American Dreams Bridge

As an American studies graduate, I am obsessed with culture and assimilation. Perhaps it is due to the fact that as a Dominican American, I have always found it difficult to define my cultural identity. I feel strong ties to my roots in Dominican Republic. Eating arroz, habichuela, tostones, sancocho, johnnycake. Speaking a crazy tongue-tied Spanish. Hugging and kissing everyone on the cheek. Dancing merengue and bachata. However, I also felt a strong American presence that I acquired from being in a New England boarding school for 4 years away from my Dominican parents and attending a liberal arts Ivy league university with a strong American history.

I have always felt stuck between two cultures. I think the best description of this feeling is in Gloria Anzaldua's Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. Anzaldua says, "Deep in our hearts we believe that being Mexican has nothing to do with which country one lives in. Being Mexican is a state of soul-not one of mind, not one of citizenship. Neither eagle nor serpent, but both. And like the ocean, neither animal respects borders." This feeling of cultural ambiguity is shared among many first generation Americans. I understand how one although having been Americanized is still deeply entrenched in the culture of one's home count. There is in fact a benefit to belonging to two cultures, which is the ability to fluidly move between both and feel like you belong yet also not completely be a part of either group. You become a bridge that connects two very different worlds and as the bridge, you have no borders because you can pass through both cultures easily.

As I prepare to enter business school, a lot of my mentors have repeatedly said "Stay humble." It is hard for me to imagine not being humble but I can see how one can lose touch with his or her true self. That is why I chose to spend 2 weeks with my family in Atlanta and it has been a humbling experience from hearing my mom's stories of growing up in her small Dominican village to observing the illegal immigrant workers standing on the side of the road waiting to be picked up my vans to work hard labor and earn minimal pay. I feel very connected to these people who have lived or are trying to fulfill their American dream while also knowing that I have the opportunity to live beyond any American dream my predecessors ever had. As the bridge between American scholarly study and third world countries, in business school, I will challenge myself while remaining humble.