How Bianca found her Inner Dominicana in a Pair of Rhinestone-Studded Jeans

This is a post from Board Member Bianca Bidiuc who accompanied the Cucuyo Crew on their 2011 adventure acting as interpreter and documentarian.

These blinged-out jeans are calling your name! by Bianca BidiucThere are so many stories, laughs, and nostalgia from my trip with Cucuyo to the Dominican Republic. Cucuyo made this adventure slowly form into a reality that didn’t hit me until I boarded a 4 AM shuttle from Athens to Atlanta a couple of weeks ago. As a board member for the past 2 years, I could hardly wait for the chance to experience everything I’d only had a glimpse of through photos and stories. I went down to serve as an interpreter and documentarian, but I feel like I gained so much more than I offered (doesn’t that almost always happen?).

Here’s the breakdown of the program: it’s a cultural exchange program for American teens through summer art workshops led by American and Dominican professional artists. Teens in the DR also participate. It’s cross-cultural collaboration and communication through art, if you will. There’s a final exhibition, a surprise, excursion, and lots of besos involved. Everyone is placed in a homestay - a real, live Dominican family who feeds you glorious combinations of rice, beans, plantains, asopao, avocados, and homemade tropical fruit juice til you’re too happy and full and complacent to possibly say "no, gracias!" to the concon (the caramel colored toasty burnt rice scraped from the bottom of the pot - always the best part!).

I wasn’t prepared for all the wild and wonderful surprises this trip had in store. I was challenged and loved in extreme quantities, and I learned about the type of satisfaction and motivation known by those who aren’t as softened by luxury and excess. But, I was also surprised to see many cultural similarities. A whole lotta music videos and soap operas, pop culture crazes, and bright, bold diva fashion. By chance, I discovered a pair of Dominican jeans blinged out with rhinestones and zippers that fit perfectly…and I must say, I totally embraced the look. Who knows? Maybe there’s a little Dominicana in everyone they can awaken with the right apple bottom jeans. I even went hiking in those diva jeans. (Ok, it was because I didn’t have any other long pants to wear, and those mosquitos "diablos monstros" as coined by my friend and victim, Hope, were…well, diablos monstros). But at least I slid in the mud looking like J-LO…

Ah, the nostalgia is starting to hit me all over again. Here's to another bright year in Cucuyo's future!