Panel: Immigration and Puerto Rico Today

The English Department of the University of Puerto Rico realizes a panel in March 25 to March 26. The title of the activity was Student Interventions in the General Studies: Interdisciplinary Projects and Creative Initiatives. In this activity many themes were developed. One of the panels I can assist was about the immigration. The tittle of the panel was: Immigration and Puerto Rico Today. Three girls talk about this topic, two of them were immigrant. They were from Dominican Republic. These two girls talk about the hard that is leave his country and come to a new one. They felt different, because of their dress and his accent. The accent is something that all persons has, not matter his country.

I think that come to a new country is a very hard decision, because you left the entire thing you now. Learning new traditions, sometimes a new language is not easy but the begging of everything is the hardest part. They talk about the xenophobe that is the discrimination of someone at cause of the country they come. One of the things she speaks was about a movement that does the president of the Dominican Republic, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. This president order the eradication of all the Haitians from the Dominican Republic, the way the authorities identify the Haitians was making them pronounce the word “perejil”. This type of word for them was very difficult because they don’t enounce the letter “r”. If the person cannot say correctly the word was killed.

When the Dominican girls talk about the movement this president makes, to eradicate the Haitians I felt so sad. I can think that a person can be so ignorant, and use his power to harm the others. Anyone has the authority to decide from the life of the others. In my opinion the world is huge and all persons deserve to decide the place they want live.        

The Rum Diary

The Rum Diary is an American movie based on the novel written by Hunter S. Thompson. The filming of the movie began in Puerto Rico for the year 2009. The history takes place in the year 1960. This movie presents us a character calls Paul Kemp that is starring by Johnny Depp. This character is about a writer that founds work in a newspaper. This newspaper is in the Old San Juan. In a part of the movie Kemp has have the opportunity of have a conversation with a couple Mr. Walt and his wife:

Paul Kemp: What you like most of Puerto Rico?”

Mr. Walt: “the bowling alley and the casinos”

Paul Kemp: “Have you seen a lot of the island?”

Mrs. Walt’s wife: “We don’t leave the hotel, it’s not safe”

Paul Kemp: “But you are having fun?”

Walt: “Oh yeah, a lot of fun”

In this conversation that has Paul Kempt with this couple we can see immediately they were tourist. Mr. Walt and his wife just come to have fun and they don’t care anything else. These persons don’t demonstrate interest to know the place they were or to enjoy in other part out of the hotel. In my opinion this type of conduct is more associated with the tourist. I only can imagine Jamaica Kincaid, because this type of thinking and conduct is the one she criticizes in his write “Small Place”.  In the other side maybe the character of Paul Kemp in my opinion is more like a traveler. I think this because he is more interested to know the place in where he is. I saw a character that want to interact with the people and wants to be part of the place. In the other hand, other character call Sanderson demonstrates the opposite. This character wants to have all exclusive and private away of the people.

This movie is a strong citizen to how the Americans saw the island. The movie tells us they see us like a business, a perfect place to make inversion get what they want and then go. Something very interesting is the way the newspaper presents the notice, because they want only to show a “dream” not a reality of what is happening in here. The film shows the puberty the society experiment and the ignorance about his rights. Also demonstrate how the Americans think they can do what they want, no matter the laws or the people. Finally tell us how they use the rum like a strategy to take advantage of the locals.                                         

A Day in the West

In my day as a tourist,I chose to go to Las Marías. This weekend in that town they were celebrating,"The Orange Festival". The majority of the towns in Puerto Rico have festivals. I planned my day with my parents and friend Orlando. We woke up early and begging our day eating at a bakery, called "La Cava del Norte". This bakery is in Vega Baja. Every body take a delicious breakfast, and look the place because have a extensive wine collection. One of the most curious things i saw there was a door with the following quote: "Life is to short to drink bad wine". I love that quote, because is a fact that life is to short and the wine is one of my favorites drinks. I think, was a poetic form to say something about wine. When we finished eating,we got back on the long road to Las Marías. But like in all trips we forgot to take some important things, and ended up at Walgreens. While there my mother was fighting over some prices with her coupon collection, and won. Finally, after some delays we were able to reach our destination.

