ipl-logo

Ending Poem: The Struggle Of Puerto Rican Identity

1273 Words6 Pages

These words by poets Aurora and Rosario Morales, Puerto Rican Americans, reveal the struggle of the average Puerto Rican. For example, most islanders do not fully understand who they are or how to present themselves when someone asks, “What is your family’s ancestry like?” or, “Where does Puerto Rico get its unique culture?” These questions spark the idea of a questioning identity. This is because the island of Puerto Rico was formed with the help of many different cultures. Are the people of this island African? Taino? European? The speaker in “Ending Poem” struggles to find her Puerto Rican voice which reveals the same struggle of Puerto Rico to define its own identity as an independent nation. In 1493, Christopher Columbus found the island of Puerto Rico and claimed it to the Spanish naming it San Juan Bautista. The island did not become known as “Puerto Rico” until the year 1521. Puerto Rico was then conquered by Juan Ponce de Leon in 1509. The indigenous people of the island were Taino indians who became slaves after the Spanish arrived. As many Taino indians died …show more content…

In my opinion, this island has grown from where they started but are not fully ready to become an independent nation. The people may feel “whole” because they have built their culture from all of these different types of people that have taken over their island these past hundreds of years, but they still heavily lean on America’s government. Why would Puerto Rico choose to become independent anyway? People born on the island are automatically born as United States citizens and have all of the rights of a natural born, U.S. citizen. Puerto Rico is ruled by our government, has the same rights as Americans, and even use the U.S. dollar as their currency. If this island suddenly chose to become independent, everything would change

Show More
Related

Latinidad: The Challenge Of Latina

608 Words | 3 Pages

In the reading, “(Re)constructing Latinidad: The challenge of Latina/o studies.” it explains the challenge that is, defining what it is to be a Latino in America. In the reading, it gives reasons as to why there is a challenge, examples include how diverse the Latino community is in America and how others in America perceive the Latino community. After reading the article, I saw two main ideas that Aparicio had and they were; redefining what it means to be Latino in America and to show that there are issues in the Latino community that need to be addressed. Then I will provide my reaction based on the ideas I got out of the reading.

Read More

Puerto Rico In The Late 1800s

222 Words | 1 Pages

As a Puerto Rican citizen, I do not fit in to that part of our history very much. In the late 1800’s, Puerto Rico was not a U.S. territory; instead, it formed part of the Spanish empire. It wasn’t until the end of the Spanish-American war that Puerto Rico became a U.S. property. Even then (after being conquered by the U.S. in the year 1900), the common American belief was that Puerto Ricans weren’t inherently equal any more than they thought that blacks were racially equal to whites. Rather, because the American public wouldn’t consent to treating Puerto Ricans as equals or granting them citizenship, the U.S. had trouble keeping the island as an imperial possession.

Read More

Judith Ortiz Cofer's Silent Dancing

1389 Words | 6 Pages

Stories and memories passed on through generations can help to shape an individual. In many instances, storytelling can tell a lesson or push a person’s opinion about something in a certain direction. Memories can sometimes be unreliable, but can also be all that someone can base their life off of. Judith Ortiz Cofer’s memoir Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican childhood uses storytelling to share her memories in a life lesson manner.

Read More

Summary Of 'On The Island I Have Seen'

946 Words | 4 Pages

Everyone has their own perspective of things whether they have experienced it first hand or through second hand information. In Judith Ortiz Cofer’s poem, “On the Island I Have Seen” she gives a glimpse of what life in Puerto Rico is like from a unique perspective. Her use of imagery contributes to the theme of the poem which illustrates the struggles of life on the hot Caribbean island. Cofer was born in Puerto Rico, but growing up she moved back and forth between Puerto Rico and America. She stated in an interview: “But I think culture is very complex.

Read More

Cultural And Cultural Beliefs Of Puerto Rican Culture And Health

1385 Words | 6 Pages

Puerto Rico, an unincorporated island of the United States, have their own set of cultural beliefs. The foundation of the Puerto Rican structure is family. The word “familismo” is a Puerto Rican word that means close family connections, and it emphasizes the concern for the well-being of the family (Maria de Lourdes B. Serpa, Ed. D, 2005). Although I was born in the United States, my family is from Puerto Rico (Kay, 2018).

Read More

Devastation Of The Indies Analysis

867 Words | 4 Pages

“And all the land so far discovered is a beehive of people; it is as though God had crowded into these lands the great majority of mankind.” (Las Casas) During the time when the people of Spain took over those lands, the islands were all severely depopulated and devastated over time. The people of Spain coming to the island and selling and killing people had detrimental effects. “More than thirty other islands in the vicinity of San Juan are for the most part and for the same reason depopulated, and the land laid waste.

