Diaz & Danticat interview

Here is a link to the interview/conversation between Junot Diaz and Edwidge Danticat. 

The Use of Language (Diaz's)

I haven't gotten that far into Diaz's book, but i definitely am in love with it.
For one, I have a lot of appreciation for writers of color that write in the ways that they and their communities actually speak. There's Spanglish, Black English, and probably some Dominican slang all in his book and it all comes together in a very natural way. I get the feeling that it's actually the way he speaks, and not just writes. The long footnotes, the use grammatically incorrect sentences, and his use of cuss words show a much more real writer who isn't writing a book to win an award, he's just writing a book to tell a story for a community.
Secondly, i found a quote from him a while back before I read the book in reference to some linguistic criticisms he receives about the book: "Motherfuckers will read a book that’s one third elvish, but put two sentences in Spanish and they [white people] think we’re taking over.” I suppose he's received criticism in reference to his use of Spanish in the book without translations. That, I think he does in order to connect with the audience he truly wants to connect with. And that so happens to be people of color, Latin@s, Spanish-speakers, etc. I think it's highly problematic that all books have to mold themselves around the typical middle-class white western English-speaking individual, and all others must conform to those standards. He goes against that and i have nothing but the utmost respect for that. 

Also, the idea of the Dominican male/masculinity and how it is constructed (as we can see through the relationship between Oscar and his mom, and really Oscar and his society/societies) is quite interesting. It brings to mind a clip from some old Star Jones television show I saw recently. She was interviewing the lawyer of a woman who was accused of molesting a 13 year old boy. The woman was white and the young boy was Latino. Star asks him (i suppose he inferred or actually said this at some point, maybe it was his defense) how a 13 year old child can consent to sexual activities. The lawyers responds that he resents the term "child" and that, given that he's Latino and has Latino machismo, they aren't really dealing with a child. "Who has a higher sex drive than Latino men?" said the lawyer. It further highlights the ways in which gender constructs are problematic, damaging, and unhealthy in a number of ways. Men of color, especially, feel the need to live up to certain extremes of masculinity and women of color, in a number of instances (for equally problematic and unhealthy reasons), are the main ones encouraging such hypermasculinity (as in the case of Oscar's mother).

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Although I don't talk very much in class, I really agreed with everything that was said in class on Tuesday.  Like the fact that being deprived of masculinity and power was a key concept of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.  It was so interesting to me to find out about the Dominican culture and what the women and men see as attractive and powerful compared to my own opinions of how I see these same things.  In this book, Diaz really places emphasis on gender and how it's such an important part of being from the Dominican and being a male and how being all maucho man is so important in their culture.  It's very clear in the book that Oscar lacks many qualities that one "should" have to be considered a strong, successful Dominican man.  For example, he is not very violent and would never fight anyone and is kind of a nerdy outcast because of these reasons.  I can kind of relate to Oscar on that nerdy, outcast level and sympathize with him and because of this I found his character to be my favorite of all the characters in the book.  I really enjoyed reading this book and saw characteristics in Oscar, even though he is a man, which are a lot like myself so it was cool to find out more about his character's strengths and weaknesses as I read on.  I was very happy to see that Oscar finally found that special love that made him feel more like a man at the end of the novel.  I found Oscar's desire to find that one special woman very admirable and more respectable than sleeping with a different woman all the time until he found the right one.  I think we could all agree that we would find a man like Oscar more "masculine" in real life than we would find a man like Yunior for example, or at least I know I would.

Steve Colbert and Oprah with Junot Diaz

“Want to talk about stubborn? I kept at it for five straight years. Five damn years. Every day failing for five years? I'm a pretty stubborn, pretty hard-hearted character, but those five years of fail did a number on my psyche. On me. Five years, 60 months? It just about wiped me out. By the end of that fifth year, perhaps in an attempt to save myself, to escape my despair, I started becoming convinced that I had written all I had to write, that I was a minor league Ralph Ellison, a Pop Warner Edward Rivera, that maybe it was time, for the sake of my mental health, for me to move on to another profession, and if the inspiration struck again some time in the future...well, great.”

