My Idea of the South

By Lauren Henschel

My idea of the “South” is skewed to say the least. I came from Miami, FL a place that is more South in its actual location than Durham. So what is the actual “South?” The traditional idea of the South is nothing like mine, but the South I found throughout the process of this class perfectly aligned with my idea from home. My older sister was adopted from Peru when I was just six months old. She didn’t speak a word of English, and I learned both English and Spanish at the same time as I grew up. We rotated between cooking food from Peru and food from America, when I had my Bat Mitzvah we threw my sister a quinceanera. My life was always the combination of two separate worlds.  When I got to Durham, half of my world was left behind. In Durham, I found the real South, and the adjustment was hard throughout my first year at Duke. I found my South in the homes of the Agular and Frausto family. These families are next-door neighbors who moved to Durham from Mexico before their children were born to provide them with a life that was better than what they had. These families represent everything that the “South” means to me.

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