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La Reina Garífuna interview continued
Ada: Every year, it’s like a Mass, a Mass in Garífuna, and we just celebrate…
INTERVIEW STARTED OVER
General conversation; SFS states that she will ask the first few questions and then students must take over. Discussion of locking door and putting “Do Not Disturb” sign on outside. Students ask if the fourth of July is an official holiday for students (Maricel). Melvin Claverie gets everyone organized.
Interview started over:
Ada: Hi. My name is Ada Castro and I attended Warren Easton High School. And I graduated this year, and I’ll be going to Nichols State to major in nursing, to be a neonatal nurse practitioner.
SFS: Ada, were you born here?
Ada: Yes, I was born here, but my parents were born in Honduras.
SFS: And tell us about your current title that you hold.
Ada: Well, I was the reina for the Missa Garífuna, which is a Mass, a Mass, just to celebrate, you know…(giggles) just to celebrate our culture and it’s just---I don’t know—I really don’t know the meaning behind it. But they picked me to be the queen, the Garífuna queen, and I had to read a passage, about the food that we eat, and to introduce the first queen, because it started last year. We’ ve been having the Missa Garífuna, we’ve just started electing queens last year. And it’s always in November.
SFS: Tell us about the passage you had to read. What kind of passage?
Ada: It was a passage. I had to say welcome to everybody. And I had to say who was the queen last year, and that I was the new queen. And I had to give information about the food that we eat, and it. I had to give how the use the food, how they use the products to make the food. It was just the basic food.
SFS: Can you remember any of the passage? Can you recite some?
Ada: Yes. (N.B. I will ask María Arzú to help me write this down. SFS)
SFS: Go ahead, please. Whatever you can say.
Ada: (recites passage)
SFS: Thank you. Do you speak Garífuna?
Ada: No, I do not, but my cousin, she been teaching me, ‘cause she speaks Garífuna, and I want to learn, so she’s been teaching me. They taught me to say that passage, and it didn’t take much for me to learn, so I know that if I learn, that it will be easy for me to learn, because I catch on quick.
SFS: Do you speak Spanish or English at your home?
Ada: Mainly English. I only speak Spanish if I need to, or sometimes to my sister, and sometimes to my mama.
SFS: Ada, have you been to Honduras?
Ada: Yes, ma’am. I’m going to Honduras on July 11, and this will be my fourth time going to Honduras.
SFS: What are you going to do?
Ada: We have a family reunion, and because, you know, to introduce our family, ‘cause it’s been a long time, and they have so much family—I have so much family out there that I don’t know all of them, so this is a good chance to introduce us to our family.
SFS: Have you been to a dugú?
Ada: No, ma’am, but I’ve heard about it.
SFS: Tell me about some of the relatives that you expect to visit.
Ada: I expect to visit my cousins, my uncles, my aunts, uuummm,
SFS: And where will you be going?
Ada: First we’ll travel to Limón, and then we’ll make, uh, go to Céiba, and after Céiba, we’re going to Triunfo. This is a one-week family… well, it’s a family reunion, but we’re going traveling for a week, and after that, I’ll be staying in Triunfo de la Cruz.
SFS: What will you be doing while you’re there?
Ada: Have fun. (Giggles) Have fun, visit my family, go swimming at the beach, um, dancing, number one…
SFS: Ada, what are some of the activities in the Garífuna community here? Tell us about the Garífuna community in New Orleans.
Ada: In New Orleans, basically, the activities that they do is…the only activity that they do is the Missa Garífuna. That’s the only thing that they do that really stand out. That’s the Missa Garífuna. And the have like some, uh, parties, and that’s mainly it. It’s not as active as, say, if you go to New York, they’re always doing something. It’s not as active over here in New Orleans.
SFS: What do you think that it would take to get everybody to start being more active?
Ada: More push, push, to push people, so…cause I don’t like to see that our community not active. I want it to be more, more than what I’m seeing right now. It’s like we not, we not…known.
SFS: What would you like to see happen to make the Garífuna community here more known?
Ada: Get people interested in doing services, doing something—activities, you know, to make us known. (Giggles)
SFS: Students—questions?
Akira: How do you like living in New Orleans?
Ada: I like it. Basically I grew up here, and it’s all right, but it’s not all that!
Gavin (?) This question is inaudible.
Ada: I never lived in Honduras; I only went to visit. And I like it. I feel at home there. Even though I wasn’t born there, I still feel at home. Like that’s where I belong. It’s fun.
Gavin: What are some of the biggest things you saw when you went to Honduras, and now you live in New Orleans?
Ada: The biggest difference in Honduras is more freedom. Like when you’re in Honduras, your parents---it’s safe. Say, if you want to go dancing, you can go by yourself. You can go walking anywhere by yourself, and you don’t need a car. Here, you need a car to get anywhere you want to go.
Akira: Do you think maybe you’ll move to Honduras to stay when you get older?
