by Lauren Gonzalez
I sat down with my father, him on a love seat, and me across from him on a chair with a mini foldable table in front of me and we discussed his life. We ate dinner and our stomachs were full of his delicious rice and steak. I started off simply by asking him how he was and then proceeded to ask him questions. We talked in Spanish because that’s the language he is most fluent in. He was still wearing his work clothes and had his glasses on, like he always does. He laid back into the love seat with books of work notes and the Bible on his lap. It was calm, aside from the noise of my mother watching television in the kitchen and my brothers playing with the Jack-Russell Terrier puppy. He talked slow and clearly; he was in no rush.
Q: When were you born and where? How many brothers and sisters do you have?
A: “Five brothers, one sister. And Roberto, too, but he died when he was three.”
Q: How did you live your life? Was it easy or difficult? Do you think you had a good childhood?
A: “My childhood was good, but a lot of poverty. But it was good. Good even with the poverty but it was a good childhood. Sane, really.
Q: Tell me about a time from when you were young
A:. When I was young we still had the tough economic situation with my family. When I was young, when I was almost fourteen years old, I went to work at a farm, but it was a rice farm. It was to buy things that I needed and to also help my parents. That (working on the farm) happened about two or three different occasions. It was outside my city and I had to leave for two to three weeks. I remember that my thumb on my hand got infected and it was really swollen. That was from cleaning the rice in the water and removing the weeds. I still needed to work and it was very difficult to do so with my thumb swollen.
Q: What are some of your educational accomplishments? What do you do for work today?
A: At 22 years old, I started sixth grade. That was in the year 1980. And I finished high school in 1986. In that same year I started to study Psychology and I graduated (college) in 1992. In the year 1989, I majored in family counseling. 1983, I have finished an English course, and I started to teach English in 1986 in a private school (for middle school and high school). I was studying in the university while teaching English. And so in 1994, I started to earn my masters degree in marriage and family therapy. Later I was made supervisor of the school psychologists in a specific school district. In 1998 I was n charge of the psychology department in college. When I left my work there (Dominican Republic) in psychological counseling, and I moved here (to the United States), I came to work in the community and was in charge in the Individual and Family Counseling Program, and I’m still doing so.
Q: When did you and your wife get married? Was there a time when people have said things or have done negative things toward you because she is American?
A: December 19, 1992. A friend of mine didn’t say it to me but to a different person that the relationship wasn’t going to progress. But, it was only her. All my friends and family supported me in this relationship.
Q : When did you move to the United States? Why? Do you think it was necessary? Do you miss the Dominican Republic?
A: (we moved here in) 2002. (It was to) share the two cultures, so that you (his children) would get to know more cultures and more (members of the) family. Yes, sometimes I think no and other times I think yes (it was necessary).
Q: Is it very difficult to live in a country when you don’t know the language perfectly?
A: Very difficult, no. It’s enormously difficult. Why? Because you can’t do your profession like you can in your own country. You can’t express your feelings or knowledge as you do in your own language, in your country. Old friends. When I moved here, I felt that nobody knew me and that I had to start over again when I already had good relationships in my country with my family and friends for over many years.
Q: Did you know that you have three children and a wife that love and admire you very much?
A: (laughs) Let me think about that…yes, I feel very happy and proud about that. It’s something that I always give thanks to God for. For the family he has given me.
