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Sample Student final exam answers 2016 (2016 final exam assignment) Part 3: Model Research Reports |
LITR 4340
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Ashley Cofer
Puerto Rican Literature and Nuyoricans
When beginning my research, I originally was curious to learn more about
Judith Ortiz Cofer. I enjoyed reading
Silent Dancing and became interested in Puerto Rican writers. Being from
Puerto Rico is different from other immigrants because Puerto Rico is not a
country but a territory of the United States. Still, I feel that people from
Puerto Rico are still considered immigrants when coming to the United States. My
goal for this research assignment is to learn more about the Puerto Rican
culture and what its writers have produced. I would also like to know the types
of literature that have come from them.
While researching Puerto Rican writers, I came across an interesting
term: Nuyorican. I learned that this refers to New Yorkers of Puerto Rican
ancestry. They were also involved in what is called the Nuyorican Movement.
According to Wikipedia, it was a cultural and intellectual movement involving
poets, writers, musicians and artists who are Puerto Rican or of Puerto Rican
descent, who live in or near New York City, and either call themselves or are
known as Nuyoricans. Learning this information got me further interested in
Puerto Rican migration to New York City.
The first group of Puerto Ricans immigrated to New York City in the
mid-19th century when Puerto Rico was a Spanish Province and its people Spanish
citizens. The largest wave of migration of Puerto Ricans to New York City in the
1950s, known as "The Great Migration". According to Lawrence R. Chenault,
employment and underemployment and the opportunity for better wages in the
United States were incentives that propelled this migration. Without this
migration to New York, obviously the Nuyorican Movement would not have been
brought about. This makes the details of the migration to New York significant.
Further research on this topic brought me to information about the
foundations of Puerto Rican literature. According to Arnoldo Cruz-Malave, “one
of the most representative currents of Nuyorican literature sought to find an
authentic space for the Puerto Rican nation and self.” They were searching for a
place to belong which is similar to the many immigrant narratives we have read
this semester. He also stated that
“Nuyorican authors struggle to emerge from the spectral state of abjection to
which he is subjected by "internal colonialism," by "the System," "the Man”.
These words are all synonymous with the dominant culture. They were looking for
their place in society only to be dragged down.
Something that interested me was the role that music played in the
formation of Nuyorican identity. Berta Jottar writes “many first and
second-generation Nuyoricans remember their parents’ familiarity with Cuban
music as they listened to records of the Cuban orchestra La Sonora Matancera,
while the Cuban community listened to the Puerto Rican recordings of Rafael
Cortijo. He remembers first generation Nuyoricans and Puerto Rican immigrants
attending jam sessions at Bethesda Terrace by the early 1970s.” The immigrants
from Cuba and Puerto Rico mixed their styles and came together through music as
one big group. I believe that without these musical influences, their writers
and poets would not have done as well as they did because of the cultural
inspiration.
Upon further research, I learned what encompasses being a Nuyorican
writer. Edrik Lopez writes “Nuyorican poetry is obsessed with space. It
meditates in the literary by associating its space with a valence of national
identity.” This is saying that they pulled from their culture to write. “Above
everything else that Nuyorican writing has been concerned with—migration,
language, urban depravity—spatial constructions constitute the critical sites of
contention in Nuyorican poetry.” It was interesting to learn that this author
painted a ‘Nuyorican literary map’ to show how these writings relate to various
states of cultural awareness. “Nuyorican poetry is all about space, the poet
assembles an identity—the New York Puerto Rican—in the construction of those
spaces.” The author explains that Nuyorican poetry essentially repeats itself
because it is a way to imagine Puerto Rico, or home. “It repeats its images: the
streets, cockroach apartments, Loisaida, el Barrio, the projects, pawn shops,
prison, bodegas.” This is a way for them to stay connected to their own roots
while living in the dominant culture.
The information that I have learned relates to our course because the
writers that I am interested in have emigrated from Puerto Rico to the United
States. This information also relates to my career because I want to teach
English. Having a background on writers from different parts of the world will
help me to make the content relatable to my students. For further research on
this topic, I would like to discover what other Puerto Rican writers have
offered to literature as a whole.
Works
Cited
http://www.topuertorico.org/culture/litera.shtml
http://thelatinoauthor.com/
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/everychildisbornapoet/nuyorican.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rican_migration_to_New_York_City
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuyorican_Movement
http://lcw.lehman.edu/lehman/depts/latinampuertorican/latinoweb/PuertoRico/beforeww2.htm
Cruz-Malave, Arnaldo. "`What A Tangled Web!: Masculinity, Abjection, And The
Foundations Of Puerto Rican Literature In.." Differences: A Journal Of Feminist
Cultural Studies 8.1 (1996): 132-151. Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Nov.
2016.
Jottar, Berta. "Central Park Rumba: Nuyorican Identity And The Return To African
Roots." Centro Journal 23.1 (2011): 4-29. Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Nov.
2016.
L.
Chenault, “The Puerto Rican Migrant in New York City”
López, Edrik. "Nuyorican Spaces: Mapping Identity In A Poetic Geography." Centro
Journal 17.1 (2005): 203-219. Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Nov. 2016.
