There is always controversy when using the terms Spanish, Hispanic and Latino. A person is "Spanish" who was born in Spain, and a person is "Hispanic" who descends from one of the other Spanish-speaking countries apart from Spain. The term "Latino" comprises all those countries or territories and nations, apart from Spain, where the predominant language is of a Latin origin, including Portuguese (Brazil) and French (Haiti, Martinique and French Guiana,) as well as Spanish (3).
The debate is always pending about whether the term "Hispanic" is somehow offensive or whether it is correct. I am originally from Spain, and I personally think it is correct and respectful, but I have come across different people and authors who consider it to be offensive because it directly refers to the Spanish heritage and reminds them of the violent and barbaric ways the Spanish imposed their culture on the natives that were in the Americas when they arrived. From now on, and as an act of respect to people who feel so strongly against the term Hispanic, I will use the terms Latino/Latina.
Since Latino poetry is a quite broad topic to cover, I have decided I will narrow it by briefly introducing Puerto Rican poetry and its recurrent main themes. This overview of Puerto Rican poetry is necessary in order to understand Nuyorican poetry and some of its most important authors as well as its founders, such as Miguel Pi–ero, Miguel Algarín and Pedro Pietri.
Puerto Ricans are in a unique position: as citizens of a commonwealth of the United States, they are considered both American and immigrant. They have a dual identity that marks their language, customs and life. Even though Spanish is widely spoken and used, the United States is an English speaking society. This fact has given special significance to language as an element of personal and cultural identity. Many writers go back and forth between Spanish and English, engaging in a practice known as "code-shifting," "code switching," or "amalgam" and have devised a hybrid sometimes referred to as "spanglish." The theories about the use of "spanglish" are numerous and diverse. Some think this code switching is the product of a living artifact of a culture in evolution, others want to see a degradation of the two languages, and a third explanation of this linguistic shifting would be that authors are seeking to make a political statement about their social status: they are American citizens and yet they are treated differently. Victor Henández Cruz is one of the poets who explores Spanish and English playing with grammatical and syntactic conventions of both languages in order to create his own bilingual idiom--his own "spanglish."
Although dealing next with Mexican and Chicano poetry, Cuban and Dominican poetry, would be the logical thing to do; I have decided not to do so in great depth, so students do not feel overwhelmed. We will work with a couple of poems written by Cuban or Dominican authors: Sandra Maria Esteves or Rhina Espaillat (Dominican) and Gustavo Perez Firmat (Cuban.)
We will then move to the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda since he is one of the most important Latino poets of all times. He is one of the few Latin American poets to win the Novel Prize for literature. His poetry is not too complicated in structure, so I do not think my students will have many problems understanding it. Neruda will be the last author we are going to be working with. By then, all the students will have a certain level of understanding of Spanish, and therefore it should not be too difficult to work with the author in his mother language.
Puerto Rican Poetry
Puerto Rico is a self-governing territory associated with the United States with the status of a Commonwealth ("estado libre asociado" in Spanish.) This unique position is the result of a complicated history of invasions and cessions. After the Spanish-American war, Spain had to cede Puerto Rico to the United States, and entered the twentieth century under its rule. In 1917, the Jones-Shafroth Act granted Puerto Ricans U.S. citizenship. A status they still hold today. In the late 1940's, many Puerto Ricans started to move to the mainland to seek better economic conditions. New York and other Northeast cities were the destination for thousands of Puerto Ricans who were hired in farms and factories. This transition was not easy. These Unites States citizens experienced racial discrimination, linguistic barriers and other problems. These episodes and difficulties are the main themes documented in their writings.
Themes such as identity, social background, cultural heritage and racial, ethnic or linguistic barriers are common or even recurrent in Puerto Rican literature. Some authors also include themes of life in the island and life on the mainland and the conflict of being a part of the same culture. This is because, as mentioned before,
"they struggle to define their identity: they are caught between their Caribbean heritage and the culture of the United States, the poets reveal their uncertainty about who they are." (4) The question of identity and the fact that these authors live "across cultures" are important in most Puerto Rican writers.
Those writers who came to the United States are still considered Puerto Rican, and most of the times they share many of the themes and influences of those who live and write in the island and of those who go back and forth. For the sake of structure in the unit, and in order to keep it simple for my students, I am going to separate Puerto Rican and Nuyorican poets in two different groups.
Some of the movements and themes that have influenced both poets in the island and in the mainland are Spanish and African influences, the nationalist and the modern movements. Some of these themes are: romance, "here and there" (or "aquí y allá," in Spanish)--the "
love and yearning for an island homeland while being forced to remain somewhere else,"
self identity and countryside and nature (5.)
