Nosotras Dominicanas

Oelania Rubino & Stephanie Gaitán

series co-editors: Canela Pa’ el Café

Canela Pa’ el Café began as a celebration of Dominican art and culture, but evolved into a space where Dominicans from all walks of life could openly share their stories. 

As we worked through this series, editing the stories and reflecting on their contents, it became an opportunity to reflect on our own relationship to this vibrant and complex homeland.

For one of us, she remembered the blue larimar stone, found only one place in the world: deep in the caves of Barahona, in the Dominican Republic, where the Caribbean slaps the shore ferociously at a beach called San Rafael; where she was told that the devil roamed the streets at noon, to prevent children from playing in the streets at the sun’s peak. When she slices into green plantains by their spine and digs her thumb to peel, she still smiles when it comes out perfect. She took the Dominican Republic with her when she left. 

For the other, she did not grow up feeling “Dominican.” Moving to the Bronx kept her maternal family at a distance. Once she left the Heights, she didn't experience the frambuesa frio-frio from a push cart in the summer, or habichuelas con dulce with Guarina galletas sold by vendors on 181st in the winter as much. For her, this series became an investigation of her Dominican-ness, a plunge into nostalgia, and a burgeoning of her belonging in Dominican culture.

We relate to our heritage in distinct ways, shaped by our upbringings, our environments, our memories. But that’s the beauty of heritage, of culture and tradition—it is something collective, but also uniquely molded by our own experiences.

We invite Dominicans to keep being who they are, to keep cooking their arroz con leche and sancocho; to keep questioning their relationship to the supernatural; to share their stories of love and pain and all the multitudes that lie in between.

¡Somos Dominicanos y llegamos pa’ quedarnos!

Oelania Rubino & Stephanie Gaitán

Stephanie Gaitán is a poet and fiction writer. She believes in direct action through community efforts. Her past-times include uplifting indie artists and time-traveling to the 90s and early 2000s with her daughter, via childhood touchstones. Her work has most recently been featured in InQluded and Palabritas. She lives in the Bronx, New York. @myeyesarebooked

Oelania Rubio is a writer/artist who was born in Barahona, Dominican Republic and lives in Brooklyn. @lanisaidit