Identity Discussion

Maria Bruno

This section is dedicated to my initial ideas concerning Puerto Rican identity at the start of the course on Puerto Rico. This was a comment that I made on a Yapp discussion.

Yapp is an online web forum used throughout Trinity college. It serves as an outlet for student to get on-line in a sort of chat room environment and express their feeling concerning issues being discussed in class. The topic of this discussion was:

Approaching the question of Puerto Rican Identity:

"I would like to start out by saying that I agree that you do not necessarily have to be born on the island to be able to identify yourself as Puerto Rican. Throughout Morris' book the majority of the people expressed the feelings that La Puertorriquenidad is a matter of experience and shared cultural aspects. My father's side of my family is Puerto Rican and so I consider myself partly Puerto Rican because of my customs and traditions. However, I do think that it is important to stress that there is a difference between Puerto Rican's who have lived a majority of their lives in the U.S. and those that have lived on the island. I think that living in the States changes your personality because you experience different things than if you would have lived on the island.

I noticed a comment made earlier by Richard Walker that struck me very interesting. Richard said "I think that there is little value in 'La puertorriquenidad' without having a politic of liberation inherent within it."

I must disagree with this comment on two points:

1. I believe that there has always been a movement for independence that still exist today.

2. I think that there is always VALUE in recognizing and celebrating one's culture, regardless of the extent of the political movements toward independence. The answer to Puerto Rico's problems might not necessarily be independence right now. Our American culture pushes us to believe "Live free or die." Maybe that is not the answer for Puerto Rico. Maybe Puerto Rico needs to work other things out before they declare independence. Does that mean that their culture is worthless because Puerto Rican's are not meeting your political standards?"