Dyaspora

The story Dyaspora is about the life of Joanne Hyppolite and her journey from Haiti to America in second person. It tells the reader about her struggles in America, being an outsider and how her family keeps their culture alive. From the experiences that occurrs during her story, she makes a decision that changes her life and her point of view of Haitian culture.

You are sitting down reading a book, waiting for your parents to call you for your flight to America. You’re excited and anxious about moving to America. You ask yourself, “How can me, Juan Santiago a 12 year old kid from the little island called Tinian ever fit in America?” You have never been to big cities, have no knowledge of how to get around the place, and you have no relatives there. There is more crime in America, not like your small peaceful island. Your parents call you,”Time to go kid, lets go.” You’re in the back seat of your dad’s Corolla looking at your village as if it will the last time you see it. You get to the airport and see a crowd of people at the entrance. There is a huge amount of people, probably the whole village. Then your dad parks the car. Your nino and nina help you with your bags and give you a good bye hug. Your cousins run to you giving you hugs and advice for your new adventure, the bags are checked in and you head to your seat in a cramped plane. Looking out through the window of the plane you see the beautiful island of Tinian. Throughout the trip you see different places, sleep in the airport lobbies, and constantly switch planes that are way more spacious than the tiny Tinian plane you first flew on. You finally reach your destination at 3:34 am and get to your apartment.The people in America alienate you from their social groups and outside activities. They are so high tech compared to you and your HTC phone. They look at you with a face of confusion that gives you a uncomfortable feeling. That feeling sets of a chain of emotions that is to much hold. You miss your culture, family and island. Everything is different compared to your island. Your neighbours, manamko, and school kids are all friendly. Every morning on Tinian you wake up to your alarm, the everyday cock-a-doodle-do. You immediately get up and get your clothes on, a normal Magas T-shirt and sports pants. You hear your mother calling your dad inside for breakfast. And everyone meets up on the streets to get to school calling out each others names to find their friends. In America it is nothing like your used to. The sound of horrible traffic wakes you up, and the tribble smell of car exhaust fills your room waking you up from what seemed a peaceful slumber. Your mom and dad gets ready for work and leaves bacon and eggs for you on the table. You walk to a bus stop, filled with people from your school. You get the everyday routine of questions, insults, and comments. Such as “where are you from?”, or “look its a fish out of water”. Your school lunch is disgusting, A blob of white goop they call mashed potatoes is the largest amount of food on your plate, and only ten percent of your food is made up of meat. The longer you stay at America the more you change. You notice yourself getting lighter, you forget most of your chamorro, and you stay inside more than you used to. You finally pass high school and go to college. It is mush more challenging than what you ever experienced before. You get more equality in college because of the diversity of people in the college. From that whole life time of being in America you become more american than chamorro. So you decide to move back to your island and start a little farm. Memories coming flowing to you as you sit outside, while the sun beats down on you. The fresh air hugs you with its nice smell of freshly cut grass. No matter how great America is your home will always be better.