Belkis Alcantara

The interview with Belkis Alcantra was recorded in Hudson, NY on June 16, 2014.  Belkis was born in the Dominican Republic and came to the United States 20 years ago.  She originally came to New York where her brother was living.  Her brother was killed three months after she arrived and she managed on her own (without speaking English), working at Dominican-run salons given that she was trained as a beautician.  She was in the country illegally at this time.  She married and had a daughter in New York, and got her “papers”.  Her husband first came to Hudson finding work at a factory.  Belkis lived in Hudson intermittently before settling in the community.  For a short time, she worked in a factory as well, but preferred to do hair.  She has lived in Hudson for sixteen years and owns a hair salon on Warren Street.  Her salon is a place where people comfortably gather.  She is committed to Hudson and to her family (husband, daughter, and son), and to her family in the Dominican Republic, visiting them every two years and hoping to bring her parents to this country at some point. This interview might interest people curious about the store owners up and down Warren Street in Hudson.  More generally, Belkis speaks to the immigrant experience and what it is like to go from being at a distance from a place to becoming an integrated citizen, and the hard work and struggles involved in doing so.  Her interview also addresses what it is like to negotiate multiple places simultaneously, one’s place of residence with one’s place of origin.