Ada: When I get older, maybe, but not now. No. (Giggles)
SFS: Do when you become a nurse practitioner, do you want to work here?
Ada: Yes, ma’am.
SFS: You’d rather work here than in Honduras?
Ada: Maybe, because I hear a lot that the benefits are more over here than in Honduras. That’s why a lot of people come over here, migrate over here, because they want to give their children more than what they’re giving in Honduras.
SFS: So what are some of the advantages for the Garífuna to come here?
Ada: Advantages? Schooling. I mean, in Honduras, the school is good. It teaches you to respect. When the teacher come in, everybody has to stand up at one time and greet the teacher, but it’s not the same, because, uh, over here…the education is better. Like they have more advantages for going to school. In Honduras, some of the grades stop to the sixth grade, like in pueblos, like in little, uh, villages, it stops in sixth grade, and the children, they not going to do anything, they going to get lazy, and they not going to pursue their career, that’s the bad thing.
SFS: What are some of the biggest problems that you think a Garífuna, uh, a Garinagu would encounter in coming here?
Ada: The biggest problem, the money.
SFS: Talk about that.
Ada: Um, first, it’s a lot of money to come over here. And first, they have to find some way to get money to come over here. Or to live, it’s scary to say that you might run into someplace different. And you don’t know anything, and you don’t know anybody. And you can’t speak the language—it’s hard, and it’s scary, because you don’t know what’s going to happen.
SFS: And then once you get here, even if you manage to get here, are there difficulties?
Ada: Yes, the difficulty in finding a job, the difficulty in making friends, and… (pause) But after a while, after while, it’s different. Everything changes. You’ve met new people, you learned about different countries, from that country where you migrated from…
SFS: Do you feel that Garífuna, that a Garinagu coming here faces any particular discrimination?
Ada: I haven’t seen a case like that, noooo…The only thing is, like the schools, sometimes the kids laugh, because you don’t know how to speak English, or they make fun of you, or they take advantage of you…you’re stuck because, say, you only know how to speak Spanish. You go to a school where everybody’s speaking English, and you don’t know what they’re saying, you as a nice person, if they ask you to use your stuff, you say, “Yeah” but they take advantage of you because they really don’t know what you—you really don’t know what they’re saying.
SFS: Have you yourself encountered any really bad situations like that?
Ada: No. When I was small—when I was small, my first neighbor was Spanish, but then when I went to school people was making fun of me, so I didn’t want to speak it any more. But when I went to Honduras, that’s where they encouraged me more, because I was back, because somebody was there to speak Spanish with me without making fun of me. And that’s why I stopped speaking Spanish when I was small.
SFS: Who made fun of you?
Ada: People in school.
Gavin: How were the teachers?
Ada: They didn’t make fun of me. Yeah, they were supportive.
Gavin: Who was your favorite teacher?
Ada: You mean in elementary or in high school?
Ada: In high school, my favorite teacher, my favorite teacher (giggles) her name was Ms. François, and she taught me world history.
SFS: Why did you like her so much?
Ada: Because, she was there for me when I needed her. She likes our religion, she loves it, and she was a nice person.
SFS: Um, hum.
Ada: Oh, and another activity that we do, for Black History Month at Warren Easton, we would dance punta. We would dance punta for Black History.
SFS: Was that well received by the students?
Ada: Yes.
SFS: They thought that was interesting?
Ada: Yes. They thought that—the first time they saw it, they thought it was interesting.
SFS: So there are other Garífuna students at Warren Easton?
SFS: Mainly family. Like me, my cousins, that’s it. And one just came before I graduated, and he was from Corusál (sp?).
Gavin: So you have a big family.
Ada: yeah.
Gavin: Who’s your most memorable family member?
Ada: What do you mean by that?
Gavin: What family member is your favorite? Who are you closest to?
Ada: I’m closest, in my family, like my cousin, my cousin on my daddy’s side. She’s my first cousin. And all of us, we there for each other, and it’s like—that’s our friends, our best friends. Our cousins.
Gavin: Do you have siblings?
Ada: Yeah. I have four sisters and two brothers.
SFS: Are you the youngest, the oldest…
Ada: I’m the second to the oldest. My sister Teresa, she’s the oldest, out of all of us. And then me.
ESR: Are there certain tasks that you have to do, that the sisters have to do, and others that the brothers have to do around the house?
Ada: No, not really, because you know, normally, it’s the girls (who) cook, the boys clean the bathroom or take out the trash can, but in my house, he cooks, and I clean the bathroom, (Giggles) and I clean up the bathroom.
SFS: Let’s back up a minute. You told us that your favorite teacher, Ms. François, loved your religion. Would you talk about that?
Ada: She liked, she’s a person that liked to eat our food, the kind of food we have, and she always asked me what activities we do, but the activities that we do, she couldn’t make it, so she never went to our activities, but she loved the fact that we danced for Black History, she loved it.
Akira/Maricel (almost inaudible): Are you Catholic?
Ada: Yeah, I’m Catholic.
