STRUGGLING FOR SPACE, CREATING LATINA/O URBAN CULTURES

BY M.S.

I have recently learned how Puerto Ricans were forced to leave their beloved island in order to find better opportunities due to economic reasons. However, they were given so little back in return. They wanted to strive for the “American Dream” as many people like to refer to as where money is a possibility and providing comes easy with putting in effort. But many Puerto Ricans have worked hard and endlessly but have gotten nothing in return to show for it. Once arriving to the mainland of the United States, they were not given the same equal opportunity and abilities as promised and instead were put to the side where the state of their living declined. Instead of being more independent, they obtained a more increased dependence on America. They had a vision but what was their actual outcome from living in America? What kind of struggles did they face and why did they put up with these struggles? In this blogpost, I will expand on how Puerto Ricans were affected by the migration and argue that they would be treated as a problem to the United States instead of a welcomed addition of America.

Many people wanted the same thing, which was to wake up with a better lifestyle and have their people flourish. Pedro Pietri explained it in simple words in his poem called the Puerto Rican Obituary, where he stated they were “dreaming about America waking them up in the middle of the night screaming: Mira Mira your name is on the winning lottery ticket for one hundred thousand dollars”. They wanted to be able to make their family on the island proud but America made it so hard for them to do so. They would be situated in neighborhoods with extreme poverty surrounded with abandoned tenements and unclean streets where others would consider the ghetto. Quoted by Luis Aponte-Pares on page 12 in Appropriating Place in Puerto Rican Barrios; The losses, of course, were not only of buildings and people, but of primary "life spaces," areas people occupied in which their "dreams were made, and their lives unfolded" (Friedmann and Wolff 1982:326).

They left a homeland with its own distinct identity and culture and being in a new area caused many cultural conflicts as well. According to Aponte in Appropriating Place in Puerto Rican Barrios, their casitas made in these neighborhoods were the only source of pride and memory that they had, which validates their Puerto Rican identity in space (8). This was the only place that they felt as a community and as a whole because America did not provide them with any sense of importance, belonging, or opportunity. They were often denied opportunities even if they were able to afford them by some off chance. These opportunities may include affordable housing options and the basic rights of a citizen such as voting. Their actual outcome was nothing compared to what they expected or wished for but they knew that the city was where they may have more opportunity to make a difference than staying home on the island. In Lessons from El Barrio, Luis Aponte-Pares described it perfectly when stating Puerto Ricans began to  “ form community consciousness” and began “representing” themselves on the built environment in earnest. This is how they worked through the struggles they faced and stayed together as a thriving and growing community. These hardships only made them work stronger together.

Works Cited

Pedro Pietri. 1973. "Puerto Rican Obituary" [poem]

Aponte-Parés, Luis. 1998. “Lessons from El Barrio—the East Harlem real great society/irban planning studio: A Puerto Rican chapter in the fight for urban self-determination.” New Political Science [21]

Aponte-Pares, Luis. 1998. “What’s Yellow and White and Has Land All Around It?: Appropriating Place in Puerto Rican Barrios,” [9]