Jineyda Tapia is an Instructor in the English department and Associate Director of Andover Bread Loaf, but will become the Director of it next Fall. In her free time, Tapia likes to read, draw, watch movies, cook, and travel.
What brought you to Andover?
[Lou] Bernieri is retiring this year. I’m trying to celebrate that, and I’m feeling grief because he’s home for me. When you see him working in the community you can’t help but think that I want to be part of an organization, an institution that can lead teachers like him to make these changes. I started learning about Andover through him and this idea of non sibi. I really fell in love with that concept. I see that in my neighborhood. It didn’t matter how poor my grandma was, she would still fix an extra plate of food for someone. That ethos of non sibi really brought me here. Once I applied and was accepted, I created a space of non sibi not just for me but also for others.
How did you become involved with Andover Breadloaf?
In 2009, I did the program as an adult, because the federal government had taken grants away. I had the summer off, and that was the first one I had off in forever. Even when I was a young adult, I did summer programs, and I strongly believe in them for enrichment and higher education, and other spaces. I took that summer off, and my colleague said ‘hey, you have to do this, it’s amazing, it aligns with your philosophy.’ I came for two weeks and did the program with folks around us in the country and state that I’m still friends with. It just changed my life as a teacher, so I’ve been involved ever since.
How did you become interested in teaching English?
It’s funny because I was very much a maths and science kid. I wanted to be a civil engineer, so I went to school for that, and I was really good at maths and science. Every summer program that I went to was maths and science-related. I went to one at Smith College, another at UMaine Orono, and they were all about math and science. Through there I met incredible instructors in literature and I’ve always been a bit of talker and argumenter. It was fascinating, because when I was a Sophomore I essentially volunteered to tutor a student at the middle school in Lowell, her name was Madeleine and I just got so inspired by that experience that I decided to change my major.
Were there difficulties when pivoting from Maths to English?
No, to me, math is a language and it’s our wrestling of the abstract and the concrete and the way we write the world and understand the universe. I feel like English literature is the same way, it’s this wrestling of these feelings and values. Humans feel like justice, love, hate, and conflict, and it’s this wrestling of trying to express and create a window into it that allows people to connect. You can’t be part of maths and not be part of a narrative, there’s other mathematicians who’ve led you to that point.
What is a fun fact about yourself?
I absolutely love murder mystery movies. I get so deep into it. The funny thing that my colleague laughs at me is that I teach a horror class, but I’m a scaredy cat when it comes to horror movies. The spiritual ones are very scary to me … So that’s a fun fact, I teach it, but I’m a scaredy cat. I just watched Sinners and was watching it during the day with another colleague and holding their hand the whole time.
What do you like to do in your free time?
Lately I’ve been drawing, and I still don’t consider myself an artist, but I have younger kids, and both of them love to draw. I’ve been joining in [with them]. What I’ve come to realize is, wow, I’m trying something new. Before, I would make fun of myself, saying, ‘oh, I do stick figures and that’s it.’ But that recognition, and I have to give the credit to my daughters, that you can try something new and just do it because you want to. There’s no higher learning in that. This is the time I want to spend this joy in this moment with my girls. That’s been really fun.
What is your favorite book?
That’s the worst question to ask an English teacher. I always say, “In the Time with the Butterflies” by Julia Alvarez. It’s the first time I witnessed a Dominican American writer writing about something that everyone knew about in my community, but it was so silenced because of the echo of the dictatorship and the pain that it caused. She was unsilencing many things, and it started making sense. When I read her story, it’s just so poetic, but there’s moments that are just extremely violent and sad, because it’s talking about a dictatorship. I read it as a junior in high school, and what’s fascinating is that when you reread books, they take on different meanings as you get older.
What advice would you have for someone pursuing English studies?
Be ready to be in discomfort. What literature does, especially as you keep expanding your personal canon, is that it expands your ability to see beyond your personal lens. That’s discomfort. It can lead to great things, but there’s a discomfort in that. In reality, the challenge is, can you allow yourself in that moment to let go of your personal lens and read through the lens of others? I think that builds empathy, sympathy, and collaborativeness across differences. Step outside of yourself. Learn about that other lens, wherever that other lens is coming from.
What’s your favorite horror or murder mystery movie?
I really like “Kiss the Girls.” Morgan Freeman is in it, and he’s amazing. That was the first time I saw a really good murder mystery type of movie that I remember. Then for horror, the “Pet Sematary.” First of all, I’m an 80s kid, I should not have been watching that movie at 10 years old, I don’t know what my parents would think of me. But until this day, I cannot re-watch Pet Sematary. It is so scary for me, but it’s one of those really good horror movies.
What interests do you have outside of English?
I am heavily into music, that’s exciting. I do a lot of traveling back to the Dominican Republic, that’s where my ancestors and my mom are from. I’ve been relearning, almost like an anthropologist, relearning the space, relearning the costumes. I’m learning how to make some of the foods that I never tried to make. It was my mom’s job to make that one dish, and [I tried it] and I actually did a really good sancocho the other day. I’m really proud of myself. It’s this really complex dish. That’s been the vibe lately.