SFS: Are there certain elements of Garífuna belief that the Garífuna community integrates with the Catholic faith?
Ada: (Pauses). I don’t know, because I always thought that most of us was Catholic, but when I met my cousin, they’re Baptist, and at first, I don’t know…
Akira: Has either your mother or your father participated in dugú? Like you said, you’ve heard about them…
Ada: Yeah, my mother, when she was small, she participated in it. When she was smaller. So…
SFS: Does she talk about it?
Ada: Yeeeaaah—and I heard about it. Like my cousin, she attended a dugú, and she said that it’s like—people, they on the walls some kind of way, they get on the wall, like it’s scary, Like, they don’t know what they do, and when a spirit get in them, they start shaking. Now, when I went to Honduras, two years ago, I went to Trujillo. And when we was coming back from the beach, they had a man, shaking, on the spin. And I was scared, but they had a boy with us, he lived there. And he told me why he was shaking—cause he had a spirit up in him. And then that night, when we went dancing, and he was dancing, and he was dancing.
SFS: And when someone says that they have gotten the spirit in them, is the spirit wanting to tell everybody something?
Ada: He didn’t want to tell me something. His eyes was just rolling back and he was shaking. They say—people say that dugú is, say, if you have a sickness, and they use it to cure your sickness.
Gavin: How long does it normally last?
Ada: Sometimes a week, like my mama said it lasted a week. Sometimes a week, and they stay in there, closed up, and they have people climbing the walls and the ceiling (giggles). That is scary!
SFS: During that time, are there certain dances that take place?
Ada: Yeah, they have dances, basically with the tambores…
Maricel: Who is it who does most of the dancing, the woman or the man?
Ada: The woman.
Maricel: Do you know some of the traditional dances?
Ada: I know this dance called hunguhungu.
Maricel: How do you dance it?
Ada: Like, I can’t say, I … (giggles)
Maricel: Do you want to show us?
Ada: No, (giggles)
Maricel: OK.
ESR: Is it going to be really important to you to marry a Garífuna?
Ada: No. It’s not important. It depends on your feelings and how you feel about somebody.
ESR: Have you dated Garífuna guys?
Ada: No.
ESR: So that’s not really important for you.
Ada: No.
Maricel: When you get older, is it important for you to teach your children about your culture?
Ada: Yes.
Maricel: Are you going to teach your children everything—about the history, the dugú, all that stuff?
Ada: Yes. The history—tell them—I want that when I grow up, I’ll teach my children what I didn’t learn, like Garífuna. I didn’t learn Garífuna, and I think it’s interesting, and it’s something that we should carry on, instead of just leaving it. Because some people, when they migrate over here, they don’t like to continue to speak their language.
SFS: Why do you think they don’t?
Ada: Because people—I think they don’t because they want to fit in.
Akira: Have you ever had instances where, maybe, …(tape stops) people asked you to speak Spanish, or speak about punta, and you didn’t do it because you thought that people would make fun of you?
Ada: I don’t care. It doesn’t bother me to speak my language in front of people.
SFS: What do you plan to do to get the Garífuna community here moving? You said they needed to be pushed…What are you going to do?
Ada: Well, I can’t do nothing right now, I mean, they’re not going to listen to me because I’m young (giggles). We’ve been doing activities—the main activity is the Missa Garífuna. But they’ve been having small activities like soccer games in Michoud. Sometimes we just get together at the soccer field, where they play soccer, and they start playing the tambores, to dance punta, or this other dance called guanárugua.
Gavin: And so your whole family goes out to these things?
Ada: Yeah.
Gavin: Your mom and dad go, too?
Ada: Yeah, if they’re not working.
Gavin: They work a lot.
Ada: Yeah.
Gavin: What do they do for a living?
Ada: My mom, she’s a CNA, and my dad, he works on a ship, as a pump man--he’s an engineer. And my stepdaddy, he works—I don’t know what he does. (Giggles)
Gavin: So, are you closer to your mom or to your dad? Or do you think you’re more like your mom or your dad?
Ada: I’m more like my mom than my daddy.
BRB: Why? Do you spend more time with her?
Ada: Yeah. Because my daddy’s always working, so mainly, my time is with my mom. And I live with my mom. My daddy, he lives in Florida…
ESR: Do you notice any differences between Garífuna kids your age and American kids your age? Are there any big differences?
Ada: No…(pauses) Maybe a difference is, that some Garífunas, they get married early. It isn’t likely that you see an American get married at the age of 19, 17—that’s the only difference.
ESR: Who’s the woman whom you most admire, most respect? Just in general…
Ada: Who I most admire…like a celebrity?
ESR: It could be anyone. It could be a family member, or anybody.
Ada: Who I most admire?
SFS: Or a celebrity…It could be anybody.
ESR: Someone that you look up to, somebody you maybe aspire to be like, somebody you admire.
Ada: I admire my mother.
ESR: Why do you admire her?
Ada: Because I see the hard work that she does, and she keeps her faith, whatever situation she’s in, if she’s in a situation with depth, she always finds a way to push herself up when she’s feeling down, and she don’t let anything get to her.
ESR: Is there a particular guy or man whom you admire the most?
Ada: My father as well.
ESR: Why?
Ada: Because—he’s another person that push, and he’s always there for us whenever we need, and he’s done a lot for us.
ESR: Do you feel like in your upbringing, that you’ve been encouraged to do about the same things that your brothers have been encouraged to do, or are there differences, just because you’re a girl?
Ada: Definitely no difference.
ESR: So there are not, for example, any careers or anything that is off-limits to you because you’re a girl, or any jobs or things that you can’t do because you’re a girl.
Ada: No. Whatever we decide, they’re behind us. (Giggles)
ESR: Dr. Román-Beato?
BRB: Do you agree with what she said?
Lexy: Yeah. I agree.
BRB: What?
Lexy: I agree.
BRB: Do you see a difference between the Garífuna here and in Honduras?
Lexy: In here, the Garífunas, they lazy. But in Honduras, not really.
SFS: Could you explain that, but first, could you tell us your name, please?
Lexy: My name is Lexy.
BRB: Where were you born?
Lexy: Honduras.
BRB: How long are you here?
Lexy: Seven years.
BRB: When you came here, how old were you?
Lexy: I was 10.
BRB: Do you speak Garífuna?
Lexy: Yeah.
SFS: Do you speak Garífuna at home, Lexy?
Lexy: Yes.
SFS: Good.
SFS: With your parents?
Lexy: Yes.
SFS: Good.
ESR: Do you speak Spanish a lot?
Lexy: Not, not much.
BRB: But you understand Spanish very well?
Lexy: Yeah, I understand.
SFS: Could you elaborate—could you tell us the differences between the Garífuna--between a typical Garinagu here and a typical Garinagu in Honduras?
Lexy: In Honduras, the Garífunas, they’re hard working. But once they come here, they become lazy, they don’t do nothing…
BRB: When you say lazy, you mean what? That they want to stay in bed…?
Lexy: Yeeaaah.
BRB: Physically, spiritually, or both?
Lexy: Both.
Ada: Can I…
BRB: (Inaudible) Spiritually, why?
SFS: Ada, you wanted to say something?
Ada: Yeah. It’s …basically, what she’s saying, if you go to Honduras, and if you go to Triunfo, early in the morning, you see a Garífuna working, washing clothes, doing whatever, but here, it’s like they’re accustomed of staying home, don’t want to do anything. They don’t want to work. But if you are in Honduras, you see---everybody’s working, but not here.
BRB: This just happens to women, or to both?
Ada: Women, and both! Both.
ESR: Why do you think that is?
Ada: Maybe, because in Honduras, they have to fight more to earn money than over here, and they think over here is easy, that’s why. And that’s why I think…
ESR: And that makes you mad?
Ada: Yeah. Because when I went to Honduras, it was fascinating, the way the people wake up early in the morning to go to work. Or early in the morning to cook, sometimes at six o’clock in the morning to make sure that their family have food on the table.
Gavin: Are all the people in Honduras Garífuna or are there other ethnic groups?
Ada: There’s other ethnic groups, too.
Gavin: Can you tell us who those are?
Ada: Um, I was working one day, and they had this man—he was from Central America, he was from Belize, and I asked him if he knew how to speak Spanish, and he said no, that he was Indian. And that was rare for me, because I never heard of it, but he was from Central America, and he was from Belize.
SFS: Could you explain what parts of Honduras tend to be the areas where most Garífunas live?
Ada: Um, Coruzál, Trujillo, Limón, Triunfo de la Cruz, and … Belize. And Céiba, too.
SFS: So, the coastal area, pretty much?
Ada: Yes.
SFS: Lexy, what are some of your general impressions of the Garífuna community here?
Lexy: (Long, long, long pause)
EBR: Do you go to a lot of the soccer games, and Missas, and do you like to dance punta, and…
Lexy: Somewhat…
BRB: What do you like with your family there in Honduras, Garífuna families?
Lexy: What do I like about it?
BRB: When you are there, what do you like? The culture, spiritual, physical, what? What do you like over there that you haven’t found here?
Gavin: Ada says that she feels she has more freedom. What do YOU feel when you’re there?
Lexy: It’s not really a difference, because I actually don’t really go out. I’m at home most of the time…(long pause)
ERS: Talking about staying at home, do you feel that a lot of women in Honduras stay at home, they’re mostly housewives, and then here, that there’s a big difference, that Garífuna women are out working, going to college, and out of the house—do you see that difference? How do you feel about that difference? Do you feel more comfortable here or in Honduras?
Ada: Well, I don’t know because I never lived in Honduras, so I really don’t know--but I feel why should they have to leave, because most of the Garífunas that I hear, they want to go back, they want to go back because they like the way that they live in Honduras, but the reason—what’s bringing them here is the benefits, the money…and I feel why should they have to immigrate here, just—just to better themselves? Why can’t they stay at their home, feel at home?
ESR: For example, do you feel that you would be able to be a neonatal nurse practitioner in Honduras?
Ada: Nooooo…
ESR: Why, for example, do you want to be a neonatal nurse practitioner?
Ada: Because—I’m a person that likes working with children. And it’s hard, dealing with premature babies is hard. But I want to be, I want to look at it as a positive instead of negative, and I want to help them, instead of—you know—sitting back and seeing them suffer.
ESR: So is that one thing that you like about the United States, that there will be more opportunities here.
Second transcription begins here
Ada: Yes.
ESR: When you go back to Honduras, do any of the women complain about having to be at home, working all the time, or do they want—is that one of the main reasons they want to come here, to be more independent?
Ada: Yes.
ESR: Do you think that maybe in Honduras, that things could change for women?
Ada: It depends, because some people in Honduras, they have opportunities to go to school somewhere else, but they just don’t do it, they feel they’d rather work than go to school, to support their brothers and sisters, to support their mothers.
ESR: But you do want to go back to Honduras, when you retire…
Ada: Yes.
ESR: So you really feel more at home there.
SFS: Any more questions? …And what do you think is the attitude in Honduras of the people who are NOT Garífuna? What is their attitudes towards Garífunas?—Lexy, you’ve probably got more experience with that than Ada.
Lexy: (Pause) Like, like when I go to Honduras, (pause)…(giggles)…
BRB: You want nobody to see you differently than others?
Lexy: Yeah. Like the people in Honduras, when I go to Honduras, they—some of them—they get mad because …(long pause)
Maricel: Because they wish they was here?
Lexy: Yeah.
Gavin: Is that why you stay at home most of the time?
Lexy: No, because I really don’t know people in Honduras…
ESR: Are there things about the United States culture that you think, that you don’t like particularly, and you think that you would be better off living in Honduras?
Lexy: (Long pause, giggles)
ESR: For example, you don’t, you don’t think that in the United States we’re all about THINGS, the things we can get?
Ada: Material things? Yes.
ESR: Is it that way in Honduras?
Ada: No, because they really don’t have the money to worry about what they…all they’re worrying about is to have shelter over their head and food on the table.
ESR: Is that something that you like when you are there?
Ada: Yeah, but now I’m starting to see that in Honduras, everybody want to be, now—I don’t know how to explain it—they want to be like we are over here, they want to wear the stuff that we wear over here. Now it’s more—they more up to date, and that’s how they want to be.
ESR: They want to, for example, wear American clothes…
Ada: Yeah, they more americanisados.
ESR: Why do you think that is? Why do you think they want to do that?
Ada: Because they see that when you go to the United States, you wear better clothes, and you have better shoes on your feet, and I think that’s why.
ESR: Do they like to listen to American music?
Ada: Yes they do. That’s all they play over there now.
ESR: Why do you think they like to do that?
Ada: Maybe, maybe because they like the music, and now, when you go…when I went over there in 2000, I saw a big difference. (To Lexy) Was it 2000?
Lexy: Yeah.
Ada: 2000. I saw a big difference, as when I went over there in ’98.
ESR: How does that make you feel when you see all of that in Honduras, that’s supposed to be a different country, a different culture, and to see a lot of the same things we see in the United States? How does that make you feel?
Ada: (Pause) As long as they happy, no, it doesn’t bother me, because I feel that they probably bettering themselves, that’s why they have the clothes that we have here.
ESR: But do you think that all that American influence makes Garífuna culture become less important, harder to maintain?
Ada: Yeah. Because if they’re worrying about the language, if they going to stop speaking the language and stop doing what they used to do, the traditions…
ESR: Joel, you were born in the United States?
Joel: Yes, ma’am.
ESR: Do you speak Garífuna?
Joel: No, ma’am.
ESR: And how are you related to Ada and Lexy?
Joel: Uh, she’s my cousin and Ada’s my sister.
ESR: And do you participate in a lot of Garífuna activities?
Joel: Yes.
ESR: And what do you participate in?
Joel: The dancing,
ESR: The punta?
Joel: Yes.
ESR: Do you have relatives who have participated in or seen the dugú?
Joel: Um, yes.
ESR: What do they say about it?
Joel: They don’t tell me anything about it.
ESR: They don’t tell you anything about it?
Joel: No.
ESR: And are you Catholic as well?
Joel: Yes I am.
ESR: And when you’re at school, do people know that you’re Garífuna at school?
Joel: Some do—others not.
ESR: What’s their reaction when they find out that you’re Garífuna?
Joel: Some of ‘em, they treat me—they treat me like I’m American.
ESR: Uh-huh.
Joel: Others, like, they try to find some kinda way for me to get mad.
ESR: They tease you about your culture?
Joel: Yes, ma’am.
ESR: Do you play soccer?
Joel: No.
