Arts Access editor Samantha Guzman shares why her Dominican heritage inspired her to tell stories.
At home, when I asked my parents how to respond to this question, to them it was simple. “We are Dominican,” they said. As immigrants to this country, they refused to be stripped of their cultural heritage and be lumped into the monolithic soup many people of color are thrown into. Their language, their customs, their food were unique and something to be proud of. They held on tight, for fear of being erased.
When I was a kid, I hated myself and the way I looked. I never felt comfortable in my own skin. I wanted so desperately to fit into a neat little box, to be able to answer that question in a way that seemed to satisfy anyone who asked. But as I grew older, I realized there is nothing wrong with me, but there is something wrong with a system that puts that much pressure on a child to feel seen.
That craving for complexity is what drives me and my work as a journalist. I believe strongly in the power of storytelling. Telling stories has the power to bring people together, to help us understand one another better, to make us feel seen.
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