Azalea Rosario

Oral History of Yvette Fernandez

Yvette Fernandez is a 42 year old hard working mother, who raised six kids on her own while attending college. She grew up with two brothers and six sisters in New York, born and raised.


I was born in Midtown Manhattan, 50th Street between 8th and 9th Avenue in a clinic called a Poly Clinic. [I] grew up around 50th Street and 10th Avenue. I don’t remember a lot from that time, I only remember some things. I mostly remember 53rd and 11th Avenue and of course 55th and 56th between 10th and 11th. I [attended] Interboro college when my oldest daughter turned eighteen years old. The reason why I didn’t go straight into college is because I was pregnant with her, so I waited, I didn’t think I was going to do it, but that’s always been my dream and I to wanted better myself . So I surrounded myself with people who were honest, hardworking like me, didn’t nag and didn’t ask me to go out all the time because I didn’t have time for that. I surrounded myself with someone that would support me knowing that I had so many children. I think I surrounded myself with some good people.

When I was younger, like a teenager, I was introduced to pot, marijuana and they had asked me to try it. I eventually did, and truthfully in the beginning it was all about trying to be cool because everyone else was doing it, but it was actually giving me headaches. I’m glad I wasn’t attached to it, I wasn’t hooked. I’ve actually had many experiences with peer pressure, but I just brushed it off because I thought I was better than that, I was better than the people that were trying to push me. It wasn’t like if I was better than them, it was more like I’m smarter than them.

I have learned from my experiences with peer pressure, for an example the pot situation. I thought that you don’t need to get high to have fun. Even after I became legal, I even stopped drinking because what’s the use? I still have fun without it! When I go out with my friends I usually have a coke. I don’t want to get tired, and when you drink you get tired or you have to run to the bathroom. [I’m here] to have fun, I’m a happy person.

[I personally] think peer pressure is a bad thing because nobody should tell anybody what to do with their life. Nobody should force someone else to do what they really don’t want to do. Peer pressure pretty much means somebody pushing you to do something against everything you believe in. In life you have to make many decisions, life is about learning from your mistakes, everybody makes mistakes, everybody falls for something. Teenagers now-a-days are so much different than teenagers in my days, even the clothing they wear. Those boys have their pants bellow their rear ends, it’s disgusting . I don’t want to see a boy’s underwear! [Back in the day] that was against the rules. The young girls now are too provocative, [they show too much for these young boys.] They shouldn’t be thinking of that, it’s all in the [television], these things going on and they think it is okay. Society has allowed this to happen. It’s not a good thing. Don’t try to grow up faster than you are, stick to your own age.

[Many teenagers pressure one another to do something because] misery loves company. They did something they shouldn’t have done. So they want to drag the other person along with them, it’s stupid, but that’s the way people think. That’s the way it is….