ESR: So, what are--what does it—do you feel like you’re more Garífuna, or more African-American?
Joel: Well, I’m in-between.
ESR: In what ways? In what ways are you Garífuna, and in what ways are you African-American?
Joel: I feel African-American because I speak more English than Spanish. And, for the life style, like…I do more things in the American way than in the Spanish way. And in the Garífuna way, I’m more like Garífuna than American. And the things that we do, Garífuna, we don’t do them in English. That’s like a big difference.
ESR: Let’s say you cook Garífuna food?
Joel: I haven’t tried it, no.
ESR: But you cook? You like to cook a lot?
Joel: Yeah.
ESR: Yeah. So is it usually you who cooks instead of your sisters? How many sisters and brothers do you have?
Joel: I only have two sisters.
ESR: So it’s two sisters and you, and you do most of the cooking?
Joel: Well, no, I don’t do most of it…
ESR: But you did do it?
Joel: Yeah.
ESR: Are there different jobs that you and your sisters do around the house?
Joel: No, there isn’t.
ESR: You do the same things, the same jobs?
Joel: Yeah.
ESR: What kinds of things do your sisters want to do later on in their lives as careers? I know that you want to be a vet. What do they want to be?
Joel: She says she wants to be a neonatalogist, but …
ESR: Right.
Joel: And my other sister, um, she wants to be a physical therapist, I believe, assistant.
ESR: And why do you want to be a vet?
Joel: Because I love working with animals.
ESR: Do you have a lot of animals?
Joel: No.
ESR: But you like animals.
Joel: (Laughs).
ESR: Anybody else have any questions for Joel?
Maricel: How do you feel when people be teasing you about being Garífuna?
Joel: At first, I just don’t worry about it, but then, it goes on, during the school year, they keep on, they continue, then it starts to bother me a little bit.
Maricel: So do you feel that you have to hide sometimes that you’re Garífuna, or are you just proud?
Joel: I’m just proud.
Maricel: Is it important for you to have, like, a Garífuna best friend, or does it matter? He could be American.
Joel: It doesn’t matter to me.
Maricel: Do you want to marry a Garífuna woman?
Joel: That doesn’t matter either.
Gavin: Were your and Ada’s mother and father born in the United States?
Joel: I believe that my father was born here.
Ada: My father was born in Honduras.
Joel: I really don’t know.
Ada: His father was born here, and my mother AND my father were born in Honduras.
ESR: Who are the man and woman that you admire most?
Joel: Um, my mother and my grandfather. He died, so …
ESR: What kind of man was he, your grandfather?
Joel: He was a caring man. He loved to go to church. And, um (long pause) he looked like a person you could talk to…
ESR: How about your mother? Why do you admire your mother?
Joel: I admire my mother because she’s always there for me, for me and my sisters. She’s like, when we’re having bad days, she’s the person who we could talk to, and she’ll understand, and sometimes, she’ll give us advice.
ESR: And you speak mostly English with her?
ESR: So do you want to go back to Honduras at some point?
Joel: I’ve never been, so …
ESR: You’ve never been to Honduras. Would you like to go there?
Joel: Yeah.
ESR: Why would you like to go there?
Joel: I would like to experience where my family comes from, the style that they do over there, and the style that’s over here.
ESR: And make a comparison?
Joel: Yeah.
ESR: Who has been your favorite teacher, at St. Aug?
Joel: Uh, my favorite teacher has to be my English teacher, Ms. Gideon.
ESR: Uh, huh, and why?
Joel: Because, she’s just…BEAUTIFUL.
(General laughter.)
ESR: And she’s a nice person, too?
Joel: Yes, ma’am.
(More laughter—long pause).
Akira: Have you ever experienced any racism, either at school, or in New Orleans as a whole? It might not even be necessarily because you’re Garífuna, but because you look like an African-American.
Joel: No.
ESR: Is that something that you and your family as Garífunas, is that something that is a topic that comes up sometimes, about discrimination, or racism, or “I want to go back to Honduras because I don’t want to be in this country anymore, because of…” being different?
Ada: I came across some people who ask questions that doesn’t have…(pause) (asks Lexy for word)…that doesn’t make sense. Um, they ask questions like, “What y’all eat over there, DOGS?” or they ask—I always come across people that ask me that. Or “What kind of houses y’all live in, them houses that’s on TV?” Because every time I go over there, my friends ask, “How does it look up there? Does it look like they explain it, like they have it on TV, pictured on TV? “ And I don’t like when they ask them questions, because it doesn’t make sense. The same thing we eat—the only thing that’s different is the language and the menus, that’s the only thing that’s different. We have the same clothes and the same roof over our heads, everything—everything that’s over here, we have over there too. And I hate when they ask me, “What y’all eat over there, DOGS, cats, what y’all eat?” And I don’t like that.
SFS: You shouldn’t .
ESR: No.
SFS: When you are in Honduras, and when you are in your family, are most people speaking Garífuna, or are most people speaking Spanish?
