[yautiawoman2]

[quote]Originally posted by torr59
[b]Point well taken.

Now lets make categories of culture to explain how I mean culture, for your edification, beyond formal culture.

Unfortunately formal is where most people start and where most people stay. Formal is what I call museum culture. It is the culture you can teach in a classroom. It is the culture you can see, hear and touch in a museum. When a culture dies, or is dying, people want to see it in a museum. You know, this is how the people lived, this is a bohio, this is their music, here are their bateys, these are their symbols, their clothing, their arts and crafts.

Now when a culture is alive and well it can borrow from many other cultures but there is a core essence, there is the deep culture that only comes from the day to day living with the people. Take for instance the life of the Viequenses, you must experience the sea from a tiny fishing boat, una yola. You must take that lancha back and forth to buy the bare essentials, not that there are no such places on Vieques, but people complaint about the quality, the prices, the freshness etc. What about medical services?; There is an issue: transportation during an emergency, not easy, and a great issue for the populares that became involved in providing essential medical services right on the island of Vieques. You would think the Navy, with all its might would like to be good neighbors, they have never been, I wonder why?

Then there is the problem of housing, jobs and education for the youth or young married couples in Vieques. What about the viejos who love to retire there because they find it is less stress than living in Bayamon? That my friend is deep culture, to understand it is to live it, to hear it, to get into arguments about it and who is responsible and how to solve all these problems, the bare essense of daily existence.

Then there is situational culture, you see how apprehensive the gringos who are part of the military who had retired in la isla nena became, they looked frightened, and closed their doors and did not interact very much with the viequenses, when the confrontation between the people and the Navy became a red hot issue. In the middle of it all, I spoke with a bunch of gringo turist who vacationed in la Esperanza, in the public beaches, eat at the restaurants and even rented houses in Vieques and did not even notice Camp Garcia! I had to get a copy of the Vieques Times and read a few articles to them so they could understand where they where, not just on a Caribbean Beach.

Then there is the conflict between the political parties, after all this is our national sport, arguments between populares, estadistas and independentistas. It is called situational culture, we find an opportunity, a situation, and voila! there we go, in the carro publico, la lancha, la guagua, anywhere and everywhere in a big, long discussion about politics. And people will say, don't get involved in public discussions about religion or politics, ay bendito, forget that, it can't be done! It matters not the mix, all PRs, PRs of different parties, PRs and others ie. cubans, dominicans and virgin islanders, even the gringos who are willing to get down and dirty (not too often), we will get into it, hot and heavy, this my friend is situational culture. The issues all touch our deep culture, it's called the affective domain; it is deep, but because all we need is the situation and we will jump into politics, religion, socio-economics, history, music, world view, you name it, we will go at it! And we love it! We negotiate this situational culture through politics, through tolerance, through a true sense of social justice. How? In the case of Vieques by becoming active in something called: GAT/P (Grupo de Apoyo Tecnico y Profesional al Desarrollo Sustentable de Vieques). Or by supporting the women, the fishermen, the political parties or the churches that are involved in the movement.

Now here is an important issue. The issue of Language and Communication.

In the USA this becomes much bigger, 30 million plus are affected; It is a major struggle, the issue of language and Latin American culture. true we are in a constant defense of our language at home, but when we are out of our Puerto Rican milieu then we really get ferocious. Take for instance the English Language Loyalty battle, they (The English Only Mob) have lots of money and are always trying to get ways to get 35 States to pass a Gringo Constituional Ammendment to make English the Official language in the USA. Here even the Cuban from Dade County get into the act!

We need to box all these up for the gringos because in reality there is no such compartmentalization, but because so many have been brain washed, we need to make these dicotomies and create divisions in what people consider "culture." Just so they can start getting out of their boxes, just to have a small opening for the dialogue. So here goes another category:

Philosophy, world view, values and morals. This is not even a debate, the minute you attack the gringo paradigms, the debate, the dialogue is over. The gringo paradigms are predicated on psychology, on genetics, on racism, classism, sexism and all those isms that serve as control to keep each group in their cubby holes. And Gringos have such a hard time when you refuse to give them their stereotype, when they ask you and where do you come from, and how come your English is so good? Or where did you learn that accent? When it comes to the Puerto Ricans, outside of New York, New Jersey and Chicago, they have no idea where Puerto Rico really is in the world map. Well you know where Miami is, yes? Then there is Cuba, yes? Then Haiti and Santo Domingo, yes? Well trust me there is a sequence, they are called the greater Antilles, then there is Puerto Rico. No, no on the Pacific, the other side, the Atlantic!
Ah, to negotiate an existance with such people on a day to day basis, not easy, my dear, not easy!

History and the Oral tradition. Now there is a lot to be discussed here. Starting from the traditional and ending with the formal agreement between human groups who have defined themselves as different from other groups. The history of the struggle for the liberation of our people, the history of a colony in the year 2002, who would believe what we say to people about our struggle? It goes against everything that the empire promotes and says they uphold. Everything, democracy, peace, justice, human and civil rights, equality, freedom...y no quiero seguir, estoy vieja y cansada y tengo tanto que hacer. Me me entretengo con estas "posteadas". ME PROVOCAN! Ya, basta ya!

So please, try to go beyond formal culture, please.

Sincerely,

Yautia