Blog #1- The New Latin Nation

       In chapters 1-8, 14-16, Piri shares his experiences growing up in New York City as a "Puerto Rican." I put that in quotations because he soon discovers that he is in fact African American. He always knew he was different somehow because he was always darker than his bothers and sister but, no one in the family wanted to accept their "blackness" everyone believed they were "white Puerto Ricans." Going through Piri's young age to his semi-adult age was very interesting. His becoming "hombre" phase and fighting with family. I wonder is this actually happens in real-life.. Do young Puerto Rican boys feel the need to become "hombre" by doing what Piri and his friends did? Do they fight each other and prove their masculinity this way? Is it only Puerto Ricans, do others do this?        I also found the conversations that went on between Piri and his father as well as the conversation with José. To see what his brother thought and ...

     Rosario's personal essay talks about how to identify oneself, in this case how she identifies with herself while discussing the many different ways which she can identify as. She gives her readers this idea of not being associated as "American" because the term American, according to her is slippery, transitory, and no geology, anthropology. She cannot seem to figure her identity out because she sees both African and Dominican inside of her. She gets called African American, Latina, Dominican and she does not understand why the different labels or a list as she says.      The United States and pretty much everywhere else have created these ideas of Assimilation and "the way things are supposed to be". In traditional Latino/a culture, (sometimes) it is rude for the women to speak about anything considered "manly" like working or politics. Women are supposed to cook clean, do their work and the extended always asks about new boyfriends or if they ...