Ada: Well, when I go over there, I stay in Céiba, and Céiba is like—the people you visit, they speak Garífuna, but they mostly speak Spanish, but when I go visit Triunfo, they mostly speak Garífuna.
SFS: So what do you do since—do you understand when they speak Garífuna?
Ada: No, I only understand like some basics, like “Good morning”, “ How’re you doing?” “What you cooked?” or (giggles) like they say, “What day is it?” “ What time is it?”
SFS: So then, you go back to Spanish to be able to communicate?
Ada: Yes.
ESR: So how do you like being here, talking about your culture? How does that make you feel?
Ada: (Giggles). I don’t know…It makes me feel that I could…communicate, tell somebody else about my culture instead of—for somebody else to learn about my culture.
ESR: Does it make you feel proud?
Ada: Yes.
ESR: Do you think it will help perpetuate your culture?
Ada: Yes, because somebody’s listening to what I have to say.
Akira: Are there other young people, do you think, in the community, like you, who would like to talk about being Garífuna and who would let the world know that you’re here in New Orleans, doing all sorts of things…
Ada: Yes.
Gavin: I’d like to pose a question to all three of you, if you’ve got the time. Where do you see yourselves in ten years?
Ada: I see myself already graduated, have my own house, traveling, have children, traveling with them.
Lexy: In ten years I see myself as being an architect in Honduras.
ESR: In Honduras.
Lexy: Yeah.
Joel: Me, I see myself already graduated, I’ll be a vet, or possibly a musician, and, uh, with my family. I probably would go to Honduras (rest unintelligible).
SFS: You say you’d like to be a musician. What kind? A singer, an instrumentalist, what kind? A composer?
Joel: Either a singer, or, um, one who plays an instrument also.
SFS: What instrument do you play?
Joel: I play, I play the tuba.
CVR: What kind of music do you think you’ll be playing?
Joel: Um, probably gospel.
CVR: Nothing to do with Garífuna or Hispanic music?
Joel: I might possibly come across playing (untelligible) or some type of music.
CVR: How is—do you have any activities with other Hispanics? I’m Colombian. Do you have any other countries in Latin America that you are friends with, or do anything with? For the three of you, how are your relations with other Hispanics? Other than Garífunas?
Ada: It’s the same, but when I go to the school I went to, they had a lot of people from Honduras, mainly, from Guatemala, and like one or two from Mexico. And they’re amazed at our religion.
CVR: They’re amazed at your religion?
Ada: Yeah—they’re amazed—um, not religion, the, uh…
CVR: The practice of dugú?
Ada: No, the, uh, the Garífuna. They’re amazed of it, like they always want to go to everything we have, or they, they treat us (tape cuts of at this point).
Lexy: They went to a church, and there was Garífuna, and she said she wanted to learn Garífuna. She wanted to learn how to dance punta, too.
SFS: And you?
Joel: I don’t really talk about anything with anyone at school, because our whole school is made of African-Americans.
SFS: And where do you go to school?
Joel: St. Augustin High School. And you won’t find, like, all of them are just African-Americans.
(Long pause)
CVR: And at school, what language do you take? What foreign language?
Ada: I took French, because they took me out of Spanish. (General laughter).
SFS: Good! (More general laughter)
CVR: And you?
Lexy: I took French, because I already know Spanish.
Joel: I haven’t take a foreign language yet, but I’m going to take it this year.
CVR: What language will you be taking?
Joel: We only have two—either Spanish or French.
SFS: Lexy, where did you go to high school?
Lexy: Warren Easton.
Gavin: You came to the United States when you were ten?
Lexy: Yeah.
Gavin: So did you go to school in Honduras?
Lexy: Yeah.
Gavin: What was that like?
Lexy: It was fun.
Gavin: You all read a lot?
Lexy: Yeah.
Maricel: Do you think that the school in Honduras is more difficult than the school here?
Lexy: It’s not really that different. It’s the same.
Maricel: The teachers are more strict?
Lexy: In Honduras, yeah.
ESR: What—when we called to ask you to do this interview, what kind of—what did you think was going to happen during this interview? What kind of expectations did you have?
Ada: Um, I really didn’t know. I didn’t know what you really—what the interview was going to be about.
ESR: Did you have an idea that you were going to be videotaped and audiotaped?
Ada: Yeah, because the lady told me. (Giggles) She asked me did I mind to be videotaped.
ESR: But did you—were you excited about doing the interview, or nervous, or…
Ada: I wasn’t nervous. I was excited. I wanted to do it, but the thing that was keeping me back was, uh, that my sister, she goes to summer school at Delgado, and her timing, and the day that, she was all—the day that I said I was supposed to come, I was in the passport agency, so I couldn’t make it.
ESR: Yeah, you certainly need a passport for when you go to Honduras.
