Julissa. Being Dominicana at Harvard and Beyond

I came to Harvard in 1993. I guess I wasn’t the traditional student, if such a thing exists. I was born in a rural village in the Dominican Republic and immigrated to the South Bronx, New York City in 1982. In the South Bronx, I walked the streets for pleasure and insight, attended catholic schools where I learned of the English language, met and dismissed the "American dream", and witnessed and experienced the devastation of poverty. I was not Latin@ then. I was ‘Julissa’ and ‘Shortie’ and, sometimes, ‘Dominican.’ *More*