Corina Roman

9 February 2015
ENC 1101

Where are you from?

When getting to know someone, the question that always comes up is, where are you
from? Specifically asking me that question gives me the option of telling you where I reside,
where I was born, or what my heritage is (where my family is from). Many people go through
this same thought process when asked that unavoidable question, especially when your skin isnt
exactly white or black but its somewhere in between. I currently do not reside where I was
born or where I was raised, but I also was not born where my mother or father was born, so I
have to answer all of the above questions. I was raised in Jacksonville, Florida, I was born in
Bronx, New York, but my heritage is Puerto Rican and Dominican. My mom was born in Puerto
Rico and my dad was born in the Dominican Republic, making these places the lines of my
heritage but not where I was specifically born. Because I was not born in either country (not an
immigrant), I am also considered American, and an Americanized Latino/Hispanic person. I was
raised and exposed to the American way but it also included specific traditions from either
culture, which is what I want to focus on, as well as the story of my grandparents lives leading
up to when I was born and my story taking over.
Speaking of living an Americanized life, I chose to have a sweet sixteen. In Spanish
culture, when turning 15 you have a quinceanera (fiesta de quince aos, fiesta de quinceaera,
quince aos or simply quince, all being Spanish translation for 15th birthday celebration), the
celebration of a girl's fifteenth birthday in parts of Latin America and elsewhere in communities

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of people from Latin America. It is the celebration of blossoming from a young lady to
womanhood, including many traditions to follow. This celebration is very traditional and
common, beginning with a Mass in the Catholic Church to receive the blessing of God and give
thanks for another year of life. At the birthday party, the birthday girl makes her entrance
accompanied by 14 (more or less) additional pairs of guests wearing bright colors to match,
which together with the teenager's own are 15 pairs of people total but I did not have a guest to
dance with myself before my father, so my waltz began and ended in my fathers arms. It is
customary for the birthday girl and her escorts to perform one or several choreographed dance(s).
It is also customary to serve a buffet and some drinks during the celebration. As the party favors
or memories are given to the guests, the traditional album is signed by invited guests to record
their presence at the party. One of the main attractions in the Dominican Republic is the
traditional cake of fifteen years (my case, 16), which usually becomes a cake of immense size
and beauty, as they use very colorful designs to decorate it to be cut shortly after the dancing.
Traditionally the participation of an artist or band in the celebration of the feast is customary to
bring it to life and give a musical touch. I followed most of the Dominican traditions for a quince
but I put my own Americanized twist on it and did it for when I turned 16 instead of 15. I had the
court, the buffet, the outstanding case, but instead had a DJ for the night instead of a certain band
or singer. I brought many different elements of my culture(s) together and exposed my friends to
it.
Many places have become a melting pot for many different cultures, my party was its
own melting pot of cultures and people. Being born in New York and currently residing in
Orlando, I am still exposed to my Latino culture on a day to day basis. Because I was not raised
in either country, Spanish was not the prominent language in my house, it was secondary,

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making us more Americanized. Going to a store, or the super market, a Latino person can look at
me and assume I speak Spanish, as if they have a radar, when in fact I am only decently fluent in
the language. Once I begin to explain that my parents raised me heavily Americanized so I do
not know as much Spanish as them, or the rest of my family, they quickly start to judge, spitting
out all the reasons it is not good that I do not know Spanish as well. Situations like this one,
happen to me almost every day, so that means the list of judgments are repeated to me all the
time. Even when I am at my place of work, Spanish speaking customers will come in, and when
I come to their table (just by looking at me) know that I am Spanish and proceed to speak in
Spanish to me for me to then explain I am more of a Spanglish speaker. Now, do not get me
wrong, I can speak the native tongue, I just sound like a gringo (a word used by a Latino to
define an American). Being that I sound like a gringo, it is also discouraging to speak the
Spanish that I do know because I will be judged for sounding the way I do. My family always
likes to joke with me that I am the white girl in the family because of how Americanized I live
and how I sound when I speak the Spanish that I do know. I am seen very Americanized because
of the fact that I do not really know much about my ancestral history and wish to learn more,
thus helping me focus on why my parents came to America and why it was my grandmothers or
grandfathers choice.
Unfortunately, because my abuela passed when I was young, I did not get to learn much
about our family history, or at least not much that I can remember, so her journey is relived
through my mother, aunt, uncle, and my eldest cousin. My abuela was a singer, and sung all over
the world, and through that career met her husband (my abuelo) who was also a singer. From
what my mother has explained to me, my grandparents brought their 3 kids to America for better
opportunity but mainly, because of their careers. My grandparents had better opportunity for

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their careers in America, therefore creating better opportunity to raise a family, and for the
children to be surrounded by. My mom was the oldest of her siblings, so she bonded more with
my grandparents and understood better the changes going on in their lives and moving to a place
like New York. With my grandparents growing careers, my family grew very close dealing with
traveling or staying with other family members for a while, and just bonding over the fact that
their parents are professional Spanish singers. With my grandparents prominent careers, they
were very fortunate to not live in a struggle.
For my fathers side of the family, their story about leaving the Dominican Republic is
not as interesting, as told by my aunt. My grandfather had passed away while still living in the
Dominican Republic way before I was born and I think because of that, my grandmother who we
call mama, wanted to find better opportunity for the family then being a single mother raising
3 children in the Dominican Republic. Before leaving the Dominican, my grandmother met
someone else and got remarried, for them to make a collected decision of still wanting to come to
America. My grandmother moved the family to New York, where even though they were living
in America, she chose to instill strong Dominican culture in their everyday life, including
Spanish being the more prominent language in the household especially because her new partner
barely knew any English. They also did not live in a struggle, but all the children chose to live
with mama as long as they could or before their growing relationships progressed to the step of
moving in together, bringing this to around the time when I was born.
When living in New York and being around both sides of my family so young, I was
extremely impressionable. For the time that my mom and I lived in New York, I was exposed to
much less of an Americanized life and still living in a multi-cultured bubble of Puerto Rico and
the DR. In New York, I was speaking Spanish and eating Spanish food every night, along with

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seeing almost everyone in my family almost every day because Spanish families always come as
a pack doing every party big. With having two working parents and so much family living a few
blocks down the street, mama was always the babysitter for me and my cousins, with our days
consisting of watching Spanish novellas and being full from all the Spanish food. When my
parents realized they could not continue their relationship anymore, my mom moved us to
Jacksonville, where she got remarried, and to be exposed to a different environment. When
moving to Jacksonville, we started to live more of an Americanized life especially because we
were not around our immediate Spanish roots. My grandmother on my mothers side decided to
move with us, so she was our constant connection to keeping our roots prominent, speaking
Spanish to me every time she spoke before she became too ill and her life consisted of living in
and out of hospitals. I was still very young at this time, so when my grandmother passed,
everything I had learned culture wise became more and more distant. From then on, my life was
more Americanized than ever and that was the way our life continued to be except for my
frequent trips back to New York to see my family and being engulfed back into our Spanish
culture for the length of my trip, assuring I never lose sight of my culture.
No one can completely lose all their culture roots no matter how hard they try. You can
move as many times as you want or try to act and live as Americanized as you want, but your
roots and the way you were raised in your early stages of life, shape you into the person you are
today. You can live extremely Americanized but you should always try to keep in touch with
your roots, and try to learn how to maybe incorporate more traditions from your culture into your
everyday life. I am one of those people, I currently live extremely Americanized, and I am ok
with it, but, I wish I did incorporate more of my Spanish culture into my everyday life. Bringing

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yourself closer to your culture in any way that you can, can really benefit your outlook on life
and how you treats others or how others treat you.