CVR: You’re very young, and it’s hard for young people to think in the future, but if you could look at the future and think of what is it that you as Garífuna people would give to the next generation. What do you think that would be, so that the Garífuna culture doesn’t die. Is there anything that you would communicate to the next generation, or to your children, if you can see that far? The three of you?
Ada: I’d like to see them speak all three languages, Garífuna, Spanish and English, and I’ll teach them some of the things we do.
ESR: What kinds of things, oh, I’m sorry…
CVR: Would you like to answer that, too?
Lexy: I’d like my children to learn how to speak Garífuna, and like my relatives, I’d really like them to learn, so they could teach their kids, too.
CVR: I don’t know your name…
ESR: Joel.
CVR: Joel?
Joel: Um, (untelligible) I would take my children to Honduras, but I would like my family to teach them more since like, I don’t really know much about it, so my family’s teaching me about it.
CVR: So you think you still have a lot to learn?
Joel: Right.
CVR: And you would like to learn more.
Joel: Nods yes.
CVR: Thank you.
ESR: What kinds of things that you would like to see or hear taught here at Xavier and at other universities, or high schools, or schools in general about Garífuna culture?
Lexy: What I would like them to know? Like, what d’you mean?
ESR: Would you like them to learn a little bit of Garífuna language, would you like for them to know a little bit about the dugú, the punta?…say the teacher only has a half an hour to talk about Garífuna culture, because she or he has to talk about all these other ethnic groups. So within that half hour, what would you like to see the teacher concentrate on?
Ada: Um, the history]like the background, and I would like them to learn about, to learn a little bit of it, the language.
ESR: Would you like there to be, maybe, a demonstration of punta or some of your other dances…
Ada: Yes.
BRB: Which part you don’t want them to know? Which part of the Garífuna culture you don’t want to transmit to your kids? (Long pause) Either in the Garífuna community in Honduras, or here? Either one.
Ada: The Garífuna community here?
BRB: Here, or in Honduras. Are there some aspects, some parameters of Garífuna culture that you don’t want to teach your kids, that you don’t want them to learn?
Ada: I wouldn’t want…my kids to know…(long pause) um…
BRB: For example, if I were you, thirteen, fourteen years old, and I talked to many kids, and they said, “ I wouldn’t like my kids to know things like that,” so I would not ask (unintelligible).
(Long, long pause)
Gavin: Perhaps another way of asking is, “Is there any part of Garífuna culture that you don’t agree with?”
Ada: No, I think they should know about all of it, all parts.
BRB: Which parts of United States culture, American culture, do you find that does not agree with Garífuna culture?
Ada: I would teach them to don’t be ashamed of their culture, and I wouldn’t want them to stop speaking their language, just because people make fun of them. (Pause)
EBR: Any other questions?
RBR: How do you answer that question?
Joel: (Unintelligible)
RBR: The same?
RBR: Do you find here—are you older than her?
Joel: I’m younger.
RBR: Do you find that, something here in the United States, connected to the relationship between men and women that you don’t like? Something in the way that men treat women, and—I’m sorry—and you don’t want your kids to be like that?
Joel: (Searches for words) Like some men, they talk to women any kind of way, and I wouldn’t want that for me, and for my children as well.
CVR: Students, do you have any questions?
Gavin: For those of you who have traveled to Honduras, what is your favorite thing about home? I’ve asked that question once, but I just want to do it for clarity.
Ada: My favorite thing? Dancing. I love to dance. I love to dance.
Lexy: Now my favorite thing is, I really miss my family, like my grandmother, and all those uncles, and…
CVR: And you?
Joel: Uh,
CVR: Oh, you’ve never been…
BRB: May I make a question concerning the extended family?
SFS: Okay, we have about two minutes left on the tape, so…
BRB: Okay. When you get your home, your house, do you want to live near your parents, or your parents in your house? Do you want them to be far away from you?
Ada: No. I wouldn’t want them to live far away, just in case they need anything. At the same time, I would like them, if they need anything, and when they get old, I would like them to live with me.
ESR: Do you all feel the same way? Lexy and Joel?
Akira: Do you have any questions you want to ask us?
SFS: Good!
Gavin: Are you all going to the Garífuna Mass this year?
All: Yes.
Ada: I have to turn, uh, entre..turn over the crown.
Gavin: Lexy, are you going?
Lexy: I don’t know about that.
(General conversation).
Maricel: I’ll be there.
BRB: Soy dominicano. ¿Sabes donde está la República Dominicana?
Ada: No.
BRB: ¿Sabes donde está Haïtí?
Ada: Um hum.
BRB: Otra parte de la isla…
Ada: Okay, okay, okay.
BRB: ¿Han oído de Sammy Sosa?
BRB: La profesora Rogers,
CVR: Si, yo dije que soy de Colombia.
Lexy: Mucho gusto.
Ada: Mucho gusto.
ESR: No questions for us?
SFS: Tenemos también un estudiante francés. Es de Marseille, Marsilia…
ESR: I have to go and see about the pizza.
(General agreement)
CVR: Good.
(Applause).