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?