Puerto Rican Beauty Standards Essay

For us to clearly understand the Young Lords, it must be understood how the Puerto Rican

Before Spain invaded Puerto Rico, the native population known as the Taino inhabited it. At the beginning of the 1500’s, the Taino were conquered by the Spanish and, after a

The beauty standard is a culturally constructed notion of physical attractiveness that has become increasingly imperative for women and men. However, this standard has become extremely perilous to men and women’s self-image. Camille Paglia, a highly educated individual who earned her PhD at Yale University and became a highly acclaimed author, explicates this conception in her essay “The Pitfalls of Plastic Surgery”. Paglia suggests that the beauty standard idealizes women to look like “sex symbols with an unattainable grandeur” (776). She continues to claim that it forces her audience of higher class women to pay large sums of money in order to alter their features ultimately conforming to a very “parochial” definition of beauty (776). Although Paglia is a highly credible source, she illogically appeals to the reader’s fears in order to persuade them. Paglia fails to give any credible outside sources which affirms her preposterous beliefs. Contrary to her inconsistencies, Daniel Akst, a social journalist and graduate from New York University provides his audience with reputable sources in order to persuade his audience. Daniel Akst believes that there needs to be a “democratization of physical beauty” in which instead of attempting to alter the beauty standard, we must first change how we view ourselves. Akst provides credible sources to establish his credibility where he observes cases studies and cultural experiments from scientists and organizations including:

Puerto Ricans first entered the realm of identity politics with their migration to Hartford, beginning in the 1950s. Their motivation was primarily economic; that is, Hartford had an abundance of job opportunities in restaurants, stores, factories, and farms in comparison to New York City and Puerto Rico (Cruz, 37). Puerto Ricans were now working and living alongside many other citizens of different ethnicities and were treated much like other

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

My process of enculturation into the Puerto Rican culture can be explained with the iceberg analogy, having in mind that the island itself has a high context background. Above water, the official language is Spanish, although English is taught mandatory on the education system since first grade. One of the things a tourist or anyone that starts assimilating the culture can experience first hand is the passion Puerto Ricans have to speak loudly and use many hand gestures during conversations. This passion is not only present during social interactions, but also on the way citizen’s carry out their beliefs. Even though, the island is a place recognized for its great night life activities and bars, the religion is 85% Catholic, therefore many people go to church on Sundays and tend to be very precocious of their actions because of their faith and religious thinking. Inside the water, on the aspect of feelings and values, Puerto Ricans are very traditional, nevertheless,

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.

Not necessarily the history but the story or interpretation of the past as perceived by the elite. Gonzalez suggests that the recreation of the history of Puerto Rican society can be expressed metaphorically as the construction of a building. "As the new layers of the history or floors are added the foundation becomes more and more obscured from view" (Figueroa 9/15). As the higher levels continued to build they were able to create the illusion of a "pure, white" society by rejecting and denying their Taino and African heritage.

Puerto Rican culture, like most cultures today, can be difficult to fit into a perfect descriptive box due to a rich heritage and history full of cultural and racial mixing that make up Its people. Taino Indians, Spanish settlers, African slaves, various immigrants, and eventually Americans, after they acquired the Island of Puerto Rico in 1898, have all influenced the culture of Puerto Rico. It was not until 1917, that Puerto Ricans received common United States citizenship. Puerto Ricans are as American as you or me, but the descendants of Puerto Rico will always consider themselves Puerto Rican and take great pride in their land and their culture. Today it is estimated that there are more than 8.6M Puerto Rican Americans and only approximately

Though, moving to the mainland, Puerto Ricans leave a homeland with its own distinct identity, culture, and the transition can involve many of the same

Puerto Rico, a name synonymous with finding it’s identity. Has had its woes in that search of identity. After suffering the colonialism of Spain, Puerto Rico was then won by the US in the Spanish American war. Puerto Ricans, deep-rooted in culture and tradition start the journey of searching for better. In the 1950s, after being a territory of the US for 51 years. We see huge emigration from Puerto Rico to the US. The Puerto Rican government played a crucial role in the Puerto Rican migration after world war II. The emigration numbers sky rocket in the 1950s and there is a reason it did. In this paper, I’ll prove that Puerto Ricans migrated to the US in search of a better life because of the post war economic conditions, population increase,

"Puerto Rico...is a people with a history, with its own idiosyncrasy....I don't think we are a random assortment of people that are cohabiting on the one hundred by thirty-five miles which is the size of our island. I think we're more than that. I think we're a nation that has a history that was established from the time before colonization. First there were natives on our island who were the aborigines, the Taíno Indians. Then came the era of Spanish colonization. Then comes the importation of slaves, which brings the African element also. That is, we are a national

Puerto Rican culture arises from the mixture of many cultures, among which distinguish three main ones: the Taino, the Spanish and African. The influence of these cultures was so strong on the island, which ober the years countless inherited customs and traditions of these ancestors. Some names of people,food, objects and household utensils have been inherited from the Tainos. Currently, as the famous hammocks objects used by the used by the Indians to rest, theu can be seen in Puerto Rican homes. Spaniards acquired the aspect of Catholicism and the Spanish language.

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.

The few surviving Tainos took off to the mountains for survival. The first two important elements of whom and what makes up Puerto Rican people, is here. The Taino Indians are 1/3 of the element. The second element, were the Spaniards.