Ode to DR

I know what my closest Dominican friends are going to say, something along the lines of: “you’re so white, you think you’re Italian! You always say you love white guys and Italian guys…. but you know you’re Dominican, stop denying it.”

Yes, I know I am guys!

I speak Spanish, sounds pretty hick-dominican too. I’m really loud and many have vouched, “your voice carries… you’re always on stereo! …you’re like a sub-woofer,” I also clap when I laugh, hard and repetitively.

(Photo: I drew myself back in 2000! VERY proud)

Yes my mom speaks Spanish in the house, and I speak in Spanish to my family. My mom doesn’t cook Dominican food for me anymore, but Mama Flora does and it’s sooo good. I love tostones, arepas, yuka, pollo al orno, arroz blanco con gandules, salchichon, pastelitos, “johnny cake,” palomilla…just to name a few. My grandparents definitely live in the Heights, always have, always will.

I used to play Casino and Dominos in college in the cafeteria with the rest of the loud Dominicans, and I can probably drink a lot more beer than the average girl. Yes I hang out at my friends Barbershop with my fave group of male Dominicans, and I listen-in on conversations about females, baseball, and….more females.

Yes I used to play volleyball, and softball, I say “coño” more often than I even notice, as well as more than a couple of the phrases in this video:

My hair is really curly, I wear shower caps in the shower, I don’t do doobie’s but yes I put rolos in my hair to make blow-drying (now straightening) easier to do. I love house party’s and yes I dance bachata and merengue. LOVE Salsa but don’t dance it.

Unfortunately I lack the Dominican booty and cooking skills, but I can clean a house like NOBODY’s business.

Yes I managed to find Dominicans in Florence Italy, danced a mean bachata with him a couple nights in a row!

While I don’t run around flaunting it, rocking a huge Dominican flag on my chest, I am proud to be a first-gen Dominican, and I wish all my family in DR, as well as my extended Dominican families here, a HAPPY INDEPENDENCE day.

And for those who never really know why a holiday is even a holiday, read more on Dominican Independence, and why it’s something to be proud of.

One of my favorite songs about DR from “town to town,” Aventura’s “Pueblo por Pueblo”:

A map, get familiar….

….and Dominican words you must know, click to learn more: