My neighborhood is a colony: provisional, a makeshift city of refugees descended from refugees, each generation endlessly recursive as it tries to find security. The needs of us transplant Dominicans can be summed up in the words of the famous Dominican Coat of Arms' motto "Dios, Patria, Libertad" (God, Fatherland, Liberty), and it is these three fundamentals that immigrants in Newark's Ironbound strive for. But like all colonies, we are anchored to our motherland by both the customs and fears...