Analysis Of The Poem ' Coca Cola And Coco Frio ' By Martin Espada

For most of its history, Puerto Rico has been controlled by an outside power, and its people oppressed. While Puerto Rico is currently a U.S. territory, Spanish colonialism has had a significant impact on the island’s development and identity. The history of the island itself is proof of this fact, demonstrating each step Puerto Rico took to reach its current state. By examining the stages of Spanish control that Puerto Rico experienced, we can determine how each stage affected the structure and identity of Puerto Rico.

Cortney McMath Many ideas and practices that are applied here in the United States are a result of cultural diffusion from Mexico. Cultural diffusion is defined as “the spread of cultural beliefs and social activities from one group to another.” In today’s times, people are more open and welcoming of other cultures, while they are still preserving their own in the process. Throughout, the cultural portfolio project, many connections and differences have been made between my lifestyle and values here in the United States with Mexico’s lifestyle.

Imagine the pressure of being expected to follow your culture’s traditions even if you want to rebel and create your own identity. Carrying on traditions can be difficult for many young people who are searching for their identities as they grow up. Two texts, “Life in the age of the mimis” by Domingo Martinez and “El Olvido” by Judith Ortiz, tell about the struggles of losing one’s culture. One shows the reader that forgetting your own roots simply because of being ashamed or embarrassed can really harm you, while the other demonstrates that forgetting your culture for the sake of fame and fortune can also do the same damage.

“Being WEIRD: How Culture Shapes the Mind,” by Ethan Watters, is a compelling article that challenges the reader’s perception on culture and cognition. Instead of cognition affecting culture, our culture affects our cognition. It’s interesting to conceptualize, and it makes one have to introspect their culture, beliefs, attitudes, and actions. Why do we do behave the way that we do? Are our thoughts our own? How much of us is influenced by our environment? This effect of culture can be rooted in our childhoods. We are taught societal norms and how to view, categorize, and perceive the world through the lens of the environment surrounding us. A prime example of this comes from the games we played growing up.

Puerto Ricans are another major Hispanic group that has also arrived to the U.S and brought less work for Americans. Puerto Ricans' current association with the United States, like that of the Mexican people, began as the result of the outcome of a war. The island of Borinquen, subsequently called Puerto Rico, was claimed by Spain in 1493. The native inhabitants, the Taino Indians, were significantly reduced in number by conquest, slavery, and genocide. (Schaefer, R. 2006, p.266). After Puerto Rico had been ruled by Spain for four centuries, the island was seized by the United States in 1808 during the Spanish-American War. The value of Puerto Rico for the United States, as it had been for Spain, was mainly its strategic location, which was advantageous for maritime trade. (Schaefer, R. 2006, p.226). The most significant difference between the meaning of race in Puerto Rico and on the mainland is that Puerto Rico, like so many other

The diversity of culture is an incredible notion. It is unfathomable how the anatomy of the human race is so similar, yet so different in the behaviors and ideas that take place. The two primary cultures I am focusing on throughout this essay are the differentiation between popular culture, and indigenous culture. I will also make the point of folk culture, and how it has slowly transformed itself from its self sufficiency, to relying more on the ways of popular culture.

Since the nineteenth century Puerto Ricans have been caught in the cross-streams of two cultures,

Reading Craig Storti’s book, Figuring Foreigners Out, gives many new insights about my trip to Puerto Rico. In his book there are four categories that he covers that I will use to analyze and reflect upon my time in Puerto Rico. The four categories he uses are concept of self, personal vs. societal responsibility, concept of time, and locus of control. To begin I will examine Storti’s topic, concept of self.

In Reproducing Empire, Laura Briggs provides her readers with a very thorough history of the mainland U.S. and Puerto Rican discourses and its authors surrounding Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans, from Puerto Rico's formation in the mainland elite's "mind" as a model U.S. (not) colony in 1898* to its present status as semi-autonomous U.S.

