Puerto Rican Identity
My first book, Soy Boricua, features five generations of women of a Puerto Rican family. Their every day lives are affected by historical events, politics and the clashing of cultures. As we get closer to the book's launch I'll be posting about the events and culture of the day that these women and others may have been concerned with and affected by as they went about their lives.
First, a little geography lesson. The island of Puerto Rico is located about 1000 miles southeast of Miami, Florida with the Atlantic Ocean beating against its northern shores and the Caribbean Sea against its south. The island measures 35 miles long and 95 miles wide with over 300 miles of coastline. The climate is tropical with average temperatures in the 70s. Puerto Rican ancestry spans European, African and indigenous descents with Catholicism being the dominant religion. As a commonwealth of the United States, the people of Puerto Rico are born American citizens but maintain their cultural identity whether they are born on the island or the mainland.
Puerto Ricans have migrated to the United States mainland since the early 1900s but significant waves occurred in the 1930s and 1950s due to the island's economic troubles. New York City saw the largest population of Puerto Rican immigrants in the 50s as whole neighborhoods sprang up in upper Manhattan and Brooklyn. American economics and New York City crime waves set off a pattern of Puerto Ricans traveling to and from Puerto Rico on a regular basis in the 1970s and 80s. Today, Puerto Ricans live all over the United States and around the world. There are over 2 million Puerto Ricans on the mainland, including Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Massachusetts with more than 900,000 living in New York City.
Puerto Rican culture is as diverse as its people. On the mainland, many have graduated from college and hold high paying white collar positions while others struggle with poverty. The question of identity soon comes to pass. Are Nuyoricans, or Puerto Ricans who live in New York and speak a special blend of Spanish and English, less Puerto Rican than those who remain on the island and speak little or broken English? Are they more Puerto Rican than those who live outside the city amongst middle and upper class societies and use terms like amongst?
While the differences are numerous, Puerto Rican culture is often mistaken for other Latin cultures, especially Mexican. Puerto Rican food is more savory than spicy with influences from its African roots. Music too is influenced by African percussion which accompanies Spanish style beats and rhythms. Spanish spoken by Puerto Ricans are a bit different from that of other countries. Proper Castillian is spoken but with different pronounciations such as dropping the "s" from words in casual conversation and words ending in ado, such as cemado, are changed to ke MOW (like chow). As mentioned earlier, many mainland Puerto Ricans are not only bilingual but have invented a new type of Spanglish where English and Spanish terms are slammed together to make unique references. New York is sometimes referred to as Nuevayork, children count the days to Creehmah when Sahnta Close brings them presents and a trip to McDonald's can mean having un Beeg Mahk, frenfry y pesi for lunch.
Soy Boricua starts with the story of Felicia Maxwell, a young woman who is half white and half Puerto Rican. Though she has grown up in an affluent home and is wealthy herself, it has always bothered her that she was discouraged from embracing her Puerto Rican heritage. Upon the death of a cousin, Felicia's aunt invites her to travel with her to New York to meet the rest of the family. During her visit, she battles with her inner city cousin who teases her about being a blanchita. From her cousins, Marisol and Mercedes, Felicia learns of how her family dealt with an AIDS scare in the 80s, homosexuality and infidelity in 1950s Puerto Rico. Felicia's grandmother regales her with tales of the women in their family who blazed a trail into new territory in 1930s New York City and 1860s Puerto Rico.
Join me each week as we learn more about the circumstances surrounding our heroines, Felicia Maxwell, Marisol Rivera, Mercedes Castro, Guadalupe Bautista, Ana Bautista and Rafaela Perez in my upcoming novel, Soy Boricua.
