Diverse City
September 26, 2016
I’m from the DMV region which stands for DC, Maryland, Virginia. Staight Outta the DMV that’s what we call it around here. To me D.C. stands for Diverse City. I live in a primarily Arabic community. There’s so much diversity in this region. My family is black and Native American but I am familiar with the Muslim holidays of Ramadan and Eid just as well as all American holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas. In this diverse city of mine I have grown up to know people from Africa, Latin America, Asia, and places in between.
The capirucho pictured to the left and above is a personal artifact that reminds me of a childhood raised in diversity. I had one when I was younger. I used to take it to school with me to play with it in class, on the bus ride to and from school, and even after I got dropped off at home. So once I lost it, I was mad because I couldn’t find one anywhere. To be honest I think my mom took it, because she would always get on me about playing with it too much and how it was distracting me in school. You see some kids were gamers with digital systems but I kept it old school.
Recently one of my friends went to El Salvador & she brought a Capirucho back from there and it brought so many childhood memories back to me. When I saw it, I was as happy as I was when I was younger. It was as if I was waking up Saturday morning to get a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch, a blanket, & pillow to lay in the middle of the floor to watch samurai jack, my gym partner is monkey, courage the cowardly dog, codename kids next door, johnny bravo etc. I love this capirucho not because it’s from El Salvador nor because I’m hispanic. I love it because of the memories and friendships that it symbolizes.
I know so much about the Hispanic culture of my best friend Julio. He is like my brother since I first met him at 8 years old. Julio is from El Salvador and his family has accepted me as one of their own. I call his siblings my brothers & sisters, his mom mommy, and his siblings do the same and his mom calls me Hijo (Which means son in Spanish). In a place of diversity it is important to teach and to learn the lessons of family. Family begins with childhood and so does making peace in the middle of human differences.
For more on our growing diversity and immigration today: http://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/migration-information-source
jbown • Feb 16, 2017 at 9:00 am
same here i’m from the dmv as well and it is alot of diversity out here because i have a friend name chris estrada hes from the phillipines and me and him were friends since the 7th grade and like every time he was visit his family at the phillipines he would bring back this food called balut. its a cooked fertilized duck egg. he would bring it to lunch all the time and we would share it. the last time i ate a balut was when i was herndon high but then i got kicked out. so i miss eating those baluts with my friend chris. then one day he text me asking do i wanna hang out and i was like yea. so i went to his house and his family was having this huge feast and they asked me do i wanna stay and eat with them so i did. they had so much food but my favorite was the balut and it brought so so much memories.
Rocco420 • Feb 1, 2017 at 11:58 am
Great job with this article Nate,I like how you talk about diversity in the DMV and how it connects to your personal life, friends, and family.Great Job!
Rocco420 • Jan 31, 2017 at 12:58 pm
Good job kid, I loved, amazing, 5 stars, would read again.
Jones__music • Jan 26, 2017 at 1:07 pm
I’ve lived in the DMV for my whole life and i would have to agree with you in the fact that it is a very diverse collection of sates. But on the other had i have to disagree with you in the fact that i hate it here. There is so much drama constantly going on, theirs never that much to do, and on top of that we are the center of everything. The main target that all terrorists want to get their hands on is literally right in our backyard making us a target for everyone and anyone who hates the united states. Me, Myself will be getting out of here as fast as i can, and i don’t plan on looking back afterwards either.
Adds21 • Dec 12, 2016 at 10:40 am
having a diverse community is very interesting as we can share different cultural things. many people can try different variety of type and games. while being friends also learn interesting facts of each other countries. this makes people come close together in good ways and also bad. for me is great to have friends from other countries knowing how their life is.