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Praise for DIQUE DOMINICAN
These times demand such acts of courage and skill.
—Ana Castillo, author of The Mixquiahuala Letters, So Far From God, and Massacre of the Dreamers: Essays on Xicanisma
Dique Dominican is a candid, often moving account of what it was like for a Dominican-American to grow up in East New York . . . His story takes us back to his childhood in a small farm town near Juncalito, about 160 kilometers north of Santo Domingo, records his life in his hood and his move to Ohio in order to continue with his studies. As the author illustrates his family dynamics, the reality of his community, and his attempt to negotiate his way between English and Spanish, sharing with us, at the same time, his personal trajectory, ambitions, and reflections, Ayendy Bonifacio always keeps his own lucidity in front of pain, discrimination, and violence. Never overstated, his account is like a whisper which, however, forcefully demands to be heard.
—Maria Cristina Fumagalli, author of Caribbean Perspectives on Modernity: Returning Medusa's Gaze and On the Edge: Writing the Border Between Haiti and the Dominican Republic
Language is home—and isn’t. It makes room for us, allowing us comfort. Or it proscribes us, sending us into the vertigo of exile. In Dique Dominican, [Bonifacio] gets lost and found as he navigates the interstices where words struggle for meaning. A courageous, Babel-like journey!
—Ilan Stavans, author of On Borrowed Words: A Memoir of Language and general editor of The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature
A striking account of his journey from the campo in the Dominican Republic to Brooklyn to Ohio, as well as an exploration of independence and transcendence. The vivid details in this memoir portray more than the disparate places traversed, they reveal Bonifacio’s own complex internal landscape. Intense, honest and bold."
—Erika M. Martínez, editor of Daring to Write: Contemporary Narratives by Dominican Women
About AYENDY BONIFACIO
Ayendy Bonifacio (he/him/his) received a Ph.D. in English from Ohio State University in May 2019 and is currently an associate professor of literature of the Americas at the University of Toledo, where he teaches and writes about the Black Atlantic, hemispheric literature, Latinx studies, and print culture. Bonifacio is the author of four books that encompass poetry, memoir, fiction, and literary scholarship. His writing has been published in The New York Times, Slate, The Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB), American Periodicals, ASAP/Journal, Prose Studies, The Black Scholar, American Literary Realism, and J19, among others.