I, Maya Shugart, nominate Jesus “Papoleto” Melendez for the Lo Mejor De Nuestra Comunidad Award. I have known Jesus for # of years; Mr. Melendez is a fountain of poetic insight and artistic prowess. His art and poetry directly tackle issues pertaining to the Puerto Rican and East Harlem community. Furthermore, his work with children and wanting to feel connected to the Three Kings parade held in El Barrio, coupled with its symbolic meaning as well as its participants, is one of the main reasons he continues to be a part of it year after year. His Initial involvement with the Nuyorican Movement, his dedication to the Puerto Rican community and helping form, retain and adding to the Latino literary canon make Jesus “Papoleto” Melendez a more
Teja, Jesus F. De La. A Revolution Remembered: The Memoirs and Selected Correspondence of Juan N. Seguin. Austin: State House Press, 1991.
De la Cruz, Sor Juana Ines. “In a Lighter Vein.” A Sor Juana Anthology. Ed. Alan S. Trueblood. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1988. 111-113.
The intention of this essay is to demonstrate to a vision rational, concordant political leader to the Puerto Rican, American and worldwide reality. It responds to the necessity that to the statehood it is necessary to imagine it and to expose it with all the evidence available, since many Puerto Ricans, including many political leaders, do not know like defending it or exposing it before the peculiar ones or our adversaries.
In this story, the reader can see exactly how, many Puerto Ricans feel when living on other grounds. Throughout this time, the boy that Rodriguez presents us realizes he has his culture and that he wants to preserve it as much as he can. “Because I’m Puerto Rican”. I ain’t no American. And I’m not a Yankee flag-waver”
As exemplified in the novel, Memoirs of Bernando Vega: A Contribution to the History of the Puerto Rican Community in New York, Puerto Ricans struggled just as much in the mainland as they did on the island. Because of the relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico, one would think that Puerto Ricans would have had many advantages over other immigrants, especially after passing of the Jones Act of 1917, which granted Puerto Ricans a partial citizenship status. However, that was not the case either. Puerto Ricans still dealt with discrimination, a great deal of setbacks and downfalls, as well as issues of forced assimilation. Their high hopes of becoming successful in the United States usually came to an end after about a month or so of living in the United States when they realized it w...
Don Quixote continues to surprise with its richness of meaning. The unraveling of the text has only begun but it’s safe to say that with what Don Quixote has yielded so far, this novel deserves its laurels. In its fulsome legacy, Don Quixote has left something for everybody: the student of the novelistic form can appreciate the innovation and realism of the work, the historian and sociologist can admire Cervante’s nuanced depiction of social classes and their interactions, the psychologist can treasure the work’s insights into the mind, and the philosopher can cherish the hero inside of Don Quixote. Because of this gift to readers, Don Quixote is surely a knight greater than Belianis and more renowned than Amadís. The hidalgo lives on.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century the cultural and societal foundations were laid for the newly formed nations of the America. Both José Enrique Rodó and Jose Marti made large contributions to the development of Latin America through their literature. Both sought to improve and encourage the people of The America’s, however it is Jose Marti who truly succeeds in inspiring a national pride in his writing Our America.
Reinaldo Arenas was born into poverty in a small town in Cuba in 1943. Arenas was a part of the Cuban Revolution that ushered Fidel Castro in to power, but soon abandoned the cause after he became aware that Castro was against homosexuality. Since Arenas was openly gay his writings were no longer allowed to be published in Cuba, so he began to smuggle the books out of the country to be published. Later on, Arenas spent three years in prison for his writing and open homosexuality, cementing his distaste for the “new” Cuba under Fidel Castro’s power. Soon after being released from prison, Arenas came to the United States and settled in New York where he began writing furiously - mostly about his homeland. He wrote essays, lectures, novels, and many other forms of literature up until his death. Reinaldo Arenas committed suicide in
These are some examples of how he showed latina americans can do more and is influential.
As a young child, Luis Valdez was raised in the agricultural labor camps where his parents worked in the fields picking seasonal crops. Due to the lack of his parents long working hours, little pay, he chose to use theater as a path for him to brighten up the Latino experience in the film industry. Without him, there would be no modern Chicano theater as we can see in today’s society. Though Valdez spent most of his childhood traveling from place to place with his parents, he managed to be known as the pioneer in the Chicano theater. Even there are many obstacles that he faced in the early stage of life, he managed to accomplish what others might not capable of. As a young boy, he lacked in education because his parents were moving from place
The Puerto Rican Dummy and the Merciful Son, is a narrative about watching a TV show with his four year old son, Clemente. While, watching the television a ventriloquist appears on the screen with nothing less than “Puerto Rican'' dummy.” This figure was polished off with the characteristics of a, “pencil mustache, greased hair and a jaw breaking Spanish accent'' (page 34). As you read on, you realize that Martin has become quite disturbed by this interpretation. He begins to analyze the images portrayed on the television of Latinos and begins to wonder how he will educate his son on how to deal with the racism that surrounds him.
In writing this evolving story 3 major points served as a preamble. This cultural production is not the actual results of the new awareness, rather, is imposed by the European imaginaries during the time of Spanish exploration and colonization in the sixteenth century. Moreover, this presented art was a heterogeneous mixture of many communities that invade in the region and have never been monumental. Another important aspect is that the Latino Art and the related culture are dynamic and mutable. The art has expressed from of the immigrants and intersect across various styles and susceptibilities. In short, this art is not depicting the actual form of Chicano cultural values
...ans. This effected the expression of Puerto Rican identity through music. While artists such as Pedro Flores and Rafael Hernandez made Puerto Rican music in its more native form, and also expressed frustrations as to the current situation of Puerto Rico, such open expression was limited. In essence, the progression of Puerto Rican music is a microcosm of what has been the Puerto Rican experience since the rule of the Spanish. A dominant power has invaded this aspect of Puerto Rican culture and dictated the arena in which it can be expressed, and how it can be expressed. As a result the question of what is true Puerto Rican music is complicated. It is not my intention to diminish the quality, uniqueness, or distinctiveness of Puerto Rican music, but rather to acknowledge the role the United States has played in its evolution and its depiction to the rest of the world.
For centuries, the Mexican-American experience has been one of adversity and endurance. The plight of these native peoples has been ignored and many times erased from the American conscience. They have struggled for acknowledgment, they have fought for equality and they have gone to battle for respect. Luis Valdez’s play, Los Vendidos, is just one of many contributions to this effort. A powerfully moving play, Los Vendidos, or the "sell-outs", is a piece created to gain acknowledgement, heighten awareness and to create a sense of camaraderie amongst the people fighting in the Chicano Movement of the late 1960’s and 70’s. Created by a population that had been victimized, beaten and driven to the ground by the powerful grip of American society, this work is just one example the artistic medium of expression used by the participants of the Chicano Movement. This play addresses numerous issues regarding the Mexican-American experience and the attempts to "Americanize" a population that was prevented from assimilating into American culture and society. However, some of the issues presented that I found to be most intriguing were the portrayal of both women and war veterans in addition to the overall Anglo-American reaction to the Mexican-American people.
Tino Villanueva was born on December 11, 1941 in south-central Texas in a town known as San Marcos, where both of Villanueva’s parents worked as migrant field workers which embarrassed him (Tino Villanueva Biography). Although his parents were identified as Mexican, many people deemed Tino Villanueva has “Chicano”.