Waneshka Mendez
Engl1100
Prof Lobell
Me: What is your name
Aunt: Ana
Me: When and where were you born?
Aunt: I was born In Dominican Republic in 1962.
Me: What languages do you speak?
Aunt: I speak Spanish.
Me: Where did you grow up?
Aunt: DR. I lived there until I was 28.
Me: How did you grow up?
Aunt: Well, in total we were 10 siblings. My mother died when I was 6. At that time, my father was a farmer. With my mom’s passing he left that job and sold most of his property to be able to rent out a store closer to where we lived. This was his way of being able to raise us. My uncle played a crucial role in our childhood. He helped my dad out when he was working. When people came to our house, they would think we were being raised like animals in which you could ask to have one of us. But my father never separated us. He was our mom and dad; he gave us advice and taught us the ways of God. The love he gave us was enough to fill the void of our mom. When we made a mistake, he would explain what we did wrong in a way we would understand depending on our age. For all the good we did he would celebrate. Despite not having a lot of necessities and being poor, we were all happy. We had an unimaginable childhood.
Me: What jobs have you had? What is your current job status?
Aunt: I was a professional hairdresser. I am disabled now so I don’t work.
Me: Where did you first settle here? Why?
Aunt: When I first arrived here, I came with my daughter who at the time was a year old. I settled in Washington Heights because it was the only place in which I had a family member. My brother welcomed both me and my daughter with open arms.
Me: What was the biggest difference between the two countries?
Aunt: The temperature. I landed on January 15, so it was very cold for me let alone my daughter. As well as I did not have as much help with my daughter as I did before I came. My brother helped as much as he could but there wasn’t much he could do. The language barrier was also very difficult. The salon I worked at was not in a predominately Spanish speaking neighborhood, so I was bound to come across people who didn’t speak Spanish at all. So, communicating with my clients was very challenging.
Me: What was the most difficult part about moving?
Aunt: The most difficult part of moving here was moving away from most of my family. As I said earlier at the time of my arrival, I only had my brother. Despite all the help he offered, it was still very hard for me to adjust to a new environment.
Me: How important is religion to you?
Aunt: Personally, religion is very important to me because growing up I was told through any ups and downs turning to God will help you prosper and give you the strength you need to continue. I really became more of a religious person after coming to America because it was hard to want to continue when it felt like everything was pinned against you. Having to start from scratch for two wasn’t easy. So, every time I felt like giving up, I turned to God in hopes he would give me the strength I needed to persevere.
Me: What traditions do you have with your family?
Aunt: The only tradition we really had was to celebrate anything. Birthdays, easter, Christmas, etc. Even if it wasn’t a big party, there would always be some sort of food made in a buffet style. Praying daily was also a big part of my life.
Me: Did you pass on these traditions?
Aunt: Yes. With my daughter I taught her the importance of religion. In my eyes if she sought a relationship with God, she will always be safe and never make any bad decisions. I taught her to consider whether whatever she wants to do would be seen as a good or bad thing in life. I never raised my voice at her or turned to violence to discipline her, just like my father I would explain her wrongdoing in a way she would understand. I taught her besides any negative you have going on in your life, turn to God and he’ll fix it for you. As for the celebrations, I celebrated all her successes and birthdays and significant events. Even if I couldn’t afford it.
Me: What’s the biggest difference in the economy now than from when you first came?
Aunt: Honestly everything is way more expensive now.
Me: What’s one piece of advice you would give to future generations?
Aunt: Never let any obstacle get in the way of achieving anything you want. Do not waste your time trying to make other people’s dreams come true, pursue your own dreams and don’t always please others.
SUMMARY
Not going to lie being able to complete this assignment quickly became more challenging than I expected it to become because life happens. The person I felt most comfortable with interviewing ended up experiencing serious medical problems, whenever she was available, I wasn’t and vice versa. Nevertheless, my work managers contacted me basically informing me that the store was closed and that I had the day off, which worked out perfectly because I was able to sit down and take my time to interview her. Before writing the transcript, I was going to have a voice recording, but she got a little too emotional and asked me if that there was another way I could present it, and if there was if I could shorten her answers. Despite all the challenges I faced getting started I was still able to learn a lot about how her life played out from an early age. Even though we are very comfortable and have a close relationship she has never gone into so much detail about her past, family, and upbringing.
Honestly I just asked her the questions and allowed her to go in any direction she wanted with them. I allowed her to answer the questions however she interpreted the questions. Some of the things I learned more information about was the fact that her mom had passed away at such an early age. She had told me that her family struggled throughout her childhood, but I didn’t know that her dad had to give up so much just to raise them. As mentioned previously, there were some things that were left out of the transcript such as the fact that there were 5 boys and 5 girls, but the girls were being raised as housewives. Which entailed them cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the men even though they were younger. While the men were being taught to work physical labor jobs and take care of the household financially. She went into detail about how she tried to provide a gentle parenting style to her daughter the same way her father did for her, but she wasn’t able to teach her anything besides cooking, cleaning, and caring for other because that’s how what she was taught. I later came to find out that most of the things her daughter knows were self-taught, besides stereotypical housewife’s duties. I was always under the impression that my aunt was the one to teach her daughter everything she knew. Furthermore, the same way my aunt’s father had to play the role of mom and dad she had to do the same thing for her daughter. Even though my aunt made the decision to leave her family behind to start a new life in America she never forgot about her family and always looked out for them. For example, the same way her brother was able to bring her here she did the same for the rest of her siblings. I have never seen my aunt get so emotional speaking about this topic before.
As a child I always wanted to be with my aunt because of the safety and stability she provided. She provided a of that for me which means a lot to me because I know that during her childhood, she was not always provided that. She stated that she grew up poor, and even though her dad tried his best to provide for her, they never really knew how big their next meal would be or even if it would be enough for all of them. She faced a lot of hardships in her youth, but she doesn’t allow that to impact the person she is today, if you were to sit down and have a conversation with her you would never assume she faced any of the challenges she did. She upholds herself as a loving god-fearing woman and maintains a very clean image of herself. Although I already looked up to her and had a lot of respect for her this shined a light I had never seen on her before.
