LITR 4333 American Immigrant Literature UHCL 2006 student web highlight

LITR 4333: American Immigrant Literature

Student Web Highlight 2006

Tuesday, 7 March: Caribbean Immigrants: Minorities or Immigrants?

Web Highlight: Maria Garcia

Introduction: I went through the 2002 and 2003 midterms and I found something related to this week's topic. One of the similarities that I found was that the characters in this week readings go back to their past that ties to something about their culture.

“This can be seen in Martin Espada’s “Coca-Cola and Coco Frio”, where the boy visiting his relatives in Puerto Rico is searching from table to table – all of his Puerto Rican relatives keep handing him Coca-Cola and push him away from the foods from the Puerto Rican culture. Searching for something different he finds Coco Frio and finds his link back to his culture – “Puerto Rico was not Coca-Cola or Brooklyn, and neither was he”. [GH]

The boy in the story goes to Puerto Rico for the first time to learn more of his family traditions. In the trip he experiences coco-frio, a traditional Puerto Rican drink, for the first time.

“Paule Marshall, author of “The Making of a Writer: From the Poets in the Kitchen,” was born in Barbados and grew up in Brooklyn. In this narrative, she recalls that the people who most influenced her writing were the “group of women around the table…They taught me my first lessons in the narrative art.” [KM]

While listening to the novelist the author goes back to her childhood and remembers her mother and friends talking in the kitchen with a certain style that she does not have.

“In "Report From the Bahamas" June Jordan further explores the complexities of immigration and the blending of immigrant and minority narratives. The author, a Afro-Caribbean and the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, stays at a Caribbean resort and searches for her identity.” [AS]

In this story the author while going to the Bahamas realizes many of the issues that are affecting people that identify with her.

Conclusion: Each of the stories goes back to something that ties to their past and to their traditions in some form or another. Some midterms were more helpful than others because many are written about the first stories we read. It was a good experience in going through them, so I know what Dr. White expects in the midterm.