Dominican Students Association Returns After A Nearly Two Decade Hiatus
When Elsa Tanis first arrived at North Campus in 2001 she struggled to fit in.
Two years after arriving in the United States her English was shaky and she missed her hometown—Santo Domingo.
But then she had a breakthrough. Tanis found some of the Caribbean flavor she had been missing after joining the Dominican Students Association.
“My English was not that great, and I didn’t have that many friends, connecting with people that were from my own country, and that spoke my language was like a plus to me,” Tanis said.
The organization soon became a second family. As part of their community outreach, she spent hours at a senior living facility in Hialeah handing out flowers and ice cream and preparing pastry baskets for tenants.
This spring semester, Tanis, who is now the club’s advisor, revived DSA. It had been inactive for almost 20 years.
“The idea is to share the beauty of our culture with other people, so they understand what it means to be Dominican,” said Tanis, who is an outreach coordinator at Single Stop at North Campus.
To spread the DSA culture, she recruited Christian Barruos-Brens, a charismatic culinary student, who was raised by Dominican parents. Chef Christian, as he is fondly known, accepted the challenge.
He recruited the club’s first members and collected the paperwork needed for approval of the club.
“I was like, Why can’t we just bring it back?” Barrous-Brens said. “I’ll be the person to do that.”
The club, which hosts meetings on the third Thursday of every month at 12 p.m. in the breezeway of the 3000 building, now boasts more than 100 members, Tanis said.
Their e-board includes: president Henly Lizardo, vice-president Michelle Vazquez, secretary Janhelys Martinez, treasurer Melany Reyes and marketing director Gabriela Mir.
“I just want to open the door to anyone and show them that there’s no requirement [to join],” said Vazquez, a freshman in the Honors College, whose mother is Dominican. “We just want to share with you.”
The DSA made their debut at Club Rush last month. Their first official event will be a fundraiser to celebrate the independence of the Dominican Republic on Feb. 27 in the breezeway of the 4000 building from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Spearheaded by Chef Christian’s efforts, the association will sell smash burgers and traditional Dominican cake (Biscocho). The profits will assist with the club’s future events that will include themes such as mental health, women’s empowerment and sports.
For more information about DSA or to join, call (305) 237-1399 or send an email to dsanorth.2024@gmail.com.
Some of the interviews for this story were conducted in Spanish.
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