Jersey Garcia

Hello.

So I am Dominican.

My parents raised me in New York City.

I'm from the Heights, Washington Heights.

What that means is also that I was taught from an early age that you should never fall in love.

And if you have the unfortunate event or that unfortunate event happens to you, you should never let anybody know about it, especially the person you fell in love with.

How I learned this was because my mom told me and my cousins

And also because I used to watch the telenovelas with her.

And there I was, sitting next to her, and she's seeing Susana and Joaquin, and Susana and Joaquin just cheated on her.

I don't know what he did, but she was there crying and pleading with him, don't leave me, I love you so much.

And my mom is sitting there, que pendeja this girl is, just like, I can't.

Don't you ever!

Don't you ever!

And I'm there, seven years old, with my little, you know, moñitos happening and just trying to learn from my mom and from the telenovelas what not to do.

And also, you also learn from the telenovelas that if something happened, you had to make an exit, you had to cry out in this fashion, out, oh my God, I'm almost dying, come and follow me.

Because the idea is that you had to play hard to get and they had to come and get you.

So when I first fell in love, I was in my sophomore year in high school, and I fell in love with Adrian Greaves after dating him for a week.

Day seven, he called me and broke up with me.

So I went to my room and started crying, and my mom stands at the door of the room, and she's like, Francisco, come and see.

Come and see this tobacco.