Until I moved to Miami, I didn't really have many immigrant friends.
Hell, until I moved to Miami I didn't really have any minority friends!
Growing up, I had a life that was beautiful but its landscape wasn't very colorful. Words in Jersey English (not the kind Junot Diaz uses in his book though) and recessive genetic traits were the norm in this little town where most families had been there for generations.
[Thank God] I am not in Kansas anymore!
Last night we were out celebrating Sonia's birthday. Y luego de la parrila Argentina, we ended up at Tapas y Tintos and had a really good time. At one point I looked around the table and I realized how incredibly cool it was that I was surrounded by cool, young professionals who came to look for a different situation and found it. It was also cool to hear my Dominican Spanish in a backdrop of Argentinian, Venezuelan, Chilean, Colombian, Ecuadorian, Honduran and Castillian Spanish. It kind of made me regret not speaking Spanish more often than I do.
I thought of the warmth that we as a group share regardless of our ancestry. The kisses we use to say hello, the nicknames, the gestures, the loud laughter -all parts of our different cultures, the things that make us a different ethnic group.
I like it.
[But I will NEVER like rice and beans!!!]
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2 comments:
Dominicaaaana soy. I don't think I ever heard your Dominican Spanish. If I recall correctly you once posted a video clip here, but you were speaking the gringo language. How about one in which you show your Dominican vocabulary. And I'm not talking proper Spanish, I'm talking world renown Dominican words and expressions such as: Deguabinar, hijo 'e machepa, pariguayo, masamorra en lo pie and last but not least, cara e fullin.
:P
I don't think I know any of those unfortunately but I do say quite often (even midsentence in the gringo language) "conio" y "no me jodas."
:)
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