Kaishaly Pimentel
Seeking Cultural Diversity on Campus
Introduction & Family Life
Kaishaly Janice Pimentel, class of 2022 at Miami University, is studying Botany. She takes lots of pride in being Dominican and Puerto Rican, and was very excited to talk about her own experience about diversity at Miami.
Pimentel is half Dominican, half Puerto Rican. Both she and her parents were born in the U.S., but her grandparents on her mother’s side immigrated from Puerto Rico, and her grandparents from her father’s side immigrated from the Dominican Republic. Pimentel’s grandmother came to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic to work, while her grandmother left Puerto Rico because her husband passed and wanted to come to the United States for the opportunity.
Pimentel herself has visited the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, but only when she was very young. Her mother keeps in touch with all of her cousins and some uncles from her family back home. Growing up, Pimentel’s mother embedded much of Puerto Rican culture into their everyday lives. Because of these family ties and cultural upbringing, Pimentel feels a stronger connection towards Puerto Rican culture.
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Determining an Identity at Miami
Pimentel expresses that she is more in tune with her Puerto Rican culture because of her relationship with her mother and misses being surrounded by aspects of her Puerto Rican culture since moving to Oxford from Akron.
“I’d say I definitely resonate more with being Puerto Rican [...] I would say I have gotten to appreciate and kind of want to know more about my culture as I’ve gotten older.”
Being away from home has Pimentel missing the Puerto Rican food, music, and language.
However, just as it was difficult dealing with her identity when she was young, she mentioned she felt somewhat the same way when first coming to Miami.
“Now, just because I’ve learned to love myself no matter what, I’m okay with it, but initially it definitely caused me to question my identity for different reasons…”
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Just as she had touched on values earlier in the interview, she brings this up again when discussing coming to campus. She feels as though having different/stronger values such as loyalty to family and respect for others (due to her cultural background) than her peers, is what contributed to her questioning herself and her identity.
As mentioned, Pimentel has come to terms with her identity and loves the culture which she comes from. But she does want to shine a light on her perception that there is not much love towards Hispanics and there aren’t many people who look like her on campus. When touching on Greek life, she manages to say that there is not as much representation in these organizations specifically.
“I feel like something that I have heard from others and seen myself is that a lot of them are very homogeneous [...] I don’t see any diversity within that and that’s significant because Greek life is very pushed and very significant here on this campus. And when there does happen to be one person that is not white or whatever, you hear the term ‘token’ person.”
Even when talking about activities off campus in Oxford, there are themed nights of the week uptown and Latin night never seems to be incorporated or advertised.
Pimentel has grown in her pride and love for her culture. This is what makes her so passionate about ensuring that Miami incorporates more cultural diversity onto its campus so that everyone can have this experience of growth and self-acceptance just as she has.
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Growing Up Puerto Rican
Growing up with this cultural background was not always easy for Pimentel.
“Growing up in a suburb with no one that looked like me or came from a similar background or culture, I did have times where I was often embarrassed or pushed it to the side and not really identify or relate with it.”
She also touches on the fact that she was able to see both the benefits and downfalls of growing up in a Puerto Rican home. She mentions how it was a bit of a conservative environment, and she was expected to be very polite and put-together. But she also talked about how she learned about the strong beliefs they have about loyalty to family. This belief is something that she sees as a strong value in Puerto Rican culture and she herself finds major importance in it.
"And when there does happen to be one person that is not white or whatever, you hear the term ‘token’ person.”
Pimentel’s mother in Puerto Rico