Personal Narrative: My Country Of Origin Of Dominican Republic

As the first and only child in my family to attend college, I represent “Diversity”. My Hispanic heritage and culture has shaped my life by instilling the strong values and principles that Hispanic families and community’s share. Furthermore, my cultural roots have greatly influenced my current journey and have helped me learn and develop as a leader. The professional, academic, and career opportunities I am learning now is what sets me apart from everyone else, and I believe my strong leadership potential and commitment to my fellow peers are essential to becoming an innovative leader.

What makes me unique is that I am not afraid of failure. When I set a goal I do not focus on whether I might or might not be successful; I concentrate on doing my best and putting all of my effort into the task. What separates me from others is the adversity I’ve been through, my diverse skills, leadership abilities, my contribution to the community, and my work ethic.

When I was little, I heard stories of Third World countries where people lived in complete poverty. I would hear of how they had dilapidated domiciles, contaminated water, deadly diseases, and shortages of food. I was always told how blessed I was to live in a country where I was free of these situations, but I always took this truth for granted. I would go along every day, not worrying about where I was going to sleep or what I was going to eat, when people all over the world were facing these situations as problems. It wasn't until I was sixteen that I realized how blessed I was, when I was given the opportunity to visit San Jose, Costa Rica.

Each house-- painted a very vibrant, dazzling color, purple, orange, yellow, green, and pink. I had never seen houses like that in the United States the usual house colors are gray, white, tan, blue, very dull colors. The sight of these vivid houses was just a small glimpse of this beautiful country. As I nervously traveled without my family for the first time the lush terrain of Costa Rica dotted with colorful houses welcomed me.

The pilot said, “Ready for take off!” I was dreading those words and the day in which I had to leave everything behind. How could I leave Colombia? My house? My family? My friends? My whole life?

Who am I? Who am I is what I tend to ask myself often, more than I probably should. That question floats around in my head from day to day waiting to be answered. Well to answer my question, I’m my roots. My Mexican roots have shaped me into the person I am today any many ways. Such as, the food I love to eat, the languages I speak, the music I enjoy listening to, the places I enjoy going to, all of my traditions, how I dress, and my name. All of those factors tie into who I am, Alejandra. I have Mexican blood running through my veins, which I’m very proud of. I have my parents to thank for who I am.

This question drove me back to high school. I attended a military school back from my home country, Ecuador, we only where surrounded by males. It was not difficult for me to cope, because I was in my comfort zone. However, I moved to New York City 10 years ago and I am still in the process of adaptation. I am still seeking to develop coping skills to adapt to my new environments, work, school, friends. Similar, I wanted to fit in and I seek for people that look, think and come from my same backgrounds. But, I did not give myself the opportunity to look for other friends. I even isolated myself. Once I started to give the chance to other people I got in trouble, because they want to use you, people want to take advantage of you one way or another,

Upon our arrival to The Dominican Republic, my mother informed me that we were going to spend most of our vacation at my grandparent’s house. Immediately, I was filled with exhilaration. After so many years, I would finally visit my beloved grandparents. I had already visualized what spending the summer at their house would be like. Rolling in the sand of the clear see-through beaches, listening to the birds sing and chirp around us as we savor our early morning breakfast, enjoying the sound of waves smashing into the rocks on the shore, and laying in an air-conditioned room when the temperature got too high.

In recent months there has been endless discussion on how to make America great again. From politician to business men and women, dialog on fixing the present structure in America has been rampant. Within such dialog, topics on the increasing and rather consistent levels of poverty in some regions in America are touched on as well. Poverty is defined as a condition where one’s basics needs for food, clothing, and shelter are not being met ("What Is Poverty? “). From sea to shining sea, more than 15 percent of the American population live in poverty, a total of people over 46 million. Many who live in poverty within the United States live in areas that were once thriving from the country’s economic growth that are now only sad remnants such as the Deep South and Rust Belt cities.

The first day of my life took place in a military hospital in Wurzburg, Germany. My father was an officer in the U.S. Army and my mother stayed in the home. While living in Germany I attended a German school where my brother and I were the only students who spoke English. Despite the fact that we did not speak the same language, we were able to interact the same way most young children would. As an adult I have often thought that my desire to travel and search for diverse human relationships was influenced by my early childhood.

I chose the topic “How did Gloria Steinem influence the discussion of women’s rights?” because feminism is an interesting topic to me, and it is an overlooked topic that should be talked about more often in society. In a society that is so dominant by men, women think they can’t change it. But, with this topic, it can show how just a simple book, or an idea can start up an entire movement just by influencing each other. Also, even in today’s

In America today, there are 47 million people living in poverty, 15 million whom are below the age of eighteen. Even though The United States is the seventh wealthiest country in the world, there are still 1.5 million people living on less than two dollars a day. My heart’s desire is to change these statistics.

At a young age, my grandmother came to this country to find a better life and make something of herself. Being a young Latina in The United States, she was faced with many struggles and hardships. Although it felt like everything was against her, she pushed through it all so that she and her five kids could have a life full of love, accomplishments, and opportunity. She was a pioneer being that she was the first of her family to arrive to the United States as an immigrant, leaving everything she knew behind. She had no other option but to go through life’s struggles in order to make a life for her kids, and the generations ahead.

My parents, my brother and I came from Guatemala in 2000 the reason for our departure was to escape violence and misfortunes. My family suffered the kidnapping and murder of my nephew despite having paid a ransom of an immense amount of money. We had to leave our lives, property, and everything of value behind. In December of the year 2000 when we arrived to California, my English was below basic due to the minimum required study of the English language at the university in my home country. Although, I understood very little English at the time my determination to learn the language made persevere a better education.

Poverty, or the inability to afford basic human needs, is an issue that is spread worldwide. There are people everywhere who cannot afford shelter, food, healthcare, or education. It seems easy enough to ignore the bum asking for change on the street, but it becomes near impossible in regions where whole families are begging on the street. This rings true in Latin America and it is extremely frustrating to see social inequality this extreme. This essay will examine how much poverty exists in Latin America, why the amount of poverty is so disproportionate and what can possibly be done to alleviate the amount of poverty in these countries.