Even though they share many of the main features, themes and styles, I am going to separate the Puerto Rican writers from the Nuyorican ones, as a simple way of organizing the authors in a logical way for students to understand the few differences between them. Some of the most important and influential of the Puerto Rican poets are:
Julia (Judith) Ortiz Cofer
Poet and novelist born in the island. She moved at the age of two to New Jersey with her father when he -a military officer-was transferred there. Ortiz Cofer has lived in both the island and the United States for extended periods of time. As a writer, she describes reactions and feelings of character searching for identity.
The daily life and characters of a Puerto Rican barrio in the 1960´s and the 1970´s are the main themes she explores in
Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood
(1991) and in
The Latin Deli
(1993,) two collections of her best poems, stories and essays. The voices of some of the marginal characters she introduces in her writings, are among the best literary depictions of daily life in the Hispanic barrios (6).
Sandra María Esteves
Sandra María Esteves is a poet of Puerto Rican and Dominican heritage, she encourages readers to search for their true identities. She identifies herself as a "Puerto Rican-Dominicana-Borique–a-Tahino-African-American." She is the author of five volumes of poetry titled
Contrapunto in The Open Field
(1998,)
Undelivered Love Poems
(1997,)
Bluestown Mockingbird Mambo
(1990,)
Tropical Rain:
A Bilingual Downpour
(1984,) and
Yerba Buena
(1981).
Aurora Levins Morales
Of Puerto Rican and Jewish descent, Aurora Levins Morales defines herself in terms of her rich and diverse ancestry. Born Puerto Rico, she moved to Chicago when she was thirteen years old. Some of the major themes in her poems and essays are identity, feminism, multicultural histories of resistance, how the systems of oppression affect the identity of an individual and the importance of languages among others.
Some of the authors who have influenced her writing are the North American feminist Alice Walker and two Latin American writers: Pablo Galeano and Pablo Neruda. She wrote a collection of essays, letters and poems called with her mother, Rosario Morales, called
Getting Home Alive.
These pieces include a number of topics including feminism, family ties and politics. Even though written in English, the collection is considered a landmark of Puerto Rican literature. My students will analyze and discuss the poem
"Child of the Americas"
(Seeley, 105) in order to write their own version of the poem to reflect on their own inheritance and cultural identities.
Tato Laviera
Another Puerto Rican author born in the island. Tato Laviera is a poet and playwright who lives in New York, where he is deeply committed to the social and cultural development of Puerto Ricans. Laviera writes in English, Spanish and Spanglish since his poetry is concerned with bilingual and bicultural issues. The recurrent themes in his poetry are life in New York and African Caribbean traditions. One of the poets who inspired him the most was Luis Pales Matos, who created poems incorporating African vocabulary and rhythms, as well as African themes. His poems include refrains, idiomatic expressions, poetic declamation, and music such as salsa, rumba and mambo, etc.
Some of his collections of poems are
La Carreta Made a U-Turn
and
Loisaida (Lower East Side) Streets: Latinas Sing
and
AmeRican.
He denounces injustices and examines some of the problems affecting Latina women.
Julia de Burgos
De Burgos is considered one of the greatest and most influential Puerto Rican poets of all times. She was born in Puerto Rico in 1914, and lived in the island until she moved to Cuba and New York later on. She was a strong advocate for the independence of Puerto Rico, as well as a Civil Rights activist for women and Afro-Caribbean writers. Some of the poets who influenced her early poetry were Pablo Neruda, Rafael Alberti and Clara Lair. Some of the most relevant poems for our unit are: "
Rio Grande de Loiza
", "
Poema para mi Muerte
" (My Death Poem), "
Yo Misma Fui mi Ruta
" (I Was My Own Path), "
Alba de mi Silencio
", and "
Alta Mar y Gaviota
".
Nuyorican Poetry
The term "Nuyorican" was originally coined by Puerto Ricans on the island to refer to those who settled in New York. At first, the term had negative connotations. Some people used the term to refer to many Puerto Ricans settled in different neighborhoods of Manhattan such as El Barrio (East Harlem) or what was called Loisaida (Lower East Side). In the 1960´s Puerto Rican authors began to reclaim the term to identify themselves with their own history and cultural affiliation to a common ancestry while being separated from the island, both culturally and physically. Lots of these writers were involved with the "Young Lords," a Puerto Rican Hispanic Nationalist group, and were also highly concerned with the Civil Rights of their fellow countrymen.
Jesús Colón and his work
A Puerto Rican in New York and other Sketches
(1961,)
helped to set the stage for the Nuyorican movement as such. The book was a collection of stories of human interest and a social history of New York. Since this was the first book written in English by a Puerto Rican, it was able to chronicle for English-speaking audiences how Puerto Ricans shaped and were shaped by the history of New York City.