This is a quote taken from an interview Oprah had with writer Junot Diaz in the November Issue of O magazine. I encourage everyone to read this magazine article. His story is inspiring and he reminds me a lot of the character Oscar Woa. Both felt out of place, one in society and the other in writing.

Diaz’s journey was not an easy one he himself “was not a natural born writer” but he knew he had a passion for it, much like Oscar did not fit in with the typical Latino stereotype he was overweight with a curly afro, Diaz was not the typical writer. He goes on to talk about how his writing was a passion but couldn’t get his thoughts together for more than 75 pages, Oscar Woa was a break through for he had almost given up.

Once again I am reminded of the journey that some most overcome to succeed. He represents the population of Latinos who still have to struggle to succeed in terms of class and gender.

In class watching that interview with Steve Colbert who is a reporter watched by many cracked so many jokes and racial slurs, I was blown away. Whether he was calling Diaz “amigo or brown friend” there was no denying that Colbert was trying to undermine his credibility. Here is an author, writer, and professor trying to promote a writing program at UGA and I felt racial tension and that Colbert didn’t take it seriously, but then again Diaz knew what he was signing up for when he said yes to interview.

Read more: http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Junot-Diaz-Talks-About-What-Made-Him-Become-a-Writer#ixzz2jFkdpsN5

I think Diaz’s descriptions of just about any and everyone in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is fantastico!  I especially enjoy how Trujillo was described “(El Jefe, the Failed Cattle Thief, and Fuckface)” just to name a few, and how we see these descriptions again for Trujillo throughout the work, I mean what’s not to love, the guy was all of these.

I like the way Oscar is unapologetic, while at the same time in dealing with the women (as Elizabeth mentioned in class), very humanizing.  I started to warm up to Beli a bit more in part Three. Even though I’m not big on violence, I can appreciate her no holds bar approach to life, where she literally and figuratively comes out swinging.

As for Oscar what a riot, how the ideal machismo stereotype is thrown out the window.  How he is truly wounded by heartbreak, and how he recognizes that his friends are not friends at all.  Oscar sister Lola is quite the character as well.  She seems to be following in her mother’s footsteps as far as discontentment is concerned. 

                      This is a book from a journalist in the field during Trujillo's dictatorship.

This is where the Gangster and  Beli spent her last primavera (season of beauty, youth) before it all fell apart!

Race and Ethnicity

Since we were talking about race and ethnicity especially pertaining to Latino/as and Hispanics. What do you guys think?

http://1nedrop.com/who-is-black-by-rosa-clemente/

Race and Ethnicity

http://1nedrop.com/who-is-black-by-rosa-clemente/


Since we are talking about race, ethnicity, and space. What do you guys think??

I found the video in class on Tuesday to be very interesting.  It's hard for me to believe that we as Americans felt that it was necessary and our place to go into Cuba and take control of their government and people without invitation.  One thing that I'm slowly learning from this class is that the United States always seems to think everyone else would love our help, when it's actually probably the other way around.  For Americans to go into Cuba and take control of a country where they clearly were not welcome is quite vain.  I find it very depressing that people have always, and some even still do today, found skin color to be such a differentiating factor in how people are looked at and treated.  For example, in the video when they were telling about how Puerto Rico was taken over by United States' and that even though the Puerto Ricans were technically U.S. citizens, they were not allowed to receive the same legal rights and advantages as citizens actually living in the states did.  They did this because the Americans saw Puerto Ricans as a lesser race than their own.  They were called names and Americans did terrible things to them, but for what reason?  Because they were from a different place?  To go even further with my point, Americans only wanted the Puerto Ricans to move to the United States because they were looking for cheap labor, and as soon as their labor wasn't of value to Americans anymore, they wanted them to leave, and even had the nerve to kick them out!  After the United States had gone into Puerto Rico, taken over their country, land and freedom, and they wanted to kick them out of their country just because they were taking up too many jobs.  Those facts were appalling to me.  I could never imagine if someone came and took over my home and then wouldn't "allow" me to come to their country because I wasn't "worthy" and because I was a different race than them.  How could anyone ever live with treating other humans this way??

