The problem of cornering Latinx authors in discussing crime

There is a common theme throughout Hollywood and popular American culture as a whole that depicts and encourages Latinx storytellers to depict a life of crime and struggle that differentiates them from their white counterparts. This creates an additional level of separation between the ethnic groups in America and reinforces the stereotypes that are in place. This is problematic for a number of reasons, primarily that it erases the stories of Latinx individuals that grow up in lives without struggle. In essence the Latin Americans become typecast. This is most evident the long poem "The Contract Says: We'd Like the Conversation to be Bilingual". There are a number of lines and quotes from this poem that highlight this idea perfectly and showcase the exact issue I have brought up. "Do you have any poems that speak to troubled teens? Bilingual is best.". This line in the poem shows that the people organizing the event do not care about the actual story that Ada Limon might tell, but the one that they want to hear. This coupled with the line "Don't read the one where you are just like us' and 'Tell us the one about you father stealing hubcaps", reinforce the idea that the people in power want a very specific type of play. Much in the same way in Hollywood, the funders of literature want to show the differences between the groups of people in the country and push their agenda of Latinos being criminals and the other. This mindset and censoring of genuine art will inevitably, if not checked by others, lead to further generations of misunderstanding and hate that will plague the country. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/nov/14/why-are-half-of-latino-immigrant-tv-characters-portrayed-as-criminals . The link I added is an article speaking about the situation in Hollywood that connect to those in Literature as well. There are also a few questions that I had

Why do you think Hollywood and Publishing executives like to push forward this agenda, what do they gain from this and how does it detract from the Latinx canon?

Is there a way to shift the narrative and convince the people in power to tell a different story, what would this look like, and would the endeavor be profitable and viable?

Success Tip: Speak Proper English

When immigrants arrive in the United States we are expected to assimilate American culture. Immigrants have to do more than celebrate Halloween, Thanksgiving, and many other holidays. When trying to achieve assimilation in American culture, it is essential to learn English. However, we are required to learn it as ‘Americans’ without an accent, in “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” Anzaldúa mentions an Anglo teacher telling her “If you want to be American, speak ‘American.’ If you don't like, go back to Mexico where you belong” (75). Similarly to Anzaldúa’s experience, numerous educators teach students their language and culture are wrong and should not be used. As a result of attacks, English learners doubt their potential to succeed academically and socially. Since English learners cannot get rid of their accents with speech classes, they have to overcome numerous challenges in classrooms, jobs, and other spaces. When we are allowed to talk various times people unconsciously zone out, they decided not to listen because we have an accent. Every time we say something is as if we do not exist because we do not speak proper English similar to the one in books. When learning English as an ‘American,’ we are expected to sit in the back of the classroom and shut up.

The article “Learning English and Learning America:Immigrants in the Center of a Storm” mentions that when learning English a painful transition happens. Families and those learning the language discover that developing fluency in English means losing it in their mother tongue. Due to the schooling process in which linguistic isolation and segregation happen. Those learning English are unwelcome and humiliated by peers and educators feel the necessity to hide their identities. Anzaldúa encourages us to proudly protect our living language and culture, including our accent, to overcome silence.

What are the causes and results of linguistic segregation?

What situations can you think of that force or encourage people to give up parts of their identity?

Growing Up in a Little Book

In chapter three of Julia Alvarez's In the Time of Butterflies, we learn what life looks like Maria Teresa's eyes.  She begins each journal entry by addressing her diary with the phrase "dear little book", and the first few entries are representative of her innocence, as they detail her relatively surface level, child-like observations of the world around her.  However, as time passes, Maria Teresa becomes absorbed in more complex issues, such uncovering the truth about the president, Trujillo.  Though she only has her little book for a few months, Maria Teresa does certainly reap the benefits of journaling as a way that "deepens one's soul (pg. 30)".  Her young age combined with a deepening understanding of the world she lives in is reminiscent of the children in Valeria Luiselli's Tell Me How it Ends, who are forced to grow up earlier than they should have had they been fortunate enough to live a childhood free of conflict and trauma.  While Maria Teresa's upbringing was much more sheltered than the children who must cross the United States/Mexico border alone, she still discovers a truth that will alter her life.  To make matters more difficult, she loses her method of coping when she is forced to bury her journal.  Along with those who made the border crossing journey, Maria Teresa feels as if she has nobody to turn to and must internalize the mental conflict and other confusing emotions.  Considering this as a theme for the texts we have gone over this far, it is likely that Dede experienced something similar in her isolation after her sister's death, especially considering she was in the public eye.  This likely created or exacerbated mental issues that Dede already exhibited prior to the incident.  In her state at the beginning of the novel, Dede seems to live her life in grief as she mentions that it is necessary to deal with the "big things-- in snippets, pinches, little sips of sadness (pg. 5)".

