgement. He also saw his writing as an opportunity to share his story indirectly with other immigrants who might have gone through similar experiences and are finding ways to cope with the trauma. Even though he knew that no amount of words would ever be enough to explain such a traumatic event, he believed that it was important to share.
For many immigrants an important aspect of who they are stems from the different cultural identities that they possess. These cultural identities relate to the culture they were born to and the culture they grew up in. For Junot Diaz, his upbringing in the barrio defined him just as much as his Latin American identity, his male identity, and his identity as a writer. “El barrio” in Spanish translates to “the neighborhood” and in New York City, barrio is seen as a neighborhood with mostly Spanish speaking individuals. In an interview, Diaz mentioned that he views himself as a “ghetto nerd” (Arce 8) because growing up in a poor and violent neighborhood, there is a part of himself that is hard core and tough but there is also a part of himself that is focused on his intelligence, his writing and the artistic side of himself. He believes that he can’t “make space for one side and not the other” (Arce 8) because he encompasses both these identities that came from his upbringing. Diaz mentions that in the barrio it is difficult to be a male and intelligent because “masculinity is tied up with not being smart” (Arce 8), and if someone were to be vulnerable then they could possibly be in danger. Junot Diaz thinks as an individual who has a platform in society, it is important for him to discuss his hard upbringing and the parts of himself that society views as being weak such as being a nerd. If he is not able to discuss such matters with society, people who are seen as “nerds” will always be powerless because of the negative connotation that comes with such a label. Since his upbringing was in the barrio and he got to experience poverty and hardships of life, it allowed him to be more open minded. Furthermore, his upbringing, his cultural background and his gender are important factors of his identity that influenced all his work as a writer.
Ultimately, Junot Diaz is a significant figure in the Latin American world of literature. He has contributed not only to the Dominican community but to the entire literary world a tremendous amount. His work provides a voice for immigrants and fans all over the world that have gone through similar life changing experiences. Through his writing, Diaz relates to immigrants that have different levels of connection to their culture of origin. Immigrants and children of immigrants are able to learn about and appreciate the true meaning behind their culture. He uses his writing as a platform to bring attention to significant issues such as sexism, negative stereotypes and immigration problems which exist in the Dominican culture and in society in general. His focus on family and the importance of strong relationships among individuals in his work shows certain values of the culture that he was brought up in. His strength in opening himself up in informing his audience about the hardships that he had to overcome allows him to be relatable to more people. Lastly, his ability to incorporate personal experiences in his writing adds more meaning and authenticity to his work.
Work cited
- “About VONA”. Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation, 2016, http://vonavoices.org/about-vona/. Accessed 25 February 2020.
- Arce, Chrissy, et al. “Junot Díaz.” 2003.
- Danticat, Edwidge, and Junot Díaz. “Junot Díaz.” BOMB, no. 101, 2007, pp. 89–95.
- Diaz, Junot. “The Pura Principle.” This is how you lose her, Riverhead books, 2012, pp. 89-118
- Diaz, Junot. “The silence: the legancy of childhood trauma.” The New Yorker, 9 April. 2018, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/16/the-silence-the-legacy-of-childhood-trauma. Accessed 25 February 2020.
- “Nueva York”. Junot Diaz, http://www.junotdiaz.com/2012/05/19/neuva-york/. Accessed 25 February 2020.
- Pellicia, Michelle F. Ramos. “Reading Junot Díaz and Filling the Void of Latinx Writers in US Literature.” Confluencia: Revista Hispánica De Cultura y Literatura, vol. 32, no. 2, 2017, pp. 241–246.
- Soto, Francisco. “Immigration.” Hon 122. 3 Feb. 2020. College of Staten Island. Lecture
