NEW YORK.- Dominican lawyer Julissa Reynoso, Washington’s Undersecretary of State for Latin America and the Caribbean Affairs, in 1982 arrived in New York’s South Bronx, whose barrio kids called her "shortie" and didn’t even speak English.

Many made fun of her and the most skeptical didn’t see any possibility of her success. But Reynoso, who would then become one of the most tenacious activists and promoters of Dominican culture abroad, was set to topple all barriers to reach the peak, as evidenced by excellent grades.

By 1993 she was already studying in Harvard a university and published her story on the Web: "Being Latina at Harvard and Beyond."

She was part of Hillary Clinton’s campaign during the Democrat primary, and went on to join Barack Obama’s push for the White House.

She notes that although that she after the American dream, she doesn’t get far from the music, cuisine and other traditions of her rural community in Dominican Republic, and recalls many of her Harvard classmates’ looks and obsession with descriptions and images on her origin and nationality. “I never stopped missing the Bronx and much less that I was Dominican, because it was important to have an identity: the way you speak, walk, eat, laugh, smell, think and your music. It couldn’t block in my ears the sound of a gourd and a drum."

Reynoso said over the years she became familiar with American society’s dynamics, and how she couldn’t forget that the students, professors, intellectuals and professionals all races in the prestigious university also used  the hate term "spic" against Hispanics including Dominicans.

She later took the Dominican flag all over the world and even attended England’s Cambridge University, where she earned a Masters in Philosophy. “There, I met dreamers from other worlds and that even more than Dominicans, they were a rare race in Harvard."

In England, "I found my tribe: a Dominican woman, a Puerto Rican-French and a pair of Mexicans," a new race which made her understand America. "After England, New York awaited and embraced me as if a prodigal daughter.”

She founded the group Dominican 2000 and worked as an assistant to judge Laura Taylor Swain in New York South District Federal Court and is a member of the Foreign Relations Council.

She was also an official of the New York City Education Department and worked in prestigious law firm, specializing in international litigation before being tapped for the State Department in November, 2009.

Her first assignment brought her home as part of the recent visit to several Latin American countries, beginning with president Leonel Fernandez, with whom she stated Washington’s interest in the electoral processes and consolidation of democracy in the continent.

SOURCE: elnuevodiario.com. Translation DT.