With this in mind, ponder the following questions:
          Does Dede's manner of dealing with guilt close her off further from her family's 
          history and put her in a worse position than if she faced the memory of them more head 
          on?
          Furthermore, do you think it is possible for her to have a healthy mental state after her 
          sisters' death, being that she is in such a public position?  If so, how?

The power of language as it relates to ideality: bilingualism

"Who is to say that robbing a people of its language is less violent than war? (75). 

Bilingualism meaning a mixture of knowledge of two languages. The idea of bilingualism to some can go further than the concept of language. It can go further than just being heard; it can go into also needing to be understood. Language's connection to interpretation is vial to ideality as both Ada Limón's with In the contract says: We'd like the conversation to be bilingual and Gloria Anzaldua's How to tame a wild tongue show. Ada Limón's poem is written up as instructions given to a you we assume is bilingual, this you actually never responds, but receives instructions on what is deemed appropriate. Instructions are the whole construction of the poem. Some of the power of the poem comes from the complacency the you has to show while being told who they should and shouldn't be, what to say and what not to say tailoring their ideality to fit a standard of comfortability for the others. In quotes like "will you tell us the stories that make us uncomfortable, but not complicit? Don't read the ones that make us." (lines 9-11) we see the contrast they felt towards the you, hold the identity as not independent and show was the you fits their prejudgments because code changing interpretation is more palatable. With regards to palatable How to tame a wild tongue goes deeply into ideality; what it means to be bilingual despite devastating no-Spanish rules and the contrast of Americanize español. Gloria Anzaldua touches upon how the control or limitation of a language that could shape someone's ideality, and that is amplified when your conversation and I didn't, he gets divided into two. This division is caused by academia but also by rules of standard, "if you don't like it, go back to Mexico where you belong." (75) "Even our own people, other Spanish speakers nos quieren poner candaos en la boca. They would hold us back with their bag of reglas de academia. (76) Lacking, therefore, in the basic principles of ideality not having someone to relate to the frustration of not being understood and always having to choose without sacrificing another part of your ideality is the main challenge. 

Make Sure to "Bring your Brown-ness": Skin Color as an Accessory

Lauryn Davis

           Upon first reading, "The Contract Says: We'd Like the Conversation to be Bilingual," by Ada Limon, I was struck by the directness of the opening couplet, "When you come, bring your brown-ness so we can be sure to please / the funders. " This line resonates with me and I believe that it speaks volumes on its own. This line insinuates that skin color is something that people are able to leave at home. Skin color is an accessory that people choose to wear when it is most advantageous. Furthermore, I feel that this couplet does a great way of emphasizing the way many white people view people of color, as almost privileged in some way. This couplet reminds me of something my dad always told my sisters and myself growing up, "You will have to work twice as hard for everything you want and when you get it, they will tell you that it was handed to you," because this couplet is what the contract says, according to Limon's poem, and this contract is presumably written by white people or "they," as my dad would put it. 
          Moreover, I found this couplet intriguing as well as confusing because Limon opens the poem with a line about race/skin color while the title is focused more on language/bilingualism. I think that, as everything is in poetry, this choice was purposeful. I think that beginning the poem regarding bilingualism with a line concerning race functions as a way to depict the important role that race and language have together. This may have been a commentary on the way many people determine someone's mother tongue based solely upon the color of their skin. 
     I found a slam poem by Melissa Lozada-Oliva entitled, "My Spanish," that I feel is almost a response to what "the contract says." 

Discussion Questions:

1.) What are the functions of starting this poem with a reference to "brown-ness" rather than language/language barriers/bilingualism, as the title suggests? 

2.) What is the purpose of having this written in poetry form versus any other form such as prose? 

