Learn. Speak. Belong.

I was halfway through a foam-splattered conga line in Santiago de los Caballeros when the memory of Valencia’s “La Cremà” suddenly flashed across my mind. One moment I was dodging spark-spitting “diablos cojuelos” on the Dominican parade route; the next, I could almost smell the gunpowder and fresh paella from that March night in Spain […]

The first time I asked for a vegetarian option in Santo Domingo I nearly caused a kitchen revolt. It was a sweltering Saturday at a sea-view fritura, and I blurted out, “¿Tiene algo sin carne, por favor?” The cook’s eyebrows shot sky-high. My Dominican buddy Luis swooped in with a grin, explaining I was a […]

I was standing in the breezy courtyard of a restored colonial house in Santiago de los Caballeros when the sommelier offered me a glass of tempranillo. The color danced ruby-red in the Caribbean sun, but what grabbed everyone’s attention was my attempt to describe its aroma—in Spanish. I reached for especiado (spicy) but blurted out […]

The Morning It All Started Late I should have known the day would unravel the moment my alarm surrendered to the Caribbean heat. The fan sputtered its last gust, the power flickered, and my cell-phone battery — that faithful digital rooster — gave up at 3 a.m. By the time I bolted upright, sunlight was […]

Mango’s sock crisis and my crash course in veterinary Spanish I found Mango on a rainy afternoon, shivering under a motoconcho outside Santiago’s Mercado Modelo. He was more rib than dog, yet his tail thumped like a maraca when I offered a piece of empanada. One rabies shot and several baths later, he became my […]

I was two years into my life in Santo Domingo before I had my first proper scare. My friend Carlos had sworn that the bollitos de yuca from a tiny picapollo in Villa Mella were “libres de todo.” One bite later my lips tingled—the cook had stirred a spoonful of peanut butter into the frying […]

I was sipping an icy Presidente one blistering Tuesday in El Seibo when the waiter slid a handwritten menu across my table. Four stark words stared back: Mondongo, Chenchén, Buche y Pata, Chimichurri Dominicano. My Spanish was already solid—four years in the Dominican Republic had seen to that—yet I felt as if the board had […]

An unexpected match on a humid Tuesday I was two months into life in the Dominican Republic when the dating app pinged. Her profile said she loved bachata, rooftop sunsets, and was “fanática de los trabalenguas”—a tongue-twister enthusiast. I swiped right mostly because I wanted someone to help me pronounce “tres tristes tigres” without spraining […]

The night a toast stitched me into a new family My first Dominican wedding unfolded in a breezy gazebo outside Puerto Plata. White chairs stood in rows, their ribbons trembling under Caribbean trade winds. I knew exactly two ceremonial Spanish lines—“¡Salud!” and “¡Viva los novios!”—and clutched them like a boarding pass. The bride, Paola, was […]

The first time I tried to sprinkle an idiom into Spanish conversation, I misfired so badly that my motoconcho driver almost crashed. We were weaving through Santiago traffic when I attempted to say, in the spirit of “it’s a piece of cake,” that finishing my residency paperwork had been easy. What came out—courtesy of a […]

Where my Spanish truly turned pro I had lived in the Dominican Republic for six months before I realized my Spanish still belonged to textbooks. Ordering coffee? Fine. Arguing with utility companies? Functional. But the first time I rode a packed guagua buzzing about the evening’s Águilas vs. Licey showdown, I understood barely twenty percent […]