While going up the hill in Las Marias, we were welcomed by a sea of cars and dozens of people selling oranges. There was a lot of sellers offering their hand crafted products. Personally i cannot resist, and bought a lot of little delights for my mother and i. During my exploration of the festival which took place at the plaza, i noticed the happiness, the colors and the loudness the "Boricuas" are. We continued walking around there and saw a beautiful map of Puerto Rico, that was like a puzzle and was made with different types of woods. I was very impressed by the level of craftsmanship that he must have and also shocked by its price tag. The map had a estimated value of $800.00.

Before we decide to leave, we had to have one of the festival special drinks which is called the Orange Colada. During our wait for these delicious drinks, we caught the eye of an unexpected visitor. The visitor was Ricky Rosello, the son of one of our ex governors Pedro Rosello. The people were very excited to see him, and they would not leave him alone. When we finally decided to leave, we got stuck behind a sea of people taking pictures with him. This demostrate us that Puerto Rico is an island very passionate about politics and its politicians . I think it is like a sport for many people that live here, it doesn't even have to be election year.

To complete our day, we took a slight detour to Cabo Rojo. There we went to Papas Pizza, a famous pizza place in that town. The cooks have won many awards in the United States, participating in culinary contest creating pizzas. The place was full of people, and we needed to wait a while to be attended. When we finally got our food served we forgot the all time we spent waiting, it was delicious. It was a great day, i enjoyed looking every single detail and admiring the way Puerto Ricans manifest love for Culture.

A Room with a View

                                    

     The movie A Room with a View is inspired in the written novel by Edward Morgan Forster. The movie takes place at the beginning in Florence, Italy. In Florence be two British women, one of them is Lucy Honeychurch and the other her cousin and chaperone Charlotte Bartlett. Both are touring and be in “The Pension Bertolini” hotel. The movie begins with them talking about the desire of a room with a view to the Arno. This could be considered the fastest example showing the movie, about the idea of a tourist and a traveler.

     In other scene show both of them continue talking about the view at the dining room, and Mr. Emerson another guess in the hotel offer to them switch rooms and said: I don’t care what I see outside. My vision is within. Here is where the birds sing. Here is where the sky is blue.” In my opinion is one of the most important quotes, because shows better the difference between a tourist and a traveler. I can say that Mr. Emerson was a traveler, because he have interest to see more than the beauty of a place, he wants to see what is around himself. Nevertheless Lucy and Charlotte only demonstrate interest to see the superficial things, only the beauty that eyes can see, not the things that really make beauty a place.

    Other scene later in the movie that tells us Lucy is just a tourist, is when a Italian ask her is she were traveling as a student of art and she says: “No, I am afraid not. I’m here as a tourist”. Then the local man said: “We residents sometime pity you poor tourist not a little. Handed about like a parcel of goods from Venice to Florence, Florence to Rome, quite unconscious of anything outside Baedeker. Their one anxiety to get done and flew and go on elsewhere.” This vision that the local could have about the tourist like Lucy is very similar to the vision that Jamaica Kincaid present of the tourist in his book “Small Place”. Because shows the simple interest of being in one place and not appreciate the place. Really a tourist goes so blinded by the excitement of being in a new place, that only see the big things and not little ones that form part of the place.

     Later in the movie we can see Ms. Charlotte Bartlett and Ms. Lavish walking around Florence. They get lose and Ms. Lavish said: “Two women lost in Florence, that is what I call an adventure”. I like a lot this quote, because can be seeing in a lot of forms. The reality is that a lot of persons can see this like an ignorant form because they were lost. But I interpreted like a woman than want to live the experience of being in Florence. She wants to feel everything and enjoy the place with all, the good and the bad things. Lost in my opinion is the best way to know a place, because you are going to do the necessary to come back. Sometimes getting lost is the best way of find ourselves.    

     The movie perfectly shows the difference between a traveler and a tourist. Demonstrating that a traveler is the one that wants to be part of the place and a tourist is just a person that wants to pass through the place. That traveler create a relationship with the environment, the environment becomes part of his experience. In the other hand the tourist just look the environment and don't create any link with them.

Helping

The thing I most liked about the chapter “Helping” was how the author demonstrated the difference between helping someone and helping someone cheat, especially the fact that he was able to provide a cultural background in all of it. The truth of the matter is that we are taught from little to seek help from those who sit next to us, as Cooper clearly states. For example, I remember when I was a little girl and my teacher use to say: “If you don’t know, ask whoever is next to you. If they don’t know, call me.” There is a very fine line between explaining how to do something and telling the person what to do. Sometimes is hard to help someone without actually doing the work for them.

