Cultural Diversity in Puerto Rico PDF

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Cultural Diversity in Puerto Rico...

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Cultural Diversity in Puerto Rico Let's start by defining what culture is. According to the dictionary of the Language of the Royal Spanish Academy, culture is a set of ways of life and customs, knowledge and degree of artistic, scientific, industrial development, in an era or social group. On the other hand, we have María Moliner who defines culture as a set of knowledge, degree of scientific and industrial development, social state, ideas, art Cultural diversity in Puerto Rico! A subject that interests us all without a doubt, and the great headache of essayists, men of letters, geopoliticals, sociologists etc... Since the 1930s we have faced this ethnic mystery. From Insularism of Antonio S. Pedreira where he wondered: "What are Puerto Ricans, Puerto Ricans have souls?", until the 70s where José Luis González wrote the most important essay on the cultural diversity of Puerto Rico contemporary, "The Country of the 4 floors". Here it is also worth mentioning the speech of Luis A. Rafael Sanchez "Why Puerto Rico is Rico?", in which he mentions the two great divisions, so to speak, cultural that there are in Puerto Rico: Spanish and American. Well, what we're going to do: to put it down once and for all the cultures of Puerto Rico and our influences, their origins and their consequences! Let's start at the beginning: Spain, thanks to Christopher Columbus, became the world superpower as it discovered or rediscovered America. Because America was already discovered, because as we all know it was populated and inhabited by human beings who were called Indians. And in America, there is Puerto Rico, a small island located in the Caribbean Sea. Here we are already faced with a new culture and powerful influence, which bequeathed us from language to religion, from new plants to new animals, hence new food. The Indians reportedly believed that the Spaniards were gods, the Indians were polytheistic and that made colonization easier for the Spaniards, and a rapid adoption of beliefs and customs on our island. Anyway, with Spain we had even a new name for the island because as we know Puerto Rico was not called that but named Boriken, then Juan Ponce de León, first governor of Puerto Rico was the one who baptized the island with the name of Puerto Rico. To give you a better idea, read luis A. Rafael Sánchez's essay mentioned above. At first everything was strange as we acquired a new language, and a new religion. All historians emphasize that several priests came to evangelize the Indians. With the Spaniards, not only had the influence of one country but the entire European continent arrived on our beaches as Spain had adopted some customs of other countries. In Puerto Rico, centuries later, many still admire the legacy of the beautiful forts that adorn the entrance of the Bay of San Juan, built under Spanish sovereignty. A century later, Spain is forced to bring Africans as labor. These, although in chains and without any right to freedom came with another culture, another language, another religion, dances and interesting rituals.... Here, distinguished gentlemen, began the great mix of races: Spanish with Indians, Spanish with Africans, Indians with Africans. Three different cultures on this island, three languages, three religions, etc... Thus, the great Cultural Triumvirate of Puerto Rico began in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as a result of the three races that lived in Puerto Rico. But this is the beginning of a long rosary of influences. Spain was already based in Puerto Rico. We already had name for the island, shield, national anthem, and "revolutionary", flag and other patriotic symbols, when the United States came to distort everything that was already established. Sighs for some, tears for others, as the people

