By Noquel A. Matos
20 Years ago, the Berlin wall was knocked down on November 9, 1989. While it significance it is still debated, popularly we can agree that for Germans it symbolized the unification of their country, and for the rest of the world it signified the beginning of the end of communism and the Cold War. For anyone living at the world at this time, the falling of the Berlin Wall marked a paramount historical moment that carried the promised of freedom into the century to come, and for those who were not alive and did not presence the falling of the wall, the event’s legacy lives on with their generation inhabitant of a free democratic world. Hence, no matter who you are there is some way that this event that happened 20 years ago relates to you.
I like to think it relates to me in an extra-special way. I was born August 17, 1990, nine month after the falling of the wall. I can’t help imagine that my parents conceived me in the mist of this celebration. It’s very much possible. It’s not only the theory of relativity but the place they were when it occurred.
On November 2009 , my parents lived in the great city of New York. My mother had come to the United States on 1986 and my father on 1973 fleeing the repressive government of Joaquin Balaguer. Not Unlike many Latin American countries at the time, Balaguer was the strong man put in power in the Dominican Republic by the United States to ensure it did not become communist. When the Berlin Wall fell, and my parent’s neighbor and the television celebrated for the end of communism, my father celebrated the end of the Cold War. After 16 years of having left his country with fear he could look back and hope to return. I like to think that the happiness he felt on that night brought about my conception. That is how the Berlin Wall gave me life.
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