Can you define Puertorican?

[Stanley]

I was thinking about the "us versus them" issue and the idea of independence. Miranda mentioned the folkloric PR person and I realized I am not that folkloric.



Suki:

Since you are our resident scholar.
Can you define Puertorican?

Thanks

[L_F_Miranda]

Stanley said:

I was thinking about the "us versus them" issue and the idea of independence. Miranda mentioned the folkloric PR person and I realized I am not that folkloric.

Can you (anybody?) define Puertorican?

Thanks

If you ask a Statehooder, a Puerto Rican and an American is the same thing. Much like a Texan, an Iowan or a New Yorker is an American.

If you ask an independentista, its pretty obvious that a Puerto Rican (Us) and an American (Them) are like oil and water. The most that we resemble is that we're both human beings.

If you ask an American, a Puerto Rican and an American are two different things. Puerto Ricans are those folks you see dancing and fighting with knives in West Side Story. Actual response made by a Nebraskan.

If this is still not clear, lets look at it in another context that explains it better than words.

When Puerto Rico played the U.S. and WON at the olympics, it was a matter of Them and Us. It was never one region of the U.S playing another region of the U.S., like statehoders would have loved it to be seen. It was NEVER US AND US. Don't believe me! Ask the loosing dream team.

When Madona wrapped the Puerto Rican flag around her privates in concert, most Puerto Ricans were outraged. It was a Gringa Ho , Them, disrespecting Us. LOL

However there are always some, like certain folks we know here, who don't know what I'm talking about. LOL

[RPR]

Puerto Rico beating the US in basketball during the olympics still resonates in psych of basketball fans here.It was the talk of the office the next day after the defeat. Most Puerto Ricans where gloating except for one who is African Americanized. I overheard a white American saying "how could we get beat by PR" with such indignation. No surprise there. What was surprising to me is when I read New York Time's columnist Maureed Dowd's piece on the US defeat. It was extremely nationalistic with strong overtones of superiority.

There's a great skit done by Awilda Carbia impersonating La Doña Kate,an American who was married to Romero Barcelo while he was governor. In the skit Doña Kate (Awilda Carbia) explains how when she first arrived she thought all Puerto Ricans wore straw hats. Its pretty good satire that bears plenty of truth.

[Suki]

I have always thought Sidney Mintz (a cultural Anthropologist) did a very good job of defining Puerto Rico and the Puerto Ricans. Another person who lived in Puerto Rico for many decades and was an American from the mainland and who in his preface for his book "Puerto Rico Mio" and to me captured the very essence of the Puerto Rican ethos was Jack Delano. Look up his preface. It really says in very few words what makes us 'different' and any Puerto Rican that reads that and doesn't think what he says is the truth---isn't really much of a Puerto Rican. Instead, they are some type of hyphenated American who want desperately to be 'generic'. We all know who they are.

If one wants to know the contradictions of living in Puerto Rico and how native Puerto Ricans see themselves Rosario Ferre's literature combined with Jose Luis Gonzalez' "El Pais de Cuatro Pisos" sums it up very well Stanley.

Puerto Ricans are human beings first and foremost. They are Latin Americans. That is valid to say that. They don't speak English natively if they are born and raised on the island of Puerto Rico. That alone makes them different than the majority of people in the USA. Also, all Puerto Ricans are Americans. We are. We are and were Americans before the thirteen colonies were formed in the United States of America. So we are more genuinely and truly a product of the American Experience than the so called Mayflower Pilgrims. I think it is important to emphasize that. These are the AMERICAS. Plural "The Americas" not the singular "America". It is important to understand that as well. We are a diverse and mestizo group of people. A typical American mixture, and yet distinctly Puerto Rican, and distinctly Latin American, and distinctly Caribbean, and distinctly 'Boricua'. Lol. Is Stanley satisfied?

Those who think drinking Coca-Cola, wearing baseball caps and being associated with the USA for over one hundred years has altered our status from Latin Americans to generic 'Americans' are completely incompetent in ethnography and in knowing the differences between economic markers or classifiers and what is known in sociology as 'deep culture' vs. acculturation or adaptation to external influence. There is a profound difference. Japan for example has been profoundly changed by the Western influences over its long history in the last 70 years. But has the Japanese ethos really been transformed in the base (in its thought processes and in its essential components?) The short answer is "NO". When a culture is altered and assimilated it has key characteristics. If anyone is interested in what those are I will gladly describe it to them.