Mexicans in America in the 1950's

"I'm at last in a country where everyone looks like their own master." -Jose Martin

Certainly everyone was their own master, but I think America quickly became disillusioned to Martin and the Mexican immigrants when they saw how anti-melting pot the U.S. really was. Martin came to America to gain insight and inspiration on how to create a better Cuba. As I watched Latino Americans in class on Tuesday, I realized these people had so much hope when they left their countries to pursue a better life in America. It was the prodigal land. A country you could succeed in simply by working hard. My heart went out to the millions of Mexican laborers who received such poor treatment and racial inequality here. They lived under a constant threat of being plucked from their home and deported back to Mexico. During the show, I kept thinking about how bitter and resentful I would feel if I was a Mexican immigrant during the 50's. Not to mention scared. We heard a few testimonials; such as the story of the woman who, after the deportation officials visited and demanded her family's expulsion from the United States, watched her father put his tools in the back of their family car along with the few clothes they all had. Then she joined her brother in the cramped backseat to return to Mexico. She even said when they reached the checkpoint she was offered by a social worker of sorts to stay in America if she pleased. I found her response profound: "No, I want to stay with my family." Being born in America, she was expected to find solace in fellow Americans. But how could she when said Americans were throwing her and her family out of the only home she has ever known?

Divisions within Latin@ communities

The documentary from Tuesday was very insightful and informative on a number of levels. One point that stood out to me was that, for numerous nations, there is a common practice of bringing in people from a particular community, using them for work, and once their presence ceases to be beneficial, they are coerced or forced (often through violence, on some level) back to where they came from. In the documentary, this was the case for the Mexican workers who built southern California from the ground up (something i didn't know of before watching the documentary) who, once the depression hit, were targeted as being the problem and shipped out of the country en masse. For Haitians, as well, this is and was the case for most of their history and relationship with the Dominican Republic. For African-Americans, as well, after we stopped working for nothing, many presidents and leaders encouraged Black people to return to Africa (which, in part, helped to establish Liberia). But given that a trip back to Africa costs much more than a one-way trip to Mexico, that option clearly wasn't as successful. I think it speaks to the ways in which power and money control people, even whole community's lives.

Something else that came to mind was a documentary i'd seen a while i was living in NYC for about 2 years (i believe this is it). It detailed the migration of Puerto Ricans to New York City in a similar fashion from the documentary we watched, however, it went more into detail of the types of discrimination they felt when they came. For one, they were seen as Black or a bi-racial group by whites, and thus treated similar to how Black people were being treated. On the other hand, they were treated as outsiders by African-Americans. Most African-Americans, even today, don't know that the vast majority of Africans during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade went to the Caribbean and South-America. So the encounter of Afro-Latinos is puzzling to most African-Americans. It's like "ok...you look Black, but why are you speaking Spanish?". It's an entire history/anthropological lesson (a course, really) missing from American "education" (if that's what we want to call it). The Puerto Ricans in the film felt like they had to choose between African-Americans and the other Latino-Americans (Dominicans, Mexicans, others from South-America), but there was a language barrier for the former group and a color complex inherent within the latter community, and weren't so keen on Afro-Latinos. So, they were in the middle and ostracized from both potential allies.
Another sad situation was when many of them had to attend public schooling. Given that many of them looked Black, they were treated in the same way African-Americans were treated. But unique to them was their language. So many of them coming as young children only knew how to speak Spanish (with a Puerto-Rican accent and slang). As opposed to the teachers rising to the occasion of connecting with children (who are the most flexible at learning a second language), they generally threw them into special-education and remedial classes, and many of them either dropped out or never left those category of classes. It was just a horrible situation to be in, as immigrants in a new place, living largely in poverty, feeling as if they have no home, etc.