watched as that Spanish flag, which had been nestled in our land for centuries, slowly descended. He descended in the warm tropical breeze and raised that strange and unknown American flag who all saw them ascend with uncertainty and resquemor. Here we are part of life in two; a new beginning, a new style of government and a new foreign culture. There was no possible communication with those sergeants and commanders marching all over the island saying words no one understood. But yet we, the Puerto Ricans, have stood firm and we still continue to maintain our language: Spanish. We are reluctant to accept a language so dissimilar to our own. That is why we use English terms in Spanish disincentive. Thus, we 'surf', 'hangueamos', 'badtripeamos'. This is why we are studied by all the prestigious language schools in the world. One hundred years of bombardment and a language that refuses to die in our hearts. For this and much more Spain awarded the Prince of Asturias award to all Puerto Rican citizens, an award that we proudly accept because although we are associated with the United States we remain Puerto Ricans and our language is Spanish. As Puerto Ricans and human beings we are, we all have responsibilities. As we attend school, both of us taught the two languages from a young age; Spanish and English. In literature we study all the literary movements from the Classic that begins in Greece and Rome, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Baroque, the Neoclassicism that ends with the French Revolution, Romanticism, Realism and Naturalism that occur contritely, until the Generation of the 98th private movement of Spain, the Generation of 36, among others. As we can see, these are just some of the movements studied in the Spanish class. Of course, our literature still copied Spanish and European formulas. Gradually, America acquired a mode of expression of its own and with the rise of Modernism begins our Great Literary Century; a century of ivory, princesses and precious jewels, demonstrated in beautiful poetry since in addition to being characterized by being the first movement created in America, it is also the one that unearths the poetry of oblivion. Already in the twentieth century Puerto Rico was able to have a literature with clear signs of self-identity, such as our modernist poet Luis Llorens Torres, Julia de Burgos, the creator of Afro-Antillean poetry Luis Palés Matos, the tenor Matos Paoli and Juan Antonio Corretjer , among others. In the second half of the century in Hispanic American lands the Hispanic American Boom emerged and together with Gabriel García Marquez, Carlos Fuentes, José Lezama Lima, Alejo Carpentier, etc... Puerto Rico also says present in the narrative with narrators such as Luis A. Rafael Sánchez, Rosario Ferré, Edgardo Rodriguez Juliá, Magalis García Ramís, Ana Lydia Vega, etc... All these writers with their own style expose in their stories the rich cultural diversity of the Puerto Rican people. Nor can we forget the readings at the School of English plays by William Shakespeare, Scott Fitzgerald, Walt Whitman, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner, among others. To this we can add, as part of our education, the kinds of history and geography in which we study every corner of the world, from the forgotten Eastern civilizations to the history of contemporary America. We consider it tragic that only one class is taught in Puerto Rico's history in our curriculum and a Latin American history class is not mandatory. As you will notice, our education broadly understands the past, but it is in interpretation of our historical present. Is it because of how complicated it is to define it?... To continue to turn the World around, we cannot leave our neighbors in the Greater Antilles; To Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, who have also come and stayed to live on the island. This is what José L. González would call, if he had finished writing his last chapter of the

essay, "The Country of the Four Floors", before he died: "the fifth floor of Puerto Rican culture". What did the Cubans come here to do? The answer is simple; escaped fidel Castro's regime. Continuing with those who escape their country to improve, we cannot leave the Dominicans who come looking for overcoming and a better life. I can't leave without writing a line of a song by singer Juan Luis Guerra that says, "looking for a visa for a dream, looking for a visa for a dream." Of the Dominicans, we also have a little, how can we not have it? because in addition to having them as neighbors we are also a bit of akin to the "culture" thing. Not that we are the same, but if we have several things in common since, like us, they were colonized by Spain in the past. Anyway, that's another culture we can't help but put on our list. The important thing about this is that as a result, we Puerto Ricans know everything a little bit, because we adopt in our culture a little bit of each country. Because of our geography and our historical ancestors, this favors us, in the sense that we have two languages, two flags, and up to two citizenships; an American, which is in our passport and legal documents, and the Puerto Rican, which is the one we carry in our spirit, soul and heart. On our island there is a rich mix of races and religions, because even if you do not believe it, although they are few in Puerto Rico, it is also practiced up to Buddhism, a predominant religion in China. Finally, I want to mention the Japanese, who bring us their delicious food and all their wonderful technology and by "commercially joining" with the United States every day create something different and we don't even know what world we're living in anymore. Something important is that we don't just have diversity in cultures. It's not just the language or a religion; they are also customs, traditions, food, perfumes, fashion, shoes, magazines, and even cars from all over the world. Our language is enriched with words such as "gourmet" or "executive", which are French and American, respectively. All this comes from different countries, therefore different cultures. If we are a little bold I would say that the so-worn and brought term "globalization" was invented much earlier in Puerto Rico... In this war of ideas and cultures (as Miguel de Unamuno told us "war!, I want war of ideas") I conclude that Puerto Rico is a multicultural country, since from a young age we are taught from the first roots that have passed through our island to those of today and the and they will continue to emerge. We are a country with different cultures because our geographical and historical status has allowed it. We are a cultural country because we know how to adopt and choose our customs, our traditions and we still maintain those of the countries that have colonized and ruled us. We are a multicultural country because we are cosmopolitan, although we are not the capital of the world....