Allison Trujillo StrongNardone, Christine (November 16, 2001). "Cutting the mustard Girl wins national Oscar Mayer contest". The Hudson Reporter. is from Union City, New Jersey. Her great-grandfather, who died in the 1940s, made his living in Colombia by writing poetry, an activity in which Strong herself developed a strong interest and connection to him."National Endowment for the Arts Presents Sixth Annual Poetry Pavilion at the National Book Festival: Biographies of Participants" . National Endowment for the Arts. Retrieved June 3, 2012. Strong grew up in a Spanish-speaking household and spoke only Spanish until an incident in a store. As Strong explains, "A woman yelled at my mother and told her that she should be ashamed of herself for not teaching me English, since I'd need it in school...From that point on, she only spoke to me in English. But once I got to high school, I decided to throw myself into the English as a Second Language program and took Spanish classes with all of the kids who had just come to this country, and it forced me to learn."Testa, Jim (December 2, 2013). "Meet Allison Strong, the Hoboken Music Awards' 'People's Choice'". NJ.com.
