In writing A Voyage Long and Strange, Tony Horwitz’s goal is clear, to educate others on early America and debunk ignorant myths. Horwitz’s reason for wanting to achieve this goal is because of his own ignorance that he sees while at Plymouth Rock. “Expensively educated at a private school and university- a history major, no less!-I’d matriculated to middle age with a third grader’s grasp of early America.” Horwitz is disappointed in his own lack of knowledge of his home country, especially with his background history and decides not only to research America’s true beginnings, but to also follow the path of those who originally yearned to discover America.
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.
There is only one person in our lives who loved and protected us from the moment that we born, our mothers. Thinking about that important person, Willie Perdomo wrote the poem “Unemployed Mami” in 2002 as part of the book Postcards of El Barrio (Poetry Foundation 2015). In “Unemployed Mami” and Postcard of El Barrio the author explores the culture, traditions and even the patriarchy that characterizes Puerto Ricans. Moreover, Perdomo shares the life of a son and the life of his beloved unemployed mother, in a time where women stayed at home without having a job, living from what their husbands earn. In order to enjoy and appreciate the content of this poems it is important to discuss what it means, where it takes place and what it tells about Perdomo’s life.
In the story of “Aria”, by Richard Rodriguez, being Mexican American was a challenge for him in which he struggled with having two identities. Since he spoke Spanish in an American society,
Many people in their lives have gone through a moment or journey of self discovery. In the novel Satin Island written by Tom McCarthy, the main character U goes on a journey of self discovery while working for his boss Peyman and the Company to create the Great Report, which is the modern era and what was important in the modern era written into one report. U creates dossiers of many events that he sees as significant to him or to the creation of Great Report. U discovers a great deal about himself during his dream about Satin Island. Most importantly, U discovers that maybe he or any person can not write the Great Report as it is impossible to put on paper.
Why do we love the sea? It is because it has some potent power to make us think things we like to think. Robert Henri, Artist Little Gasparilla Island, a barrier island on the southwest on Florida’s gulf coast, is a dynamic place to refresh and meditate. This place is about 3 miles of Old Florida. Nothing is fast on Little Gasparilla.
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?
There are approximately seven billion human beings in the world, each having their own culture and traditions. Coincidentally enough, “The Tequila Worm” is based on a small town in Texas, with a family who shares the same family traditions as mine. Viola Canales, the author, talks about the main protagonist, Sophia, and how she celebrates her culture. The making of Easter cascarones, celebrating Dia de Los Muertos, and her connection with her father, Sophia’s life is not so different from mine. Therefore, Sophia’s life and experiences are uncanny similarities to mine and that is what this essay will focus on.
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).
Cofer addresses the cultural barriers and challenges that Latinos experience through emotional appeal, anecdotal imagery, parallelism and the use of effective periodic sentences. In her article, Cofer assesses the difficult cultural hurdles of Latin Americans with emotional appeal. She provides insight on her cultural barriers by first conveying the way she had to dress and her struggle, as it shows in this piece of text, “That morning I had organized… which to base my decision” (Cofer 5). This poignancy works to stress an agonizing feeling of uncertainty and restraint towards the author.
Informative Speech Outline By: Katherine M Perez-Arroyo 1. Speech Topic: The History of Puerto Rico and its ties to the United States 2. Attention-Getter: Hi, my name is Kat and I was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico and I would like to ask you a question I was asked a few years ago when I was living in Topeka, Kansas “What kind of documentation do I need to travel to and from Puerto Rico?
Without the traditional community they once would have had in Puerto Rico, there was no intervention to stop child abuse. As a teenage girl, Candy went against her father’s dominate role by running away. It was not uncommon for such instance to occur Puerto Rico. The family faced no shame by a runaway daughter as long as she allowed her lover to have complete control. Usually a girl would have the aid of her community to bring her to a new male-dominate household and away from her father’s abuse (2003: 219).
Cofer utilizes moral and, enthusiastic interest to communicate as the need should arise to others that the generalizations of Hispanic ladies can have negative impacts. Cofer utilizes moral interest to depict her Hispanic childhood. Growing up as a young lady Cofer was instructed to dress a specific path on account of her Hispanic culture and now and again it was confounded, "... Puerto Rican moms likewise urged their little girls to act and look like woman...". Young ladies were raised to act and look more developed than they really were.
In the poem “To live in the Borderlands means you”, the borderlands become a place of change, such as changing from just one culture or race into a diverse culture or race and not-belonging. (Singh, A., & Schmidt, P. 2000). The poem describes how the author’s own background ethnicity people, mixicanas, identifies people like her, chicanas, as “split or mixture that means to betray your word and they deny “Anlo inside you.” (Anzaldua, F. 1987). The poem describes that the borderland is a place of contradiction, such as of home not being a home.
The Caribbean is a place where most of the countries share the history. It is a history that is deeply embedded with loss and struggle. Over the course of history, the Caribbean has been through a lot of stages from slavery, colonialism come right down to independence and post-independence. With slavery, the blacks were introduced, then we have the Europeans and of course the Indians came with the indenture ship program. Since the Caribbean has such a diverse array of cultures and ethnic groups, it is expected that these groups will leave their own impact on the society as a whole.
