Keidward Pichardo Lora

Introduction and Dominican Background

Keidward Alexander Pichardo Lora, class of 2023, is in the Farmer School of Business at Miami University. Pichardo Lora and his parents are from the Dominican Republic. His father spent his teenage and early adult life traveling back and forth from the United States to the DR. His mother migrated to the U.S. shortly after he was born. She moved to Boston as an undocumented individual to achieve her “American Dream” of finding opportunities in work and a good life.

 

Pichardo Lora remained in the Dominican Republic and was raised by his grandparents until he migrated to the U.S. to reconnect with his parents in 2010 when he was 8 years old. His grandparents from both sides of his family migrated shortly after in 2012-2013 and 2015.

 

Living in Culture

Growing up in the Dominican Republic, Pichardo Lora didn’t even realize how rich his everyday culture was since he knew nothing different.

 

“In the Dominican Republic, you live the culture everyday. You live it everyday and there’s nothing distinguishing it. From the moment you wake up you hear the merchants shouting about the electronics and the plantains on sale [...] All of it! Everything! You hear it over the microphone, you’re up at 8am, you go outside, the lady who sells the empanadas is out with her cart ready to make you breakfast empanadas.”

 

He loved how tight-knit his community felt and how lively & welcoming everyone was. He was even used to the “typical” cultural homelife of his grandmother making dinner and his grandfather working both inside and outside the home to provide for their family. Pichardo Lora also mentions how he loved being able to get anywhere on foot and simply misses the weather, ocean, and daily time with family.

 

When talking about education, Pichardo Lora mentions that he was always a very good student, one of the top in his class. He would go to school from 8:00am to 12:00pm and would go home right after school for lunch. Because of the short school days, they start a year early and only have a break through December-January for the Catholic holidays and to celebrate the New Year. Recently, however, they have extended their school days to look much like U.S. school days.

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Transitioning to the U.S.

Pichardo Lora endured plenty of change when he finally migrated to the United States. Pichardo’s father brought him to the U.S. (Liberty Township, OH) in 2010. As his mother and father had started a family while Pichardo Lora was still in the DR, it was the first time he would meet his siblings. Furthermore, he did not speak any English and struggled to communicate with them when they first met.

 

He had a difficult time adjusting to this family, lifestyle, and education. He was not used to having a father work late causing dinner to be later. He felt disconnected from his family since he only spoke Spanish. He also had to adjust to being in school for longer hours and going from the top of his class to not really understanding the material being taught, especially because of the language barrier.

 

“In the Dominican Republic I was always a very strong, outgoing person, very sure of myself. And when I came here I became very unsure of myself and I became very doubtful in myself and my abilities. I went from being a kid who was top of the class [...] to being somebody who understood nothing that was going on. Who was always lost and confused and just always made fun of.”

 

Pichardo Lora continued to keep in touch with many of his family members as he grew older and still has close friends in the DR in which he considers family. He also is a member of his hometown’s Facebook page that keeps him posted on everyone and everything that is going on in his community. His grandparents and parents update him on current events that go on on their island. He mentions that whenever something happens back in the DR, his grandparents and parents almost make it seem like it is happening to them in the U.S. They always felt as though they were still being impacted by anything that went on in their country, while Pichardo Lora and his siblings were always just more curious about what was going on.

 

When Pichardo Lora’s mother became an official U.S. citizen, he was granted citizenship as well. He touches on the fact that compared to other Dominican families he knows, he feels as though his family has become very Americanized. He and his siblings no longer participate in cultural activities and he even feels as though his home is decorated in a more American style than a more traditional Dominican style.

 

The more time he spent in the United States, the more removed he felt from his country and culture.

 

“[...] I feel like there’s a disconnect now. I feel like I’m not a part of the culture as I was when I was there and I feel like I can no longer experience the culture first-hand like I used to be able to. [With] that being said, I do feel that when I do go back it’s like I’m reliving deja-vu. As I see everything go past my eyes it feels like I’m literally reliving my childhood experience, but it doesn’t feel like it’s fully a part of my current experience because of that cultural disconnect.”