ABSTRACT
I am from the Bronx, New York, and though I look like your “average” African-American female, I am in fact of Garifuna Honduran descent. I am a first generation student born to Honduran immigrants; as well as a first generation college student. My second language was English because all those around me knew nothing else but Spanish. Because of how quickly I learned the language, I was placed in bilingual classes in elementary school and mastered reading, writing, and speaking in Spanish as well as English—so I am very much bilingual. I have a younger sister whom I am very close to and practically helped my mother to raise. As a family, my mother, little sister and I went through some very difficult financial situations and because of it I had a lot of responsibility at home at a very early age. My sister became ill a few months after she was born; because of this my mother had to stop working and at one point we almost lost our home. When my sister became well again my mother was forced into a position in which she would not be home when I would get out of school due to work, but she confided in me and allowed me at the age of nine to begin picking my sister up from the babysitter’s and then from the day care center a few blocks from home. I looked after my sister, cooked, cleaned, did laundry and my homework. As I got older I was left money to buy groceries, or run to pay utility bills. I learned at a very early age what it is to be held accountable and still feel a huge responsibility to my home which makes living in Buffalo now a bit difficult.