      We are taught in a way that we feel that winning is not the most important but competing is. This feeling is taught to us in many ways. For example, in Puerto Rico there was a television program called “Uncle Nobel” where it showed winners and almost winners. In my opinion, that feeling of competition was not well encouraged as it is today. Being competitive is not a bad thing, one should always aspire to win or obtain a goal. However, too much focus on being competitive can cause unnecessary frustration and not as a motivational method for bettering one’s self.

                                  

     Learning to be fair is one of the most complicated things in life. Learning to differentiate between helping someone and doing the work for them is the trick. It is not always easy to tell someone you like no without them being offended. Culturally speaking, it’s especially hard for Puerto Ricans. We are not all able to obtain the same level of education and that can create limitations. However, we need to motivate ourselves to overcome any limitations and that is what will help us shine the brightest.  

Teaching English

      

        Puerto Rico is a country that has gone through many different situations because of its political status. Puerto Rico’s primary language is Spanish. Politics has always interfered with the country’s educational system throughout the years, during its many phases. One of the phases that marked the island was the moment that the country became a commonwealth of the United States. This union brought a solid implementation of bilingual studies in the island. However, the intention of making English the primary language over Spanish on the island came long before. On the other hand, the intentions of the United States to try and promote English on the island failed due to the resistance on behalf of the locals known as “jíbaros”. The major reason why the locals were against English was because they felt it as an imposition from the United States.

        The chapter “Teaching English” teaches us that the curriculum implemented by the United States to teach English was very deficient; it did not meet the needs required to introduce a new language to the island or the personnel capable of teaching it either. Also, those who did notice that the curriculum that was being offered did not meet the standards required and wanted to make changes were ignored completely. Today, looking at Puerto Rico’s past we can recognize that there has been progress with the assimilation of the English language. However, the teachings in many public schools in the island can still be considered deficient for students with interest in university studies. The current curriculum is weak and must be modified, given the fact that the English language has become the most commercially spoken language in the world.

Jamaica Kincaid Reflection

      Jamaica Kincaid was born in Antigua in 1949; she later became a writer. She was sent to New York to work as an au pair in 1965. Her native country of Antigua is an island that remained under the control of the British up to 1981. This fact has a large influence in Kincaid’s book Small Places. Due to the presence of the British, a large sense of discrimination arose against Antigua’s local habitants. In Small Places Kincaid demonstrates the large differences that existed between Antigua’s locals and the British power that ruled their island. A clear example of this in the book is when the doctor (Jewish refugee), demands certain conditions from his patients. The doctor would not treat any child that was not completely clean because if that was not the case he wouldn’t date to treat them. Another example presented in the book is the construction of Mill Reef Club, which was being handled by the North American, would not permit the presence of any Antiguan locals unless they were servants. A large number of examples are presented throughout Small Places. These examples presented by Kincaid help the reader understand why she is so hard on foreigners, holding a special sense of hatred towards the British and North Americans in particular. Without knowing Antigua’s background or Kincaid’s history, one would be under the presumption that she is filled with hate and resentment towards foreigners without just cause. However, as one reads Small Places the reader is able to understand the inequality that existed toward the Antiguans.

                              (Mill Reef Club)

      On the other hand, I still find the authors position unjust when looked at with an up to date point of view. We cannot judge people on the actions made by someone’s country in the past, it’s not a fair stance. Many foreigners visit the island of Antigua; a country which is economy is primarily based on tourism. In effect, the author should not be able to hold accountable the tourist or be so intolerant with visitors that cannot do anything to change the actions made by other people so many years ago. Additionally, the tourists that visit the island are exactly that: tourist. They are only there by passing and it cannot be expected of them to make a positive difference in a place where they will only be a few days. Kincaid cannot be so judgmental on every foreigner that touches Antiguan soil. Without a doubt, Antigua went through a very difficult time by those who were in power. However, we cannot forget the foreign tourist are who are currently uplifting the Antiguan economy.

      Now, given the period the author had to go through during her time in her native country created a horrible perception about outsiders. The author might not still have this perception about foreigners given her country’s independence which was obtained no more than 50 years ago. Discrimination still goes on today, there will always exist people in the world that have an unjust feeling of superiority. Although, we can be proud to say that there is significant less amount of discrimination today than 20 years ago. People have been able to create a much more tolerant and consciousness. Today, people understand that we are all different, and that our skin color, race, accent or native language aren’t a limitation of our abilities or mind and let alone a reason to discriminate against us.