Coca-Cola has been around for 125 years with the same logo, taste, and design. Making it one of the most recognizable brands in the world. Coca-Cola’s “Mean Joe Greene” commercial was an iconic Super Bowl XIV commercial in 1980. In this commercial, their goal was to persuade the audience that a bottle of coke can bring happiness and a smile. By choosing a notorious football icon, Mean Joe Greene, to play the mean guy was a great choice. Mean Joe Greene is a hall of fame defensive end football player from the 1970’s. He was known for his temper and cruelty on the field. Thus, the name Mean Joe Greene. He was an excellent football player which is why people loved and still love him till this day. By using all three rhetorical concepts, logos (appealing to reasoning), pathos (appealing to emotion), and ethos (appealing to credibility), Coke creates a motto that persuades its audience to “Have a Coke and a Smile”.

The United States gained Puerto Rico in 1898 through the Treaty of Paris, signed after the Spanish-American. Although the Puerto Rican community initially embraced U.S. intervention in 1898, hoping that the land of the free would finally bring liberty to the island, the following years were full of disillusionment. The sad reality was that the U.S. had no intention of ever giving up control of Puerto Rico because of its strategic location in the Caribbean. The United States government tried to Americanize the island. Which was acceptable for the island in the eyes of the elite until their power was being threatened. The elite’s on the island looked to the Jibaro as their symbol of national identity.

Driving through the urban city of San Jose I was somewhat stunned to see the blatant similarities to the typical American metropolis we are used to. Although the glaring difference in infrastructure stands out immediately as your taxi driver steers around right and left corners with equal airiness and red lights do not even incite a certain amount of slowing down it becomes easy to see that Global culture is stronger and more uniform than it could have ever been in the past and McDonalds has become the benchmark for 2nd world or better civilizations. Americans as a whole are driven by things that citizens of Costa Rica do not understand, “It may seem strange, but one of the first steps is to learn one’s own culture. No one ever tells us that we are learning our culture, it all happens at an unconscious level. We are told that we are learning the right way to do things. Someone from the US may not realize things such as the way they engage in “small talk” is actually somewhat irritating to people from many countries around the world.” All of those things made me reevaluate the things I love like movies and cars and nice clothes, all things that I work so hard for, in a whole

When the United States invaded the southwestern coast of Puerto Rico (Guanica and Ponce), a majority of Puerto Ricans welcomed the Americans and enabled their invasion. They cooperated and aided the American expulsion of Spaniards. However, it is obvious by the consequences that the end result of U.S. invasion and rule was not what Puerto Ricans had welcomed in July of 1898. Puerto Ricans wished an end to autocratic rule and concentration of wealth, things they did not know would continue under American rule. The Americans were regarded as change and chance for progress, even though they retained the fear of not knowing U.S. intentions.

Throughout the course of this essay a rhetorical analysis will be performed over the subject of the popular soft drink, Coca Cola. Here we will take a look at two documents, both advertisement images, both from Coca Cola, separated by over 40 years. This sweet drink took the world by storm starting in the 1890’s and has been a household name since. With hundreds of thousands of soft drinks all over the world, Coca Cola is just another in a bucket, except with a different set of tactics toward drawing in their consumers.

When entering a grocery store, most people don’t take the time to stop and observe their surroundings, for their soul purpose at that instant is to purchase what very food they may need for that day or maybe even for that week. However, through all the haste of wanting to go in and out of grocery stores as fast as one can, most are unaware of the very culture that they too are now apart of, the interactions, both verbal and through people’s body language that they are experiencing, how people look and dress, even what is considered appropriate behavior although not specifically written down. Culture is all around us, and we all contribute to it, whether it is through our norms, values, symbols, or mental maps of reality (Guest 2014, 38-43). That is why through this assignment, I took the time to observe the culture experienced in the American grocery store Stater Brothers, the ethnical Filipino grocery store Seafood City, while also taking the time to reflect on my own personal views of what I thought was “normal” through my experience working in Northgate Gonzalez Market, a Mexican grocery store for three years.