The chapter in the book about Mexicans and gentrification is interesting as well. Like I said, I lived in NYC for about two years, and living there was the first time that i'd come into contact with a large group of diverse Latinos. Only there did I learn, really, the diversity of Latin-America, but also about the divisions. Dominicans live here, Mexicans here, Puerto-Ricans have this neighborhood, Cubans have this area of this borough, etc. From the perspective of subjectivity, they're all seen as the same (this is the way I saw all Latinos prior to moving there. Indeed, most Alabamians refer to all Latinos as "Mexicans"), whereas they have their own identities, music, histories, relations to the U.S., etc. Chapter 5 talks about how Mexicans are underrepresented in relation to Puerto-Ricans, and how they're seen by African-Americans and other Latinos as bringing in gentrification. It all seems very absurd to me. The communities of color that should be coming together and fighting their common issues are some of the most divided communities.

Also, Professor Shoaff mentioned the Nuyorican Poets Cafe (which i've been to a couple times. it's one of my favorite places in NYC) and i found a video for those who aren't familiar with the Cafe. The spoken word poet speaks about her Cuban heritage, assimilation, and Celia Cruz (see here).

Lost in translation

As I think on the subject of race in America I wonder why it was first created. We have accepted race as a normal part of life when in reality it only defines our acceptance of inferiority and the allowance of European supremacy in America. While watching the video in class my eyes were opened to the situation of the early Cuban and Mexican Americans and how their struggle was just a few of many in the plight of the minority class. Mexican and Cuban Americans came here to seek freedom and to attempt to re-establish themselves with the ultimate hope of taking the assumed experiences of their American lives back to their home country. America has a tainted history of promoting the American dream when no-one including American born Americans can truly attain such an unattainable thing. Mexican Americans have had such a hard time acquiring citizenship in current day that I thought this was something that only started in the past few decades and not that it had started so long ago. I believe that the most simple thing underlying racism is skin tone and that is what truly allows us to see a difference in others in comparison to ourselves. Cuba and the Cuban Revolution were pretty much erased form history in America. It took me 23 years to ever hear about this and I was extremely shocked to hear that there was such a strong Cuban influence in early America. Marte, a Cuban immigrant relocated to the states,  gained insight in American culture but quickly lost faith in America and all he thought it promised. At the height of the Civil Rights Movement Marte’ saw the racial tensions between white in blacks in America and knew that if that blacks who were born here were seen as lesser than then Cubans would definitely have a hard time trying to gain equality and citizenship in the states. He started a political movement by sending money and allying with Cuban cigar workers in order to start a movement in Cuba that he hoped would give Cuba more power. Also he understood that at the rate that America was gaining power that the Cubans had to act fast in their ascension to power or they would be swept under the rug. There was just so much I learned in viewing this video that I do not even know where to stop. All in all America has systematically gained power by making darker skin feared and disregarded.

Latino(a) Americans

“Not all East Harlemites consider the area as a Puerto Rican and Latino stronghold, but as a multicultural community with a revolving door of immigrants, a community that is of and for everyone to claim” (Davila 107).

America is the land of the immigrants, but often we forget that. We act as if we are somehow indigenous to this land and being overtaken by "outsiders," conveniently forgetting that we are outsiders. Just yesterday I had an officer jokingly tell of how "they illegals they ain't got no rights" when he forced all Hispanic men in an area to be swabbed for DNA without their consent. I thought well obviously you've never read the constitution. The entire point of "unalienable rights' is that they cannot be alienated from anyone, not even illegal aliens, or at least that's the opinion of the Supreme Court. Even those who have once been on the receiving end of systematic racism sometimes forget our immigrant status. I have been in many awkward situations with the anti-attitudes of my family and friends towards Spanish speaking peoples. They have made comments about deportation and in support of Alabama's unconstitutional attempts of immigration reform. They say "if you wanna live in America speak English" as if we have a national language, as if if we did it would not be unconstitutional, as if that doesn't go against every principle of America. To say this is America so you are not welcome is to eviscerate the very definition of what America is suppose to be. America is supposed to be a free nation, America is suppose to be a melting pot, a concentration of world culture. Language, food, music these are not the largest component of American culture. Freedom is the largest part of American culture. We shouldn't worry about losing or language, or our food, or our skin color. We should worry about losing our freedom. America is not great because it speaks English or because of white supremacy. America is great because it is the land built on the principles of equality and the leader of the free world.

"Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
The wretched refuse of you teaming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

These are the words on the Statue of Liberty. People, we have a STATUE OF LIBERTY. That's what's important: liberty and justice for ALL.

Internal Struggles

When I was reading in Barrio Dreams problems of elitism within El Barrio, it reminded me of the internal problems faced by the Mexican American Civil Rights Movements of the 1960's- by Gentrification. The problems that lay in groups like the Mexican American Political Association [MAPA] and the Community Service Organisation CSO, encouraged Caesar Chavez to form the United Farm Workers (UFW). I found the similarity between attitudes towards middle-class Mexican groups in the sixties similar to those felt in New York's Mexican groups, like UNIMEX and AMAT since “most Mexican activists in El Barrio described themselves as local alternatives to the Mexican Consulate...they saw themselves as correctives to its elitist orientation,”(p.176) showing the problems of a missing element of grass roots representation in the boards of community organisations.

These Mexicans did not migrate out of economic need, are employed and have an education. Lower class Mexicans believe that while these groups intentions are good at heart, they are “emphasising choice and consumption [rather] than East Harlem's neediest”(p.223) and that they “control this type of development for themselves and for El Barrio.” (p.223) Within the work that the middle-class achieve, there exists an importance of achieving business for their own entrepreneurial existences, and that sometimes less well off people's need are placed second.

The “hierarchy of Latindad, to distance oneself from the lowest ranked racial/ethnic groups, is to estrange oneself from Puerto Ricans and increasingly Dominicans.” Seemed to me to be another recognition of separation between groups similar to that of the Civil Rights struggle of the sixties. Since some activist groups refused to work together with others, because they felt that their struggles were so different. Here, in this article, there is a tone that between groups, they see other Latino groups as “lazy, uneducated, loud and especially “uncultured” as compared to Mexicans”(p.171) Problems of the “good” and “bad” stereotypical immigrant citizen then come into use that have negative consequences on the community as a whole. 

Immigration

Throughout this course, we have talked a lot about the people and cultures of the Caribbean. One factor that has remained consistent to the Caribbean is traveling and immigration.

 

In class on Tuesday, we watched a program on PBS called "Latinos in America" on the immigration of Puetro Ricans and all Latinos into America in the early-mid 20th century. But many don't realize what an impact on todays society in the United States that latinos made in the early 20th century.

 

Here is a video which puts the impact of Latino Americans  in perspective

 

Also if you are interested in finding out more about the program series "Latino in America", you can watch it on PBS online, heres a clip of what you would be in store for

 

 

The United States, the land of the free and of opportunity has faced some hard times, which is no hidden fact, but while in our history classes we are learning about the depression and "hoovervilles" and the struggle to find work, we aren't looking at the immigrants that came to America to find work during this time and how they were essentially shunned. Americans wanted the immigrants to leave so they could have more job opportunities but what they wouldn't have noticed at the time was the impact having all of those immigrants led too.

 

I believe that everything happens for a reason, if things have gone differently then the world could be a totally different place today. America needed those immigrants and the combining of cultures to be the great country that it is today.

Latinos/ Latinas Living in a Home they aren't welcomed in

“Not all East Harlemites consider the area as a Puerto Rican and Latino stronghold, but as a multicultural community with a revolving door of immigrants, a community that is of and for everyone to claim” (Davila 107).

