Personal Experience Essay: My Experiences as a Dominican Latino

I first realized I was different from the rest of my classmates when I was in the second grade. There was a girl that I liked who happened to be my neighbor. In the neighborhood, I would greet her whenever I saw her and she would warmly reply. However, On the fateful day, she was walking with a group of her friends. As I walked past them, I confidently called her name and warmly said hello. To my surprise, she did not try to acknowledge me in any way. I found that weird. As a result, I told my older cousin about the encounter a few days later. To my astonishment, my cousin laughed at me and said something about my look. I cannot recall exactly what he said, but he implied that I did not look like the kind of people the girl would go out with. I later asked my mum about that, and she politely sat me down and told me I was a Dominican Latina. I was not convinced, and I pried her to let me know what that meant. She said I was not white. Jokingly, she asked me to look at myself in the mirror and analyse my skin color. At that point, I realized that was fair-skinned and the darkest person in my class.

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I have had experiences where people who do not even know me refer to me as "amigo." I asked my grandma why that was the case and she told me that my skin color speaks volumes. As I grow up, I have learned more about racial identity and the many assumptions affiliated with different racial groups. I am no longer surprised when I tell my friends that I am of Dominican descendant and they ask me if I am good at baseball.

I have read more about the Dominican ethnicity. And despite the negative ways that movies portray Dominicans (mostly as drug dealers and the bad guys), I love being a Dominican Latino. The thing I love to be associated with this ethnicity is the fact that we are good at baseball. On the other hand, I hate when people refer to Dominicans as loud. I always meet people who believe Dominicans love to shout. More distressing, though, is the assumption that every person affiliated with the Dominican ethnicity eats a lot of plantains.

The experiences above do not really get under my skin. However, I have heard many stories about Dominicans that are not pleasant to hear. For instance, I heard my cousin say that he had been asked by a friend of his whether he does anything or he just sits on the couch watching TV. I later learned people view Dominicans as lazy people who have nothing to do all day. Such generalization is mean and rather ignorant.

Despite the many conventions Dominicans are identified with, I have many friends of diverse backgrounds. My friends are really good people, and they make me happy. Occasionally, we humorously argue about ethnicity and some of the hilarious stereotypes linked with our ethnic upbringings. To me, being a Dominican Latino means I am unique. I understand that my ethnicity makes me a minority. Therefore, I believe that I will face a lot of racial-driven challenges in life but also trust I have opportunities waiting for me.