Heritage and History: A Conversation with Enoc Reyes
As part of a new series from the Office of Inclusion and Diversity, Dana Carroll talks with media services staff member Enoc Reyes about his family history and his favorite ways of celebrating Latine Heritage Month.
Every Latine Heritage Month, Enoc Reyes is reminded of his grandparents, whose history grounds his understanding of his Puerto Rican heritage. The national theme for this year’s celebration is “Pioneers of Change: Shaping the Future Together,” and for Enoc, there is no future without understanding the past.
Enoc, who has supported video production and multimedia projects at SOM for 10 years, told me recently that his grandmother, Catalina Juliá, was born into a working-class family in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1918. As a young woman, Catalina began an affair with a wealthy, married sugarcane farmer named Domingo Riverá and gave birth to several children, including Enoc’s mother, Julia. For Julia and her siblings, being members of their father’s “second family” wasn’t easy. Even as the farm prospered, Domingo’s wife often fed Catalina and her children scraps, and he did little to protect them. As teenagers, Julia and her cousin Norma, who would often sneak her food at the dinner table, decided to emigrate from Puerto Rico to Brooklyn.
In doing so, they joined a wave of Puerto Rican immigrants who arrived in New York City after World War II, growing the city’s Puerto Rican community from 70,000 to 900,000 people in just a few decades. Landing in the expanding “Nuyorican” community, Julia and Norma were able to speak Spanish with their neighbors and preserve the cultural traditions of their childhood.
For Enoc, childhood looked much different. Julia chose to raise her own children in Connecticut, which meant he grew up speaking English over Spanish and rarely visited the island where his mother was born. “I didn’t have a concept of what visiting Puerto Rico meant at a young age,” he told me. “All I knew was it was different than my home, and I liked what I had at home.”
Growing up, Enoc heard few details about his grandparents’ lives. But when he was 19 and Norma was on her deathbed, she shared the family’s full history with him. This revelation inspired Enoc to start traveling solo to Puerto Rico, where he gained a new appreciation for the island and its culture. Spending time with his extended family, he improved his Spanish and learned to enjoy traditions like parrandas, the Puerto Rican equivalent of Christmas caroling.
“That’s who I am. That’s where I come from,” Enoc told me, adding that he’d like to bring parrandas to his own neighborhood in New Haven. “Even as small of an island as it is, there are cultural norms that follow us wherever we go.”
As I chatted with Enoc, I saw how he incorporates his culture into his personal and professional life, whether he’s enjoying arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas) at home or displaying his one-of-a-kind vejigante mask (a staple during Puerto Rican Carnival celebrations) in his office.
Latine Heritage Month is an annual opportunity for all of us to take a closer look at how these cultural traditions shape us and are deeply embedded in the SOM community. In the world of business, it can be easy to leave your heritage behind, but through these immersive celebrations, we can all be inspired to show up as our full selves.
About Latine Heritage Month
Latine Heritage Month is an annual celebration of the history and culture of the U.S. Latine and Hispanic communities. The event, which spans from September 15 to October 15, commemorates how those communities have influenced and contributed to American society at large. Formerly known as Hispanic Heritage Month, Latine Heritage Month is meant to be inclusive of Latin American communities in accordance with the Yale La Casa Cultural Center.
Here at SOM, the Office of Inclusion and Diversity (OID) began this year’s celebration with a beginner’s salsa dance class, along with a Charley’s Place takeover featuring empanadas, chicharron de pollo, tres leches cake, and Enoc’s favorite: arroz con gandules.
We’ll also honor Latine Heritage Month with a special session of PhD Mondays, a speaker series that brings doctoral candidates from across the university to present on their research at Evans Hall. In early October, the SOM community will hear from Génesis Luigi Bravo, who is pursuing a PhD in Sociology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality studies. Her work explores how social movements, technology, and expertise influence people’s experiences with the healthcare system; at SOM, she’ll discuss her recent research paper about how the use of abortion medication has reshaped the obstetrics and gynecology profession in Mexico.
OID hosts multiple cultural immersions throughout the academic year to encourage the SOM community to engage deeply with different cultures through sound, taste, touch, and thought in support of our mission to foster understanding, empathy, and inclusivity.