The Guilt of a Survivor

In Julia Alvarez's "In the Time of the Butterflies", she begins the text with an interview about her deceased sisters and life after tragic loss. Although, these interviews are quite insensitive as they are bringing back the repressed memories of her sisters that Dede doesn't want to have to keep bringing back into light. "THE SISTER WHO SURVIVED" (Alvarez 5). This is the label that Dede is burdened with, it is unfair to have this type of label as it has limitations to it, almost to say that is what you have amounted to thus far in life, and because her sisters were famous it seems that it would be the label she carries for the rest of her life. In the following paragraph, the interviewer is basically asking "why are you the who survived?" (Alvarez 5). These are the type of insensitive questions that are not fair to Dede, as she likely feels very lucky to have been the one sister who managed to survive as her other three were killed, but probably guilty and sad.The interviewer may not have been purposely trying to invoke those emotions out of Dede, but questions such as that would easily have that type of impact. Dede seems to be used to these type of questions so she doesn't let them break her, but definitely frustrate her. The families of victims should be granted peace and privacy, they are entitled to at least that, no matter what kind of impact the victim had on the world and the people around the world. Survivors guilt is a real phenomenon that has been prove to impact most survivors of tragedy.

What is Survivors Guilt?
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325578.php

Is there a burden or pressure placed on the closest relative or friend of a deceased person of importance or interest that they must carry on the legacy of them, or to be the publics gateway to information about them?

Is the way this novel formatted and structured thus far, Alvarez's way of coping and expressing her true feelings about the loss of the Mirabel sisters, while also honoring them?

Latinx Community and the United States: What's Important?

On page 3 of Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez describes an interviewer coming over to interview Dede. In this description, Alvarez describes the interviewer as someone who is "from here but has lived many years in the States" (p. 3) and that the interviewer says "the Mirabal sisters are not known there, for which she is also sorry for it is a crime that they should be forgotten, these unsung heroines of the underground" (p. 3). This reminds me a lot of what Ada Limon talks about in her poem, "The Contract Says" about only wanting the uncomfortable stories and nothing that makes one complicit or that makes them seem to much like you. To me, Alvarez seems to be representing this idea that individuals from the U.S. only want to hear stories about the violence that people from the Latinx community experience - as if that's all that Latinx communities can talk about. As well as the interviewer says the sisters have been forgotten, but it seems to me they haven't been forgotten because Dede and her family still remember - it's just people in the U.S. that don't know and who's to say that the attention of the U.S. is what's most important. This says something about it's important who remembers. The fact that Dede and her family remember isn't important. It also implies that there was something about the Mirabal sisters' stories that is important to remember over the other Dominicans who probably experienced very similar things - such as Sinita's story. While it is important to remember and know about Latinx stories - the way one talks about them should avoid this idolization of the individuals solely based on this violence they have experienced. As well as the fact that this interviewer came to talk about the violence she experienced within the Dominican Republic instead of choosing to speak to someone within the U.S. who has experienced violence the U.S. If this has happened today, I would wonder why aren't the interviewers addressing the violence the U.S. has brought against the Latinx community within the U.S. such as the El Paso shootings. Going back to Limon's poem, this speaks to not wanting to listen to stories that make the U.S. complicit in the violence. They only want to listen to stories that the U.S. did not instigate.

What does the interviewer's comments imply about the Mirabal sisters?
What makes the Mirabal sisters' story more important to learn about over any other Latinx individual such as Sinita? 

The Different Perspectives of Trujillo

In the first assigned read of In the Time of the Butterflies, Alvarez offers different perspectives of Trujillo that have a variety of differences such as age, political awareness, and vocation, yet all seem to converge to a unifying census regarding his dictatorship. At first, we are presented with Minerva's point of view, who has been presented as very politically driven and has an outspoken personality. At first, Minerva does not seem to dislike Trujillo, and has a high opinion of him, as we can see on page 17. It is not until her friend, Sinita, who has witnessed his cruelty firsthand, that Minerva was aware of his murderous actions that have led him into a position of power. As a different perspective in terms of age, we are introduced to Maria Teresa's point of view she Minerva reveals to her about her secret meetings and artistic expression of how she feels towards the president. As Maria is too young to truly understand, she later seems to side with her sister and friends as she agrees for her diary to be hidden along with other items in fear of the police finding them. We are also presented with Maria's views of the president, as she states, on page 53, that while she may not have been personally been effected by his actions, many people she knew have and she feels ill towards him. All of the different perspectives eventually lead each of the characters in the narrative to the conclusion that Trujillo is an indecent dictator and had done many things to assure his power is unmatched. In my opinion, having these different narratives that reach the same conclusion validates each of their stories. It is important to have more than one voice to avoid making the belief to be false or one sided. But understanding each of the sisters, and how they have come in contact with the dictator, either directly or indirectly, shows us that no matter how different the sisters are and what they used to think of the president, they all eventually agreed that his actions are monstrous and cruel. Through these inhumane actions, he was able to assume control of most of the Caribbean for for most of his 30-year-rule. He was also responsible for the massacre of 20,000 Haitians at the boarders.

