Arabella Kippen

My name is Arabella Kippen. I'm a fluent Spanish speaker and grew up going to block parties in the Bronx with my nanny, the woman who basically raised me, and my sister. Even in New York, a concrete jungle filled with a melting pot of diverse people, ethnicities, and cultures, this fact surprises and confuses many—a shock that lingers no matter where I go. Why does this girl with no Spanish lineage know how to speak at the pace and level of a person born and raised in the Dominican Republic?

My parents felt it crucial to embrace the manifold nature of the Big Apple and learn the language that 25%, almost 2 million people, of the population speak. Although my mom is from Tulsa, Oklahoma, Tornado Alley, and my dad is from Montreal, Canada, the Arctic to many Americans, two places where it's unlikely to encounter someone Hispanic, they made it a point to learn Spanish. Then, they spoke, read, and sang to my sister and me before we even took our first steps. My sister's first word was pato, duck in English, and mine was agua, water in English.

On the streets of the Bronx, my comprehension of the tongue transcended to a cultural shift in my life. All of a sudden, I was exposed to the shaking sound of a güira, the rhythm of the steps of Bachata, the taste of Sancocho meat, and the racing, chattering voices of people around me, spitting out unique Dominican lingo like que lo que, chulo, and un chin.

This unique exposure has benefited me in every aspect of my life. Beyond the tangible expansion of my taste palate and evolving knowledge of Dominican and Hispanic culture and arts, my secular world has expanded, and my opportunities to communicate with the world have doubled. Whether I'm dining at a Hispanic restaurant, visiting a Latin country, or conversing with someone in Spanish, I seize every opportunity to strengthen and refine a language that has significantly shaped my life.