On Thursday I am supposed to guest lecture in an education course. They are working on Dominican culture and have read a Junot Díaz short story. The point of the lesson will be to provoke discussion about the immigrant experience and what it is like for a person from outside the US to newly live in our country. Literature has a way of elucidating marginalized voices and the immigrant voice is one of many that only participate peripherally in the US national dialog. Díaz has made clear that his is not the voice of the Dominican diaspora and that, in fact, he regularly receives mail from Dominicans that point exactly that fact out to him. That understood, the more voices from the margin that reach the mainstream is the anecdote to marginalization and to transforming the mainstream into something that constructively channels diversity’s tensions. Díaz’s is an important voice. Here you have his opinion on recent political developments in the US. Is what he expresses coming from the margin or is it a sentiment that has been shared widely enough that it has become majority?
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