Questions: Why is it important to provide different stories of each sister and how it led us to their perspective of Trujillo? 

How does learning about each individual story of the sisters help us understand what is going on in the story?

Complications with Trujillo

In the first part of In the Time of the Butterflies Alvarez mentions menstation multiple times throughout it. I think she uses menstration as a way to talk about the impact the patriarchal Trujillo government has on the country and women. On page 15 Minerva treats learning about periods (referred to as complications) as a big secret to tell her friends. After she tells Sinita about this "secret" Sinita explains that she will tell her the secret of Trujillo (16). Getting your period is a big coming of age event for girls in many countries, however society has us trained to rarely talk about them because it's "gross" to talk about. The secret of Trujillo is treated the same way, people know it is happening but no one wants to talk about because they are afraid of what the consequences will be. I think Alvarez calling both of these a secret and having them brought up in the same conversation is her way of trying to tell the reader how impactful these events are on a person, especially women in this case. Another part of the book where periods and Trujillo are brought up together is on pages 19-20. After Sinita tells Minerva that Trujillo is going around killing people Minerva is up all night thinking about what she was just told and wakes up the next morning to find that she got her period and says that her "complication have started". One can take this moment in the text literally, that she got her period, but it can also be looked at deeper. She has been told to worship this dictator and told that he could do no wrong, but she just found out that he ordered that her best friends uncles and brother be killed. This is another "complication" she has to deal with because this news makes her question her ideals.

Why do you think Alvarez uses menstration when talking about the girls and Trujillo? Does she do this with other topics in the book?

She really seems to only use this connection in Minerva's chapter in part 1, why is that?

Imposing on Imposter's Syndrome

In Reyna Grande's "I’m an award-winning Latina author. At a fancy literary gala, I was mistaken for a waiter", Grande gives an account of her experience while being honored at the library of congress. As Grande shares her feelings of intrusion and inadequacy, I think of moments where I have had to reassure others, even on my own college campus, that I do in fact belong here. As Grande relinquishes, it is usually even more difficult to convince yourself. In an attempt to reassure herself, Grande scans the room to see how many other Latino's are present but is only met with the gaping reality that there are more Latino's serving food than being honored. A white man approaches Grande and assumes that she is one of the waitstaff, further perpetuating Grande's feeling of inadequacy. Grande puts a name to this feeling - imposter's syndrome, which she describes as "the feelings of inadequacy that persist no matter how successful one is". Grande then goes into detail about how imposter's syndrome is a widespread feeling among the Latino community, especially as a result of the current political climate in regards to popular culture and racist rhetoric surrounding Latino's, spurred by Trump and reinforced by his supporters. The conversation surrounding immigration and the everyday racism that Latinos face, can make the reality of imposter syndrome much more common.

In what ways do past and current immigration policies facilitate environments/behaviors/beliefs that support the false notion that Latino's are "inadequate" in white spaces?

In what ways are you complicit to the rhetoric that Latino/a's are "inadequate" in white spaces?

Trujillo: the God of the Dominican Republic

In Julia Alvarez's "In the Time of the Butterflies, she often compares Trujillo or "El Jefe" to God/ Jesus. In each of the narratives of the girls, they all have a moment where they lose their belief in Trujillo as an all-powerful, all-merciful ruler. In each of these moments this loss of belief in Trujillo is linked to God. " 'Trujillo did bad things?' It was as if I had just heard Jesus had slapped a baby or Our Blessed Mother had not conceived Him the immaculate conception way."(17) At this moment Minerva is incapable of accepting anything but Trujillo's good, but this is the moment where he is started to be stripped of his Godliness. Teresa has a similar moment where she comments that she had "always thought our president was like God" (39). For Patria, who's " religion was so important,"(6) losing her belief in God and in her president was a synonymous occasion. Patria's moment occurs after the loss of her child where she questions "How could our loving, all-powerful Father allow us to suffer so? I looked up, challenging Him. And the two faces had merged!"(53) This is the climax of all three girls losing their "religion" consisting of both a loss of God and the man who had become a god to them. However, they were not left without anything to believe in. In the same way that no longer believing in Trujillo's rule was replaced with the notion of freedom, their love of God was replaced with the Blessed Mother. She is used not only as a symbol of desired freedom but also protection from the patriarchy, at times literally. When Hilda is hiding from the police, "they passed right by Sor Hilda with her hands tucked in her sleeves and her head bowed before the statue of the Merciful Mother."(41) At the end of the first section is the moment where they finally trade the patriarchy for the matriarchy. We see Patria challenging the mother "where are you?"(59) and looking around her she knows she is answered. 