I love to use the linguistic analogy. English comes from German. Spanish comes from the Romance language group of languages. Rome. The Ancient Empire. All Romance languages have a pattern of syntax. If the syntax changes in a language, then the language is fundamentally altered, and basically that language becomes 'assimilated' and or disappears from the scene such as "Dalmata" or "Dalmatian" a dead Romance language, once that happens it is gone. Germanic languages all follow a syntactic structure (English follows this German pattern and so it is considered and classified as a Germanic language). Regardless of lexicon, and foreign word influences. English is very different from German. But it keeps the syntax at its core. Spanish keeps the Roman pattern at its core. Culture is very similar to linguistic comparisons and analysis. I suggest people see what it means in an essential way.

The short of it is that Puerto Ricans have been acculturated by the USA but not assimilated. As such, they are considered in every classification known in both sociology and anthropology and also in Ethnography as fitting the pattern of national identity. They occupy a landbase that is continual, they have a national history that is shared, they have a set of what are called cultural markers and shared value systems, and they follow a pattern of deep culture (this is the key folks), that is not of the metropolis. That is what makes us not assimilated. Not the economy, not the colonial state, not the 'race' or the look or the politic infighting. None of that crap counts. The other stuff does. I wonder if Stanley is satisfied with my non-Folkloric analysis? Hmmm. Ay BENDITO!

[Stanley]

Suki and Miranda: You both did a magnificent job.

To this day I still feel more kinship for anyone in Latin America than for a North American. Therefore we continue to be a Latin nation.

My kids who are born and raised in the USA feel Latin and not American. Maybe it is that thing that Miranda talks about regarding generational change.

A 5th generation Italian-American has a different outlook than a 5th generation German. These two will be different even though they were both born in the states. It seems it may take MANY generations before we become something else.

Nevertheless, I believe the USA will eventually be like PR-----------a mixture. In fact it is already a mixture.

[RPR]

Here is a video of one of Puerto Rico's most gifted comedian: Awilda Carbia. She is from my hometown Caguas to boot!

YouTube - Awilda Carbia- Iris Chacon y Doña Kate

She was a great impersonator as you'll see here as well.

YouTube - Awilda Carbia- varios personajes

[L_F_Miranda]

One of the things we all should be aware of is that , WE as a culture will not remain static, we will CHANGE! What will these changes be? Hard to tell now, but they will be coming down the pike.

I'm writing from PR now. These are my 2008 impressions.

1-There are highways galore, "tapones a troche y moche." Shopping Malls and American chain stores popping up everywhere. Circuit City and BEST BUY just to name two. All stores are full of folks buying like if the world was going to end tomorrow.

2-We are definately a MUSICAL PEOPLE! You hear it everywhere, music of all sorts, mostly with Afro-Caribbean tunes + Reggaeton by Daddy Yankee.

3-We have a problem with garbage. People throw it everywhere, cans, bottles plastic bags etc. When you point it out, they look at you like they don't know what you're talking about.

4- The island is a Developers dream. Concrete is eating up all our green valleys and trees are cut like nothing. Then we complain about the heat and mud slides into the water reservors. Duhhhhhhhh

5-Towns are in a rapid stage of "abandono" with grass growing on side walks, unpainted homes falling apart, like if folks have lost all sense of pride. Some areas look like Camden New Jersey. Is it strange why many people want to leave?

5-We are becoming more diverse. Like Sonambulo said, there are now Hasidic Jews on the island, those that dress in black frocks, women cover their hair, and worship separately. Some refuse to speak Spanish and see their country as Israel!

There is a growing Muslim population with some women wearing full time hajibs (kerships) and others wearing full Shadoors and Burkas showing their eyes only.

6-Large sections of Rio Piedras have become fully Black, from the influx of Dominicans. Our island is loosing its "looks white" appearance. How will this affect Statehood? Good question.

7-TV is basically in Spanish but there is a growing majority who have cable , which is 95% in English. Do they understand it ? I don't know.

6-I just heard on CNN that those who were voting for Obama were the Star Bucks crowd and those voting for Hillary were the Wall-Mart crowd. How this applies to Puerto Rico if we ever became a state, I don't know. We are all a Wall Mart crowd no matter the income level. LOL

8- Are we Americanizing? Are we bcoming like the gringos of Iowa or wyoming? I don't think so. We are in the process of becoming more ourselves , more Puerto Rican, less gringo and sadly, maybe less Latin American.