Read More

Informative Speech On Puerto Rico

881 Words | 4 Pages

Thanks to the Military Outpost known as El Morro in San Juan all attacks failed until “Boom Sound” The United States. Transition 2: “I have just informed you about Puerto Rico before it met the United States, now I’m going to discuss How The United States took her from Puerto Rico.” How the United States took her from Puerto Rico Source 3: “Puerto Rico.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, retrieved 19 Oct. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico#Pre-Columbian_era.

Read More

Puerto Rico Should Become A State Essay

896 Words | 4 Pages

The island has been a territory ever since. The people of Puerto Rico are natural born US citizens and are governed by a constitution. It is the most populated of all US territories. Its form of currency is the US dollar and has a population of 3.548 million. Reasons Puerto Rico might not become a state is because 41% of its people live in poverty.

Read More

Essay On Mexican Immigration

757 Words | 4 Pages

Hispanic Americans, or Latinos, are a very large and diverse ethnic group in the U.S. Altogether, they make up about 44 million people or 15% of America’s population. Individuals who make up this category can identify with various nationalities and backgrounds. However, the 2010 U.S Census – as stated in the textbook -- reported that 75% of its total Latino respondents identified being of Mexican, Puerto Rican, or Cuban origin. According to the lecture notes, 65% of Hispanics claim to be Mexican Americans, while 8.5% are Puerto Ricans and another 3.5% are Cuban Americans.

Read More

Piri's Double-Sided Identity

1301 Words | 6 Pages

Black and Puerto Rican: Developing Piri’s Double-Sided Identity For centuries, American citizens have possessed a tendency to view ethnicity in black and white. A person without pale skin and smooth hair is characterized as black without regard to his or her self-identification. Given the racism prevalent in society, this black-white paradigm causes difficulty for people who are not comfortable in one or either category. Piri Thomas was one of these children, and his memoir recounts his struggle to understand himself. In Down These Mean Streets, Thomas demonstrates how the protagonist Piri’s confusion with his skin color and Puerto Rican heritage lead him to eventually acknowledge and appreciate his identity as an Afro-Latino man in America.

Read More

Argumentative Essay On Puerto Rico

1390 Words | 6 Pages

Many Puerto Ricans have always dreamed of seeing their beautiful commonwealth become its own country. American laws today are imposed on the territory, but by leaving Puerto Rico to make its own choices, the citizens could design their government whichever way they would like. This choice has the support of many current Americans, from former inhabitants of Puerto Rico wishing for independence to politicians not wanting to support the island in times of need. On the contrary, Puerto Rico has been the colony of a nation for hundreds of years. They have not had independence since before Spain took over the island in the 1500s, and because of that, it could be disastrous to simply cut all ties with the nation.

Read More

Puerto Rico Compare And Contrast Essay

653 Words | 3 Pages

Sitting in the waters of the Caribbean Sea are two islands known as Cuba and Puerto Rico. When viewing these islands, the most common error individuals make is mistaking the two islands as being identical to each other. In reality, Puerto Rico and Cuba each have distinct differences that make themselves unique. To begin with, Puerto Rico and Cuba each have completely different government conditions.

Read More

Avocado Lake Gary Soto Analysis

1578 Words | 7 Pages

The Power of Hope Gary Soto brings the impoverished, crime filled streets of the Mexican-American communities where he grew up to life by “evoking the harsh forces that often shape the life for Chicanos” (“‘Gary Soto’: Poetry Foundation” p. 1). He combines an archetypal young love poem with the concept of poverty to create the powerful poem: “Oranges” (1985). Soto also works with the notion of old age and the importance of life in his somber poem: “The Seventieth Year” (1986).

Read More

Cultural Aspects Of Geert Hofstede's Cultural Dimension Model

942 Words | 4 Pages

Power is not evenly distributed in the country and there are times where the citizens will try to rectify that imbalance of power. Other times, citizens will just accept their place in society without making any political waves. Haiti is much more a collectivist society rather than an individual society because family is crucial in the Haitian household. This is because it can take several incomes and individuals to pool their resources together to sustain life.

Read More

Versos Sencillos By Jose Marti: Poem Analysis

791 Words | 4 Pages

José Martí was a brilliant 19th century writer, poet, political and revolutionary leader, and Cuban intellectual; however, above all else, José Martí was a proud Cuban citizen. Though born to two Spanish parents, Martí never waivered in his identity as a son of Cuba, and he would spend—and eventually give—his life fighting for the cause of Cuban independence. Martí loved his native country, and desired freedom and pride for all Cubans. Never was this more apparent, than in his poem, “Versos Sencillos” (Excerpts from Simple Verses). The resistance from oppression infused with Cuban patriotism prevalent in this piece, is central to Marti’s message and to the Cuban Revolution as a whole.

Read More

More about Ending Poem: The Struggle Of Puerto Rican Identity

Related Topics

Open Document