Sisterhood is Family

By Angie C.

Family has different meanings and values depending on the person you’re speaking to. For some, blood is thicker than water, while others argue that family doesn’t always mean sharing DNA. For Yerba Buena High School senior Yanaly Dominguez, family centers around sisterhood.

Dominguez is currently 17 years old, making her the oldest of three sisters. For as long as she can remember, she has always been incredibly close with her sisters. As the oldest sister, she has taken charge of helping raise her younger sisters. 

“I feel like, especially being the oldest, I feel like I’ve matured, especially since my mom was a teen mom,” Dominguez said, “I feel like I kinda took care of my sisters most of the time, because my mom had to go work”.

Dominguez describes her relationship with her sisters as very close, being honest and open with each other, and there isn’t a day where they don’t banter together.

“Yea I feel like we’re very real with each other. Our relationship is kinda weird. I see other people with their sisters and I'm like wow we’re so bad, like, we’re like boys, we’re so bad.”

Because of how much her mother worked, Dominguez and her sisters often went to their grandmother's house to be taken care of. There, she would spend the day with many of her cousins, who also needed to be taken care of by her grandmother. Growing up in her grandmother's home allowed her to connect with her extended family. She spent most of her time in her grandmother’s living room where she would do her homework and play with her sisters and cousins. Spending her time in the living room is still a habit from her time at her grandmother’s, 

As Dominguez reminisced on her childhood with her grandmother, she said, “I have a lot of cousins, like a lot, and like we all went through the same thing, we all went. So it's like a big second family.”

Dominguez doesn’t just find sisterhood in her family. She is extremely close to her best friend Kristine. She met her through a mutual friend in their choir class, and the three of them constantly hung out together in choir. 

“I remember one day, she [the mutual friend] was gone, and me and her just clicked instantly, so we were all just very very close. They were like my sisters, like I felt more comfortable with them than my friends at the time” said Dominguez.

Despite their inseparability, the pandemic disrupted their time together. Spending time at home became boring and it was hard to maintain relationships online. So Dominguez picked up a significant hobby. She started to read for her own enjoyment. 

From fantasy to romance and crime, she’s found a whole new world to immerse herself in. Her favorite books are from the Twisted series, which follows a group of girl friends in college as they navigate their romantic lives.

The Twisted series, as Dominguez explained, had an impact on her because of the friendship and sisterhood the female leads exemplified. “That’s the reason why I liked the books, because it reminded me of my sisters and my best friend.”

All these tie back to the value of family and sisterhood for Dominguez. She has found family within her sisters, her cousins, her best friend, and reading. Without these things, sisterhood would not be the same for her. After all, sisterhood is family, and without family, Yanaly is not complete.