Peter Robert's Reading: An Incomplete Puerto Rican Identity

In Perter Robert’s Reading we delve into the what defines our identity. He mentions how our home, language and culture define us to be part of a “group”, it’s what gives us the sameness to others in the group. But, it’s the discrepancies within and outside this sameness that leads us a give ourselves a more satisfying self identity and to be able to distinguish others who do not form part of this group.

Puerto Rico is an island that is made up of many different people. We were built upon a mix of natives, Europeans, Africans, Dominicans, and other places. However, we have been able to build our own accent, culture and traditions. To the extent that people from all of latin America and in the US are able to distinguish a Puerto rican from a Mexican or a Cuban as our way of being and speaking is so pronounced.

Let’s delve into some quotes from the reading.

1.“Because the human being does not necessarily remain in one place through a lifetime, home is variable and may be place of birth, place of residence or may be defined by the popular notion 'where the heart is'.”

This is true for many people in Puerto Rico, as we face a lot of migration. In my case I left for the US when I graduated high school to study at Emory University in Atlanta. Nonentheless, I never lost my identity, I would mix since I was a fluent English speaker, but I would always search for the little Puerto rican community in the university and the other latinos that brought me a little closer to where my heart truly was.

2. “The constant association with and experience of sameness leads to a recognition of one's own features as normal and those of others as abnormal/strange/foreign. The best example of the recognition of identification of difference is with language. All human beings recognize speakers from outside their community by their speech, and all those who are different are said, in the case of English speakers, to have an 'accent', with the implication that the speaker himself/herself does not have one.”

The puertorican accent is very pronounced (example in hyperlink is overly exaggerated and given an outsiders perspective), however when you live every day immersed in your group with very similar people you’re not going to be able to distinguish this. However, when you hang out with foreign people and they mention you have an accent you’re in disbelief that the way you speak could be looked upon as if it were different. It’s all about perspective, we hear Dominicans speak and we know they’re accent is completely different, but we don’t notice ours unless they make fun of us or explicitly mention it to us. On another note, within groups of same people, Puerto ricans, we can make out differences in culture and behavior. For example, people from more rural parts have different speaking and eating habits, which are recognizable by just speaking a while with them. This allows us to become more aware of our own identity and develop who we truly are within our groups.  

                                                           

3. “The naming of identities may therefore be an evolving process when it is foreigners who are doing the naming, since initial crude generalizations and mistakes disappears as foreigners move beyond initially striking primary features, and come to identify and distinguish secondary or cultural features. Such knowledge is gained through direct contact with natives through some kind of language adjustment of purposes of communication.”

This I have seen as people would generalize as most Spanish speakers to be “Mexicans” (which, probably appears to be more a generalization/racist attitude). But, once they understand the difference in locations, people, accent, tradition and culture they begin to understand the value of comprehending the differences. I’ve had many friends from the US come to Puerto Rico and leave surprised and enchanted by the quality of the people, the culture and life that we live.