Miguel Algarín, Tato Laviera and Miguel Pi–ero established the Nuyorican Poets Café in New York´s East Harlem. They met with other writers, artists and community people in order to criticize, condemn and denounce social and political injustice. Their language is quite strong and lacks any kind of lyrical qualities; it is the street language of blacks and Puerto Ricans in El Barrio. Such a stylistic choice implies a resistance to Americanization, and an expression of dignity and pride in the
puertorrique–o's
heritage. Their poetry wants to awaken its people and shock them into action as, for example, in Pedro Pietri's "Puerto Rican Obituary," where he shows that the dream does not exist.
Some of the best known writers responsible for the Nuyorican movement are:
Jesús Colón
Jesús Colón could be considered the intellectual founding father of the Nuyorican movement. He was born in Carey, a tobacco growing area of the island. He stowed away on the S.S Carolina in 1918 and landed, like so many other Puerto Ricans, in New York. He started writing very young, influenced by the oratory of readers hired by cigar makers to entertain them while rolling the cigars. Although he never earned a living as a journalist, Jesús wrote for several newspapers in New York and Puerto Rico. He wrote articles, news commentaries, poetry and short stories. He was concerned with the social and economic conditions of Puerto Ricans in New York City and on the island, so he run for numerous public offices.
He wrote about his own experiences and those of others. Colón acknowledged the importance of the Puerto Rican heritage and its people. He wrote about the immigrant experience and their daily encounters with racism and other forms of discrimination.
Colón's work is reminiscent of Walt Whitman and Zora Neale Hurston. But it was Langston Hughes, also a light-skin mulatto, who had much in common with Colón. Both were active in New York's Black and Latino communities. Both portrayed the day-to-day lives of ordinary people. Both wrote about racial injustice and both wrote in English and Spanish. In his time, Colón's simple and incisive prose informed and entertained the masses. Today, they give us a sense of historic continuity, connecting our present to our past and our differences to a common humanity. (7)
Miguel Pi–ero
This poet, playwright and actor was born in Guaravo, Puerto Rico. And, as many others came to the Unites States while he was a child. He was able to relate to the immigrant´s struggle to find a position in society and, after being incarcerated, he found success with the play
Short Eyes
: a portrait of life, love and death among prison inmates he wrote while he was at Sing Sing. He was concerned with social classes and the problems of the immigrants. His revelations concerning individual indentity deal with people in extreme difficulty. Other plays include:
Eulogy for a Small Time Thief
,
Midnight Moon at the Greasy Spoon
,
Straight from the Guetto
and
The Sun Always Shines for the Cool.
Miguel Algarín
Algarín had a lot to do with the Nuyorican Movement. Poets and artists used his living room to meet and dicuss about poetry, art, politics or even to recite their poems. Unlike some of the other Nuyorican and Puerto Rican writers, Algarín was raised in a culturally-minded house and recived a formal education all the way through college.
Pedro Pietri
Pietri was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico. This poet and playwright lived most of his life in New York, where he moved when he was three years old. After graduating from high school, he left to fight in Vietnam. The main factors that influenced his poetry where the discrimination he witnessed while growing up, and his experiences in the war.
Very involved in politics -he was part of the "Young Lords;" he was a non-conformist, constantly reminding his fellow writers of the importance of tolerance, intellectual freedom and the value of humanity. His work denounces the system and invites Puerto Ricans to exhibit dignity and pride in their heritage, and also urges them to avoid complete cultural assimilation in order to keep their own identity.
His
"Puerto Rican Obituary"
is one of his finest poems in which he deals with the individual experiences of five Puerto Ricans: Juan, Miguel, Milagros, Olga and Manuel, their hopes and dreams, their physical and spiritual death, etc. The poem is presented as an epic of the Puerto Rican community in the United States with sarcasm and irony. The author presents the suffering of these Puerto Ricans and how their collective and individual dignity dies. They try to reach the "American Dream," but it is impossible for them, the dream becomes a nightmare.
Some other works include:
Invisible Poetry
(1979,)
The Masses are Asses
(1984,)
Lost in the Museum of Natural History
(1980,)
Rent-A-Coffin, Illusions of a Revolving Door: Plays
(1992) and
Traffic Violations
(1983.)
Victor Hernandez Cruz
He was born in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico and moved to New York City with his family at the age of five. He published
Snaps
, his first collection of poetry
when he was only 20 years old. As a poet, he is introspective and abstract, preoccupied with form, rhythm and language. As mentioned before, he plays with English and Spanish words and their semantics, with their spellings and phonetics, suggesting at a times simultaneous readings as for example, in the title of his
By Lingual Wholes
.
Unlike his Nuyorican counterparts, Tato Laviera and Miguel Algarín, he lacks referential context to life in Puerto Rico and popular culture. His works portray Hispanic images and symbols in the urban setting. His is the language of the urban, intellectual Latino who cannot survive without transforming the past into the present.
