High Literacy and Ethnic Identity: Dominican American Schooling in Transition

This work describes the experiences of 15 men and women who arrived with the first and second wave of immigrants from the Dominican Republic to the USA and who, despite the odds, succeeded in completing the highest level of formal education - a doctorate. Examining these cultural narratives reveals much about the complex symbiosis between becoming highly literate and (re)constructing an ethnic identity; it elucidates the realities of an increasingly visible group who are using formal education to step out of the margins of society; it sorts out what it means to be a literate other American. These insights can be useful to scholars of Dominican/Latino Studies, all teachers of Composition and Literacy, and the general reader.