Whatever happened to America being a Melting Pot? Whatever happened to the American Dream? I thought America was the place where anyone can have freedom. I thought America was a place where anyone that works hard has the opportunity for success. I guess everyone except for Latinos/Latinas. Latinos/Latinas are considered a threat to the American societies because people complain about loss of jobs? Or is it because they assume that Latinos/Latinas are using all of America’s government sources? Is it possible that these men, women, and children cross the boarder and migrate north in order to have the same opportunity at success, good life, and great health as any other human being? Instead, the American society criminalized and dehumanized them. To many Puerto Ricans and Latinos, places like Harlem, is a community for them to have the opportunity at the American Dream. That is a community for everyone to evolve, succeed. It is a community where they can feel welcomed inside a nation they aren’t welcomed in.

“For many, East Harlem was the ghetto, and the idea was to leave. But though people moved to the South Bronx and other parts of the city, their cultural life was in El Barrio. They have a Puerto Rican Day Parade and parties in the Bronx, but [it] is never the same as the one in El Barrio, because El Barrio is the cradle of Puerto Ricans… and I have lived in Harlem and the Bronx, and I still have never felt as good as I felt in El Barrio.” -Felix Leo Campos p 40

Urbanization is a major concentration in the study of urban political economy because it studies how economic factors, such as production and consumption, is related to the law and government. Urbanization is the physical growth of cities in “revitalized” urban areas, which results in gentrification because these “up and coming” neighborhoods’ demographic changes when middle and upper class start to move in, displacing the poor. In doing this, the working class and poor move to different areas of the cities and the whole cycle starts over. Even though, revitalization of affordable and public housing is a selling point for those who are being pushed out of these neighborhoods, it in a way  focuses on the containment of the lower class racial and ethnic minorities.

Now, I’m all for public housing and social programs that help to those who need it, I think it is part of being a “democratic” society, but my problem lies with the government only allowing “certain types” of minorities into these neighborhoods that are deemed as charitable. Racial and ethnic minority caucuses allow minorities to feel a sense of connection to those around them, whether they came to the United States voluntarily or involuntarily. There is cultural connection that you do not get when you are the only face of color in a sea of white. There is a feeling of content and happiness being around people that look at you, not having to be paranoid or worried that people are questioning your belongingness ( is that a word?). However, By pushing people of their homes because of their class is the government saying that you are not worthy of having a space to feel a comfortable. Since you do not fit the “image” of a minority, are stuck somewhere in the middle by both mainstream society that only wants you when it's convenient for you or even ostracized by one’s people because they have internalized this image of what it means to be Dominican or Mexican or Black.

The New York Times, City Room, Blogging From the Five Boroughs, 2009

Article by Jennifer Lee

The Young Lords’ Legacy of Puerto Rican Activism

This article discusses the beginnings of this New York chapter, the origins being in Chicago and with a bent more towards politics.   Lee quotes Pablo Guzman, “a founding member of the New York City’s Young Lords, who is now a correspondent for the WCBS-TV.”  Guzman tells Lee that many of their members were children of rural Puerto Ricans that had migrated in the 1930’s and 1940’s.  Guzman says that public services for their community were appalling, and nothing was being done about it, so they used confrontational tactics to draw attention to their situation.  These tactics involved burning trash on the streets, taking over a church, and occupying it to provide care for its people, and taking hospital equipment for their needs.  The FBI infiltrated the group in the early 1970’s, and there was also political infighting, the group disintegrated around this time.   The group still holds anniversaries, but there are mixed feelings about Puerto Ricans circumstances as conditions have changed very little since this time.  However, they are extremely proud of Justice Sotomayor’s success, who is Puerto Rican and “the Young Lords alumni view as their own.” 

I enjoyed this piece from the PBS program “Latinos in America.”  It gave me more of a background as to the Cuban War of Independence, and about the intellectual Jose Marti who had an extraordinary life.

I also like the way this film highlighted Puerto Ricans migrations during and after the great depression.   Equally as interesting is the Mexican immigration and history in Los Angeles.  How they were targeted for repatriation by their barrios, and the color of their skin.  This was the largest repatriation in American history and violations of the rights of its citizens.