In the Zentella article there is a lack of clarification that stood out to me in particular. Zentella often refers to the Puerto Rican community in New York City as one specific sub culture. I am curious however if she meant to exclude the different racial categories of the Puerto Rican community such as Tainos, Blacks, and Whites of Puerto Rican descent. Briefly in the article she talks about how many blacks and native islanders of Puerto Rico have Spanish surnames from the Spanish conquistadors who enslaved them. However she does not distinguish how each racial category within the Puerto Rican community may have different ways of speaking Spanish or English in the United States due to their economic advantages or disadvantages. She simply refers to Puerto Ricans, Whites, and African Americans as distinct cultures in New York as if Puerto Ricans are a separate race of people.
One sentence that confused me in the article was when Paca, the Taino girl from Puerto Rico who adopted African American ways of speaking, said "I don't like that, when a Puerto Rican tries to be Black" (Zentella 106). I was confused by this comment not only because Paca often times used common African American dialect when she spoke English, but also because many Puerto Ricans come from African descent.
In a video that I found on youtube.com it shows a young Puerto Rican college student who shows the difference between speaking Spanish and speaking English if one identifies as being Puerto Rican. In the English video, the college student says that many people who commented on her Spanish video said that she does not sound like she has a Puerto Rican accent but that she sounds "White". This goes to show that even though she may come from a White Puerto Rican background, she clearly distinguishes herself from that culture by calling herself Puerto Rican.
Although this may seem like a confusing topic to most who are not familiar with it, it has always been something that has intrigued me. As a Spanish major, I have taken many Latino studies courses that have taught me about the different Latino cultures including AfroLatinos. However, Latinos, no matter what racial group they belong to, are often described as one distinct culture even though they may come from many different backgrounds, i.e; European Spanish descent, African descent, or Indigenous native descent. I appreciated the article by Zentella but I wish that she had clarified how coming from different racial backgrounds from Puerto Rico can affect the lives and ways of speaking for Puerto Ricans living in New York City.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBJjZyw6e0I&feature=related -Speaking Spanish
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlQuajOshLc&feature=related- Speaking English
I like how you touched on the exclusion of the different sub cultures within the Puerto Rican culture (Black, White, etc..). The use of the youtube videos was good when explaining how people try to distinguish themselves from the culture they grew up in or they are categorized in.
ReplyDeleteI like how you talked about the lack of clarification. I think that a lot of times people fail to recognize or acknowledge the subcultures that exist within different racial groups. I also think it is interesting to note that different racial groups not only fail to recognize the divisions in their own race, but find divisions amongst other races confounding as well.
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