As the director of Puentes, I don’t represent any one class, nation, gender, or even language-based tribe.  True, our organization strives to empower and integrate the Latino community, but I would add that in doing that our work is about elevating the place where we live.  That is, we serve our entire community.  So when I go to a meeting with fellow advocates, or participate in a coalition, or work on a program with partners, I do my best to remind all that our work, while targeting Latinos, is about making our entire community whole.  But then I think about myself in a personal way, and consider my earlier blog entry (http://latinolanow.org/latinola-speaks/2008/11/the-hyphenated-american/) about the hyphenated American, and then add to this what I’ve learned from my recent trip to the Dominican Republic and begin to wonder if as a person I actually have a voice that belongs in the United States.

I am a naturalized citizen, which means I have pleaded my loyalty to the constitution of the United States of America.  Yet, at the same time, I am also a Dominican citizen, which means I have never given up my birth right as a Dominican (nor has the Dominican government removed it from me).  Like most immigrants, I occupy two cultural, social, language, and even political worlds.  How does one make sense of this to oneself, and then to others who don’t know this experience?

I have to admit that the only answer I have to this is to say that we simply have to have a great deal of dialogue.  There is no other way.  I cannot make someone else understand how I view the world without a great deal of dialogue.  My lens is too different.  Yet, at the same time, this particular lens of mine is also part of North American society. The way I see the world, though different from “mainstream” society is also consistent with, and belongs to the world I live in, which is the United States.  I believe, just as any other citizen in this country does, in the constitution. I believe in the power of the vote. Does being an immigrant, having a slightly different outlook, and a different cultural heritage make my voice any less meaningful than, say, an American with three hundred years of roots in this country?  I don’t think so.

I believe that we have arrived at a time in North American history where we are on the cusp of significant identity change.  This change make take another 30 or 40 years to make its way across the land, but we are on the tip of a wave that is building momentum.  Nevermind that hate groups have grown exponentially in the last nine years.  Nevermind that the Republican party, even after its defeat in the presidential elections, continues to play on people’s fears and their instinct to recede into tribal corners and become suspicious of ideas expressed by “the others.”  Despite all this, and ongoing hate crimes, the United States is beginning to understand that in order to thrive in the ever-changing global community, it must grow as a nation.  The founding fathers were visionaries when they approved a constitution that did not distinguish between different types of people.  All the rights and privileges afforded to us in this country is afforded to us as people.

As a Dominican-American, I would like to begin to inform “mainstream” America that I am included in the word ‘people’ and that there are people like me who wish to add to the collective understanding of what it means to be a member of the United States. We join the armed services, we buy homes, we die for this country, and yet we continue to struggle to be recognized as valuable interpreters of our collective reality.  Historically, we have always had people from African countries, from European countries, from Middle Eastern countries, from Asian countries, from Caribbean, Central and South American countries, Pacific Islands, and Baltic countries, and so much more who are both North American and more.  Yet historically, the United States has categorically ignored the existence, the voice, and the contributions of these communities.

The Civil Rights movement attempted to push an idea of an integrated world, but even then the dialogue was about bringing the black community into the “mainstream” white community.  I believe it is time to re-awaken this dialogue, only now it must look, sound, and feel different.  In order to create a truly integrated society, we need to be able to create an American society that fully comprehends, accepts, and celebrates its multi-ethnic history and identity.  Electing Barak Obama is an incredibly meaningful step towards that direction, but it is only that, a meaningful step.  We need many more meaningful steps, and it falls upon us to create them.  With each step that is built, we move closer toward a truly integrated society that is responsive to the hyphenated many, as well as the un-hyphenated hidden and forgotten. When these under-represented voices begin to matter, then we will begin to see and experience a United States that truly upholds and practices the vision laid out in the Delcaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Tags: dominican-american, integrated society, latino, Lucas Diaz blog, puentes director

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 8:12 am and is filed under Archived News, Puentes Director. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.