The last class of Latin America Cultures and Civilization unfortunately
was coming to an end but we went out with a bang. We went through our group presentations and
learned a lot of interesting information about Belize, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala,
Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, and Puerto Rico.
I was part of the Puerto Rico group along with Brian,
Fitsum, Rose and Zach. The questions I
was responsible for were social movements and political parties. I chose these topics as I found these the
most interesting. We could have gone on
and on with the presentation as we found out eight minutes really is not much
time amongst 5 people to share their knowledge. While doing the research I ran across
the topic of the status of Puerto Rico – should it become the Unites States 51st
state, become its own country, or have an advanced Commonwealth status. There are many pros and cons to each of the
options but I believe Puerto Rico deserves to become the 51st
state. There was a federal tax exemption
that allowed US corporations to manufacturer goods in Puerto Rico that shielded
them from paying taxes. The corporations
took advantage of the cheap labor and tax exemption to exploit the people of
Puerto Rico who were U.S citizens. We also
used the island as a military base during the peak of the Cold War. It wasn’t until corporations determined they
could get labor cheaper elsewhere that corporations pulled out of Puerto Rico. Some
lawmakers think Puerto Rico is currently nothing more than a welfare sinkhole,
but Puerto Rico has brought much wealth to the Unites States. It deserves to become the 51st
state of the United States and become a vacation paradise, a “Hawaii of the
East”
The potluck was amazing as each country brought a dish or
dessert from their respective country.
The dish we brought was Arroz con Gandules and was purchased from the
Burrito Mercado. Arroz con Gandules is
the national dish of Puerto Rico and is basically rice, pigeon peas, and
sofrito. This dish is commonly eaten on
holidays and at pig roasts.
The Belizean coconut cookies were very good as was
everything, but they had a special connection with me as I met a Belizean cult
hero called Coco Leo during my travels.
He would climb the coconut trees and pulls down a couple of ripe
coconuts. When he made it back to the
sand he would crack them open either with a knife or on his head and served
fresh coconut and milk
Cally Ingebritson was a special guest we had from Migrant Head
Start. This program provides child care
and social services for preschool children of low-income migrant and seasonal
farm workers. I have always had an
appreciation for migrant workers. It is
very hard work and not the first choice of work that I would be interested in
doing. Cally mentioned that some of the
workers would travel from location to location based on the season. This
hit close to home. When I was in the 3th grade, one of the students
in my class, Jose Maciel, came from a family of seasonal workers. Jose was a couple of years older than
everyone else in the class. He was just
like the rest of us but he never stayed for the whole school year. This happened for a couple of years until the
Sod farm closed down. Jose never came
back and we never had a chance to say goodbye.
The grand finale of the Class was going to be the World Café
questions but there just wasn’t enough time in the night to get to this
experience. My responses to the
questions would have been similar to what I have below.
Round One
I am opposed to the
spraying of fertilizer while migrants are in the field and the lack of child
care while the parents are in the field.
I do not even fertilize my yard as I am afraid of the side effects it
could have on my dog. Children are most impressionable between the ages of 0 to
5 years and studies have shown for every dollar spent on early child care could
save 19 dollars in future costs from costs such as juvenile detention and jail. These conditions will continue to exist as
long as companies are allowed to have it happen. Putting a financial squeeze on these
companies can be done by buying organic and writing to your legislator to make
your feelings known
What can migrant workers do to give themselves more power
against these companies?
Round Two
I believe Hispanic and Latino/Latina is a name given to
people in the United States who are from Latin America. There are no Hispanics in Latin America and
there is no Latin state or country. They
are Mexican, Columbian, Guatemalan, Venezuelan and etc. All Hispanic and Latinos/Latinas are not
alike. They have different cultural values and even have different
languages. Not all countries in Latin
America speak Spanish as English is popular in Belize and Portuguese is popular
in Brazil and Portugal.
My experience in the class would change my behavior by
asking somebody where are they from.
Round Three
I would not approach people from a different cultural
background any differently from what I do now. With my mom’s side of my family
being Mexican, I am accustomed to the challenges and stereotypes of
minorities. I never treated anybody
differently as a result of where they were from
Probably one of the biggest things I learned in the class was
a characteristic of a collective culture.
Group goals were stressed over Individual goals which are common in
Latin America culture. This was carried
over to the class with our group discussions, collective quiz, and group
presentation.
Well this wraps up my class work for Latin American Cultures
and Civilization. I am thankful to be class
with you as I learned from the information you shared in the discussions and
blogs. Hopefully my sharing was
beneficial to you as well.
Hasta luego mi amigo
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