The New York City 's Puerto Rican Community

One of the most charming statements ever made about Puerto Rican diversity goes as follows:

Even by the 1930s, this was particularly among young people who, “born and educated in the United States, demanded to be included in the city’s future … ” (Sanchez 226). At a crucial meeting of Mexican-Americans in 1927, facing an Anglo led municipal incorporation move that would have raised taxes and driven them out, many Mexican-American leaders opposed applying for U.S. citizenship. Even though it would have given them more of a target, specifically, the right to vote on a subsequent ballot measure. The affront to Mexico and their heritage was, for them, a crime that outweighed the benefits (Sanchez 4).

I relate each component with a historical event in Puerto Rican politics and also consider how through this historic mobilization Puerto Ricans have gained entitlement to more power, equality, representation, consciousness from other ethnic groups, and to some degree, social change. I focus on the Puerto Ricans’ migration to Connecticut, their development of ethnic awareness and power awareness, their realization of common interests, their competing ethnic projects, and the brokered representation they have endured as detailed in Jose Cruz’s book, Identity and Power: Puerto Rican Politics and the Challenge of Ethnicity. Finally, I examine an important point that Cruz only touched upon briefly, which is the idea of cultural citizenship in the Puerto Rican community. This added point helps us to fully understand the role identity politics played in Puerto Ricans’ lives.

Growing up in New York City is a very unique experience. You grow up surrounded by a diverse population of people packed tightly into one city. But with this kind of diversity come the questions of self-identification and how others view you. I was born and raised in the upper Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights which is known for its mostly Dominican population. Moreover, growing up in the public school system and everyday New York living has exposed me to many different Latino and Black communities and culture. I have experienced racism; I have experienced the implementation of hegemonic ideals and I have been exposed to poverty. Even after all the civil rights movements and activism that have

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

Over the past fifty or so years great strides have been made on the subject of Mexican-American civil rights, but the first pivotal moment for these civil rights barely gets any recognition in the annals of American civil rights, in which it rightly deserves. This victory, which has been labeled “The Longoria Affair”, would cause a momentum within Latino civil rights movement that was previously unseen and would lead the way for political opportunities for Latinos.

Overall, the chapter, which focuses on “Hispanicity”, impacted me because I began to formulate ideas which opposed those that had been hammered into my mind all my life. For so long I had heard that minorities were victims to oppression by whites and for that reason minorities should strive to do more than what is expected from them. In reading Rodriguez’s claim, questions that had never been explored in my development arose in my mind such as “Are Hispanics really the victims?”, “Do Hispanics truly strive to their fullest to accomplish things that have never been done?”, and lastly, “Are Hispanics committing acts of hypocrisy?”. If a Hispanic

The Puerto Ricans in New York were being submerged in racist repression and a severe economic exploitation. There Puerto Ricans faced filthy and dangerous tenement housing and a school system that denigrated their language and culture and offered little opportunity for higher education. The Latino population could not get ahead because of the daily repression to which they are subjected. In the streets they faced an occupying army, the New York City Police Department, which was openly racist and used violence liberally. “Puerto Ricans were good enough to die in the jungle of Vietnam, but were treated like the Viet Cong on the streets of New York,” according to to “palante brief history of the Young Lords”what the young lord tried to do oster seeing all the events that were helping to denigrated the latino community they began to clean the streets. Gave

Dr. Jason Richwine discusses the Latino’s absorption and integration into the American culture. He compares the Latino nation with other countries’ immigrants that has rose out of poverty, while the Hispanics have not been rising up out of the lower class after several generations have passed. Richwine mentions that American prejudice might be influencing the Hispanic immigrants not striving. For example, he states, that “popular explanations from the

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.

Amid Arpaio's residency in Arizona, the Latino people group was gradually being undermined. With cops under Arpaio going about as mouthpieces to his supremacist strategies, it was a daunting task for both the casualties of such frameworks and the progressives contrary to such approaches. Supporters of Arpaio energized around him effortlessly, safeguarding him with patriot talk painting Arpaio as the essential nonentity of a campaign to evacuate "unlawful settlers."

The Latinos in my class differed in the way that they were proud to say they were Puerto Rican, Mexican, and Dominican. Thus, I pursued a relationship with these classmates and I began to feel differently about Latinos. I realized that I was taking part in the prejudice thoughts my previous classmates had toward Latinos by concealing my identity. I also recognized that Latinos were struggling to pursue a better life and that we are looked down upon. As a result of discrimination, it is difficult for us to accomplish our goals in life. Presently, every opportunity I get, I talk about my culture. I discuss the hardships Latinos face and I describe my experience growing up Puerto Rican. Although I am Puerto Rican, I don't know as much about my culture as I should. Reading Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America by Juan Gonzalez has brought new insights to my knowledge of Puerto Ricans and Latinos in general. Gonzalez focuses on language and writes that speaking Spanish is treated as a handicap instead of as an asset.

The migration of Puerto Ricans to the United States occurred in two major waves. The first wave was in the 1910s-1940s and the second wave was from the 1960s to the 1990s. Each wave of migrants brought new generations of Puerto Ricans to the United States. Both waves of migrants believed that they were going to live a better life in America and migrated to major cities such as New York City, Chicago, Hartford, etc. The early migrants looked for industrial jobs such as in cigar factories while the later migrants found agricultural work such as in tobacco fields. The communities in which they lived grew larger and larger due to chain migration and because of this, the need for politics evolved.

The United States as a whole is seen as the land of opportunity. New York is a major central for diversity and because of that many people from different cultural atmospheres have brought their families and dreams to New York City. Although Immigration patters throughout the last 200 years have varied, New York has consistently seen people from around the world move to the city and call it home. From the earliest points in our history as a nation, New York has been a center for trade and economic growth. New York is known world wide as a cultural melting pot. While other states have had immigration surges, none have compared to the diversity and sheer number of immigrants that have made their way to the City. This paper will focus on