On the 14th of October, Junot Diaz had a talk at Middlesex County College in Edison, New Jersey for Hispanic Heritage Month. Diaz’s first published book was “Drown,” published in 1996. His second book, “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” was published in September 2007. Diaz was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. His latest book, “This is How You Lose Her,” published in 2012, is the second part of “Drown.” It was nominated for the National Book Award for Fiction and Goodreads Choice Award Best Fiction.
Diaz was comfortable and conversational. Right from the beginning, Diaz was joking — about being late. Then gave us the run down of how this event would go. First, he would read a section from his book and then a question and answer. Then, he said let do the opposite. We started with a question and answer. The main topics were Black Lives Matter, immigration and “being outsiders.” I could tell where Yunior got his sense of humor. Upon hearing that a Lehman College student travelled to New Jersey to see him, he had one reply: “Why? I’m corny.” His witty bater made the audience fall more in love than they already were.
The thing that Diaz said that stood out to me the most was: “You can not cut of your arm to fit into a box thinking that one day they will expect you. They never will. You can not let your name define you. I want to live in a world were saying: ‘I’m Dominican, I’m from Jersey, I’m an immigrant.’ Are just openings to a conversations not the defining moment of a conversation.”
Then he read part of “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” before taking more questions, which lead him to speak about Asian-Americans' role in the Black Lives Matter movement. Diaz made it clear that people of color who remove Asian-Americans from people of color should learn more history. He also made the point that instead of excluding people we should “find reasons to include everyone.” Which we should — Asian-Americans have gone through a lot, such as internment camps and racist violence towards them for "stealing jobs." The young lady who asked him the question about are Asian-American considered people of color. She was very emotion — crying— about not being apart of a community that she always through she was. She put herself into the box of being a person of color and then one of her friends told her — rudely — that she was not.
Diaz’s main point was not trying to be who you are and not let names define you. To not let groups or categories you fit into define you. Whether it be your race, gender or your background. To not let one aspect of your life be all that you are. This was inspiring to me — to hear him speak and be honest about people of color’s role and how to stand out (and fight). I would like to thank Diaz for that, the pictures and being a honest person.
