Clarissa Blanco, Blog #2 "Where are you from?"

One of the most interesting aspects of Anna Deavere Smith's Twilight, to me, was that she TOTALLY mastered those accents! I know how hard it is to try to mimic the accent of another person from a country of which you are not. I mean, Ms. Park's (the asian woman whose husband got shot's) impersonation was just amazing. I'm  not very good at accents...to be quite honest, it's very hard for me to place myself in the position of another individual, then you're gonna ask me to mimic their accent? FORGET IT! But, Ms. Smith, she does a very good job at intricately mastering the accents of the different people she interviewed. Would it have been the same had she not done so? Had she ignored the fact that there was diversity in LA? Had she decided "this is too difficult for me; I'm not Asian, I'm not Spanish, I'm not Italian"? No. The fact that Ms. Smith paid attention to the details involved in the accents made this film a lot easier to empathize with.

Accents not only let people know what part of the world you are from, but possibly how far your roots go or  even your ties to your own country. Much like your name, if you have an accent it is inescapable unless you're in another country for so long that it seems to fade away. But have you realized that the longer you stay home the more permanent your accent is? Like Kunta Kente, from Roots, for example. He was pulled out of his "home" and forced into another, and another lifestyle. His name was what helped him remain "home", but once it changes he begins to lose a sense of identity. Does a person who loses their accent lose their identity too? I'd have to say yes.... My family is from Dominican Republic. I was born in America, and so was my mother, but my aunts and uncles- grandparents too- were all born in Santo Domingo. When they came to this country, they moved to a part in Manhattan called "Washington Heights". Wash. Heights, my friend, was little DR! Why do you think my family moved from DR to little DR? Because, they didn't want to lose their sense of being dominican. It's already hard to leave your home, but leaving it for somewhere foreign that barely speaks your language? Scaaarrryyyyyyy. Therefore, both my grandparents never really learned English. I can say that most of the bilinguals in my high school never really learned English. Why? Because they're afraid to leave what they know for what they dont; the "known" for the "unknown"; the old them for the possibilities of the new them. 

So, when you ask where I'm from, I'll tell you "from New York". But I come from a family that, from Santo Domingo, migrated to Washington Heights, and never really left home....Sometimes we must question ourselves. Are we ready to step out of our comfort zone? To practice our accents just enough so that we can relate to the Asian or Spanish community? Can we be the Anna Deavere Smith's of our generation?