Ayendy Bonifacio

Dique Dominican Ayendy Bonifacio

This book is published by Floricanto Press. www.floricantopress.com "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 AYENDY BONIFACIO is a Ph. D. candidate in English at the Ohio State University. He was born in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic and raised in East New York, Brooklyn. He currently lives in Columbus, Ohio. Dique Dominican is his first book.