(plantains! plantains! 4 for a dollar!)
My siblings and I were born in New York, being the only generation of children in my family to be born in the United States. My parents are both from the Dominican Republic, coming in the mid to late 1970s. As the text states, “The largest numbers of post-1970 immigrants came from the Caribbean.” (226). By 1990, Washington Heights was dominated by Dominicans in which was once a very populated German Jewish community. This went in accordance with my parents. They did come to the United States but lived in another state. By 1990, they were settled in into their apartment in the heart of Washington Heights, St. Nicholas Avenue.
“Dominicans and their American-born children numbered over 300,000 in that year, and there were no signs of abating.” (227). In that statistic, my brother and sister were included. We were all born and raised in the Heights, showing that we were significantly influenced by this wave. Although we eventually moved to another borough, as the quote states, Washington Heights is still a center piece of Dominican culture, such as plantains and rice with beans.
-“It’s like a mini DR.”