Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies Vol. 9, No. 2, April 2013 ISSN: 1557-2935 <http://liminalities.net/9-2/alvarez.pdf> Finding “Home” in/through Latinidad Ethnography: Experiencing Community in the Field with “My People” Wilfredo Alvarez Scene 1: Bronx, NY, my apartment Me: “Que yo le digo entonces si me preguntan algo?” (“What do I tell them if they ask me something?”) Uncle Ramiro 1 : “Si te preguntan algo tu le dices (If they ask you something you tell them), “I’m sorry but I don’t speak English’.” Scene 2: Bronx, NY, high school hallway Me: “O si tu sabes que eso es lo que tu tienes que hacer. . .” (“Oh yeah, you know that’s what you have to do . . .”) Raul (classmate): “No, yo se; eso fue lo que el maestro dijo en la clase. . .” (“No, I know—that’s what the teacher said in class . . .”) Random student: “Stop talking that Spanish shit!” Scene 3: Bronx, NY, high school teacher’s office Me: “You think I should apply for college?” Teacher: “Yes! I definitely do! Your English is very, very good!” Arriving The preceding scenes illustrate some of my early experiences as a newly arrived Do- minican immigrant in New York City. These scenes depict moments of social rejec- tion and victory immigrants can experience in the United States. As a Latin American immigrant, I have experienced social rejection because I speak a foreign language and come from an Afrocaribbean third-world country. 2 Though I have developed an awareness of why people respond to my particular identity intersections with hostility, I still ask myself, “why do some people continue to have such negative reaction to- Wilfredo Alvarez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication, Media and Theatre at Northeastern Illinois University. He teaches in the areas of intercultural, interper- sonal and group communication, leadership, and communication theory. In his research, he studies how communication processes are put in practice to create, sustain and resist micro and macro level systems of group-level discrimination and social inequality in U.S. society. 1 All names in this manuscript are pseudonyms. 2 Meares et al., “Employee Mistreatment,” 5.