My uncle--he is more of a big brother to me. He’s been there from the time I took my first steps to the time I shot my first hoop to now. In 2002, me being a mere 2-years-old in Brooklyn, he bought me an oversized gold 14-karat bracelet. He bought it a tad big because I was a pretty fat baby. So as you can imagine the bracelet did not fit my wrist. I remember the day he hooked it on my wrist. I was just 4-years-old about to start kindergarten and me being Dominican in the culture we always have an object that is handed down from generation to generation. So he intended that the bracelet would be handed down to me first. I was 4 when I first put it on and now I am of 16 years of age and it still hangs on my wrist. I call my uncle my big brother because if he was not my uncle that's what he would be--my brother. He taught me how to pray and how to survive on the cold streets of New York. He taught me things only a big brother would teach. This why I look up to him till this day. My uncle has a family back on the island and he works from sun up to sundown. These are words that he told me when I was just 7, “Jesus, you work to shine for tomorrow.”

Relationship:  Child of im/migrant Child of im/migrant