We are located uptown in Manhattan,
A small neighborhood that we brought life to.
Our food, music, and people have been the heart of the community for years since Trujillo.
We try to re-create our country, making sure here we do feel safe sharing love for each other.
They say our streets are full of crime,
And hate against each other,
But what they don’t see is the love we have for one another.
Outsiders come, trying to push us against each other,
But at the end of the day we know we only have one another.
Our culture keeps us united even when back home that was not enough.
Our country is corrupted, we try to run away from home.
Washington Heights is the second Dominican Republic,
The place where many once escaped from crime back in our native country.
All the ones that came brought with them our culture,
Helping us each day wake up like we are welcomed.
Once we are out of our streets, we stop feeling welcomed,
It is a joy for us to be trapped uptown with the ones that look like us.
Some try to go back home, where they think they will find love,
But they end up being killed by the ones they love.
The ones that stay in our little Dominican Republic feel safer here than in the nation that gave birth to us, that is why we try to create a replica of our homes.
Our small neighborhood has given birth to stars,
Some like Manny Ramirez, Arod, and even Lin Manuel Miranda.
People try to take those that make it as a role model, knowing that working hard
You can get there adding a little bit of luck to that.
We enjoy our music, food, religion, customs, and movies because at the end of the day, we are the only hope of our country in the exterior.
Noelia, As I mentioned in class, I was struck by your use of the work “prison” in your title. When I reread the poem, it reinforced my sense that you are trying to express mixed feelings about the community that Dominican immigrants have created in Washington Heights – that it’s great to have the security of being among people who share your heritage, but that there can also be something isolating or constricting about living in such a homogenous community. I wonder if there is a reluctance among immigrants from the DR to become more fully assimilated into American culture or to move away from neighborhoods like Washington Heights into more diverse communities? This might have been an interesting question to consider as part of your research. Thanks for sharing your work with us! I learned a lot!
JS