Students leaving Brooklyn Tech last month after taking the morning admissions exam for the eight specialized high schools, considered the city’s best. Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times I grew up in a predominately Dominican neighborhood, Washington Heights, where being smart and doing well on homework and tests was looked down upon as “acting white.” Given… Continue reading Elite NYC Public Schools, Mostly White and Asian
Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, a novel by Obama supporter and Jewish author Ayelet Waldman, wife of Pulitzer-winning author, Michael Chabon, is being made into a movie. Originally, Jennifer Lopez was set to star but since she bowed out, Natalie Portman has come to the rescue. Of course, the Jewish side of me is happy,… Continue reading Jew vs. Latina
Barack Obama picked Rahm Emanuel as his Chief of Staff. (Emanuel’s wife is a Jewish convert.) An interesting move, no? Certainly derails a number of the crazed emails I received throughout the campaign declaring that Obama was secretly a Muslim fundamentalist terrorist. Because, you know, those kinds of people normally pick Israeli Americans for their… Continue reading Jew on Staff
My great-grandmother recently celebrated her 96th birthday. My grandmother just started collecting social security. So as you can imagine, there has been a pretty good run of good health in my family. No history of cancer. No history of Alzheimer’s. Just a bad case of high cholesterol and high blood pressure. My husband, however, has… Continue reading Hispanics at Risk
Someone asked me if I feel more comfortable talking in English or talking in Spanish. I told them English. They responded, “I feel more comfortable talking in Spanish. I guess I’m more Latino than you.” Sigh. Now, I know how poor Jessica Alba feels. Her family didn’t pass on the language according to her interview… Continue reading I’m more Latino than you
“I’m Not White, I’m Jewish” is the name of the song featured in the YouTube video above. The rap song has clear sociological issues. As the performing artist strums along to his guitar, the camera pans around the room of Jewish preteens. And every face in the room? White, of course. But hey, as the… Continue reading I’m not white, I’m Jewish
Junot Diaz was quoted as saying he had to suppress his Dominicanness. Of course, he points out in a piece in Dominican Today that this quote was taken grossly out of context. Who would want to suppress their Dominicanness, in fact? (Not me. And certainly not Junot, who’s stellar Oscar Wao novel is a tribute… Continue reading On Dominicanness
I didn’t discover Hispanic authors until I was in college. Until then, I thought the only people that wrote were white with the exception of a few black ones. When I uncovered my brethren were writing, I launched myself head first into their writing. The heavy hittersFor a while, I was addicted to Oscar Hijuelos.… Continue reading Hispanic Heritage Month Post #3: The Authors
This month’s issue of Glamour magazine poses an interesting question: “Do you have friends of other races?” And then, more poignantly, do you have CLOSE friends of other races? I don’t want to offend my white friends. But I might. Here me out, though. I have always been someone who has had friends of other… Continue reading Friends of Other Races?
Habichuelas con dulce sold in Washington Heights Robert Capin for the New York Times The hardest part about keeping kosher hasn’t been having separate dishes and utensils and pots for everything. It hasn’t been giving up tasty treats like eel and octopus either. Yum. The worst part of keeping kosher is the utter lack of… Continue reading Hispanic Heritage Month Post #2: Dominican food!
Memoirs of a Jewminicana 