A voice between two shores: Cleyvis Natera

Cleyvis Natera was ten years old when she emigrated from the Dominican Republic to the United States, not speaking English and not yet imagining that words could offer her a place in the world.

In seventh grade , she began reading avidly, but soon realized that none of those stories told what migrant families like hers experienced. It was then that she began to wonder if, perhaps, one day she herself would be able to tell them.

In her case, her passion for words stems from her roots, from that oral heritage so alive in the Caribbean . For her, difficult times—as Dominicans well know—are endured by telling stories , cracking jokes, and talking to one another.

That habit of narrating in order to resist has always accompanied her.

She studied psychology , without ever straying from writing , and later earned an MFA in Fine Arts and Fiction at New York University (NYU). She graduated from that program with a finished novel and a literary agent, but she never managed to get it published .

Still, she didn't let go of the idea. Fifteen years later, her second attempt did find its way: in 2022, she published Neruda on the Park , the book that formally launched her writing career.

The stories , she says, come from her own life. They often begin with humor, but soon move into more intense and uncomfortable areas. They address what it means to be a woman , to build a home, to live with machismo, and how in many of our cultures, conflicts are silenced.

In her work, the intimate and the structural intertwine. She writes about family ties , social tensions—gentrification, tourism, capitalism—and how culture, skin color, and place of origin shape our decisions, relationships, and identities, especially in diaspora.

This critical and affectionate perspective also emerges in Gran Paloma Resort , her most recent novel , set in a luxury resort in the Dominican Republic. There she returns to many of her recurring themes: privilege, social class, and the job insecurity faced by so many women .

She contributes to media such as The New York Times and Time Magazine , and is a writing professor at Barnard College, Columbia University.

He also teaches Latin literature and culture at Montclair State University , where he is part of the team promoting a master's degree in bilingual literature .

For her, opening paths for new writers is essential: she wants the voices of the Caribbean —so rich in talent and imagination—to find fewer barriers and more readers .

Cleyvis Natera participated in the first edition of the Sea of ​​Words Festival in Santo Domingo . She arrived with doubts: she wondered if she would be seen as a Dominican author here in her native country.

But a few minutes of conversation with the audience were enough to dispel them. He found empathy , curiosity , and genuine listening . From the diaspora, with his roots intact, he continues to build bridges between voices, shores, and memories.

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