The Downfall of Trujillo and the People's call for Freedom
https://www.oddballfilms.com/clip/13167_8924_dominican_republic

How do the repeated and strong religious situations and language fit into the context of this story?

On page 20 we see the analogy: "The country people around the farm say that until the nail is hit, it doesn't believe in the hammer." How can we use this analogy to understand people's perception of Trujillo?

What is the significance of linking the Blessed Mother to freedom from Trujillo's rule?

Nature Projects the Struggles of Hurricane Maria

The relationship between humans and nature is not an uncertainty, it is an undeniable connectedness. Poets have always used nature metaphors and archetypes to relate to the human experience. When nature beats its chest and shakes the world, people realize how catastrophic and awesome nature is. Martin Espada writes about the devastation in the wake of Hurricane Maria and details the tragedy in a poem to his father titled “Letter to My Father.” While nature is assumed to be the aggressor, Espada describes a landscape that is victimized in similar ways to the inhabitants. 

Espada describes a mountain’s belly teeming with life like that of a pregnant woman. The animals are communicating and flowers are sprouting on the belly. The hurricane guts the mountain like a helpless pig, pouring blood rivers of mud through the streets. The houses that once contained unassuming occupants now jut out of the mountain’s blood as gravestones from the Puerto Rico of the past. In many ways the mutilation of their home landscapes is a projection of the struggles of the inhabitants. After seeing decapitated trees “beheaded all at once like the soldiers of a beaten army,” a man killed himself. The defeat of the trees reflected a lack of hope that he could not bare.

One of the mountains is called “an unheeded prophet” who shrieks of an apocalypse. For many Puerto Ricans, this was the end of the world. People think of prophets as crazy, simply spouting nonsense, yet so many people lost their homes. People consumed brown water that eased their dying thirst, but made room for disease to slither down their throats. People began to fade into the land around them as “fungus grows on their skin.” In the article by Oliver Milman, Carmen Villanneuva Castro states that the helpers from the US rarely speak Spanish, and "they don't know our reality." To apply for aid "residents must fill out a form online or call a telephone number," yet none of the residents have internet or phone access. Espada points out how the government gives them Skittles and Vienna sausages for dinner. Espada is not solely blaming nature for the misfortunes of the residents, but he pinpoints the injustice of people who are faced with a devastation that was not of their own making.

Ponder the quote "It is like they don't know our reality." How might the struggles specific to this area relate to our class discussions of the term Latindad erasing the experiences of individuals?

"The Surge:" The problem with immigration rhetoric

I am focusing on a section from Valeria Luiselli’s Tell me how it ends. I decided to look at the first two paragraphs of the section that begins on page 83 and is continued on page 84. In the passage, Luiselli calls our attention to the way that the media has constructed our view of borders and immigration. In the first paragraph, she notes that, instead of focusing on the complicity of the United States in creating the mass exodus of people from Central and South America, the US government and media always makes sure to “locate the dividing line between ‘civilization’ and ‘barbarity’ just below the Rio Grande” (83). In other words, because borders themselves are human constructions and not “natural” entities, the media helps to create the border through the language that it uses to describe immigrants from Central and South America.

    

Young people by the southern border in 2014

         Luiselli goes on to provide an example of this harmful, divisive language by citing a brief New York Times article from 2014, which I decided to look up on the internet I could get a better understanding of her point. Luiselli writes that the article reads like “something from an openly racist nineteenth-century magazine or a reactionary anti-immigration serial, not the Times,” and indeed, the rhetoric used to describe the children (literal children!) at the border is accusatory, dehumanizing, and also, as Luiselli points out, inaccurate (84). The article is very brief, but it took me a good ten minutes to get through because I kept having refrain from throwing my laptop against the wall. For example, the article describes the increase of unaccompanied children at the border as a “surge,” and reassures its readers that they that they will be vaccinated and given a health screening upon arrival. This kind of language reinforces the narrative of an immigration “crisis,” or the idea that the Southern border is vulnerable and the children at the border somehow pose a threat to our national security. Luiselli, in this passage and throughout her book, is trying to get us to see and question the language that determines who we think is “allowed” to be an immigrate to America—language that we might use and read every day without thinking about it.

What language does Luiselle use in her essay use to counter the harmful rhetoric used by the media to describe the children at the border?

How might literature and storytelling help to change the way our culture thinks about immigration?