Not Neither
Sandra Maria Esteves
Being Puertorriqueña Dominicana
Born in the Bronx, not really jibara
Not really hablando bien
But yet, not Gringa either
Pero ni portorra, pero si portorra too
Pero ni que what am I?
Y que soy, pero con what voice do my lips move?
Rhythms of Rosa wood feet dancing Bomba
Not even here, but here, y Conga
Yet not being, pero soy, and not really
Y somos, y cómo somos?
Bueno, eso si es algo lindo
Algo muy lindo
We defy translation
Ni tengo nombrenameless, we are a whole culture once removed
Lolita alive for twenty-five years
Ni soy, pero soy Puertorriquñea commo ella
Giving blood to the independent star
Daily transfusions into the river of La Sangre Viva.
From Stone on Stone/Piedra Sobre Piedra, edited by Zoe Anglesey. Seattle: Open Hand, 1994. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
Jennifer Bruno - This poem is really good because i feel the same way. She is saying that she dosent know what language to skeak, she dosent know how to speak either english or spanish perfectly, she dosent but does feel portorra at the same time. I personally feel the same way, i was born here in Puerto Rico, my parents and my family are from argentina and i know english too so i get confused with everything. The culture, foods, the words of the language and identity I dont know which is which. She is having an identity crisis, she dosent feel from a certain place.
ReplyDeleteSony Antron
ReplyDelete1) What does portorra mean?
2) i completely understand this piece of spoken word (besides the "portorra" part). I feel like she isnt exactly trying to find herself nor is she trying to have other people find her, she is just trying 2 understand...not necessarily have other people understand but 2 be able to understand herself. She writes liek she thinks the same way i write like i think. With this piece im am fully able to connect because i have basically the same roots as her. She isnt exactly "gringa" but she isnt exactly boricua, she is something inbetween. She is proud of who she is and where she comes from but at the same time she doesnt fully understand it because she wasnt fully immersed in the culture. Its like she's the tip of an iceberg yerning to discover what lies beneath. This is the type of literature that you cannot understand unless u read between the lines and try 2 dig deeper. to conclude, because i can go on for hours on this topic, i feel like i am reading about myself in this piece
Jose Espada this poem is a huge piece of art, it just describe perfect what most of the people think about themself when they are in a diferent country.this time for her is really personal,the emotion that she put on this goes deepered then we tought. in the poem you can understand how she felt,she really enjoy been puertorican and dominican and shes so proud but at the same time recognize that she is in another country with a diferent culture an new people that ignore who is her.
ReplyDeleteJustin Cruz
ReplyDeleteI belive this is the voice of a person with identety problem. Aperently it is a woman trying to ansewre her identety dilemas. She sems to know some things of her self, but not completele, she says she is not "jibara" neither "gringa" this are both terms use or known by puertoricans.
Lionel Aneudy Escobales Filippetti
ReplyDeleteThis poem represents too the union of latinos. How she's representing her own experiences is an unique way to express how she feels against separations between latinos and americans. She first expresses herself with some confusion about who she is and where she comes from. but after a few lines she relizes she's just from one roots, as any other of us. Having a nationality does not makes us more or less, because in the end we are just one. She expresses herself as a nameless person wich represents how a person should feel when their nationalities fill their heads. She also names Lolita (wich I think is reffering to Lola Rodriguez de Tió) Who was an amazing woman and a great example for Puertoricans, even thou she felt like we should be just one people for the world. Her main idea, in my opinion, is to put on clear that we should be one people of a whole.
Anigiselle Regis
ReplyDeleteI don't even know where to start... I can't stop thinking about el spanglish que she is doing. She is trying to unite her cultural langages thinking its a "mescloche" just because she is not a jibara nor gringa, but the thing is that even though she is not a jibara or a gringa doesn't mean that she needs to speak one language. I've been raised here in PR all my life and i also speak el spanglish, it's who we are. That's what we do, we take the best of both worlds or in this case the best of both cultures. When she says: "con what voice do my lips move?" It doesn't matter with what voice does her lips move, the point is getting your thoughts out like a true puertorrican. Puertorricans are a fusion of many cultures so it doesn't matter if she is dancing whatever rythm or whatever beat, its like she said, it's who we are. And it is beautiful to be like this, having so many ways to express your self. Si lo digo en ingles, español, frances o lo que sea, no importa; its what your thoughts are trying to say what really matters.
Ludienne Henriette
ReplyDeleteSeems like this is a woman who is half puertorican, half dominican. She was born in the Bronx NY. I would say she's having an identity crisis. She doesn't know what culture she belongs to. But she finds it interesting and beautiful, since the language is different. She speaks spanglish. She's merging the two cultures (hispanic and american).
Noel Collado
ReplyDeleteWell I'm gonna be the first one to admit that the way she was talking confused a bit but I did understand her feelings though. I know that she is trtying to identify herself but not knowing exactly how to express herself. She uses a lot of contradictions to explain herself. It's funny because she understands that may not be considered to be Puerto Rican, Dominican, or even American but yet she knows that she is apart of them.
You know what, I guess I feel a little of what she feels. I'm puertorican, I'm a Dominican that was born in the states (New York). Everytime I encounter a Dominican that was born in Dominican Republic that say I'm not one, but when I meet an American they consider me Dominican. It's very confusing indeed.
Oh and the backround is pretty cool. I like it. It makes the page look distinguished.
Liza Marrero
ReplyDeleteAlthough this confused me & made my head hurt a little i liked it, i think what she's trying to say is that she's puertorican even if she doesn't know how to speak or write spanish well, even if she wasn't born in puerto rico. She doesn't mention a lot about being part dominican too but i think she's just proud of who she is.
Yoesky Joaquin
ReplyDeleteThrough this poem the author expresses how she feels about being from three different cultures. It seems the author feels a bit confused or lost concerning her identity, and I quote: "not really jibara... not Gringa either... pero ni portorra.. what am I?", she doesn't know who she is. Towards the end of the poem, she identifies herself a little bit more as puertoriquena when she says: "giving blood to the independent star", refering to the Puertorican flag. I understand it's pretty confusing for a person to choose only one culture when they come from and have lived in three different ones.
Correction! I'm not Puerto Rican! lol Although I love the culture... lol
ReplyDeleteNoel Collado
ReplyDeleteThe last comment was Me NOEL lol
Carlos F. Bautista
ReplyDeletealright, this girl is getting on my nerves, the way she is writing makes me think or even makes me know that she does not know what she really is.. and i could understand her situation, cause she IS a "Sancocho"... she is half dominican and half boricua but she was born in the Bronx..
Another thing is that she doesn't mention anything about Dominicans (the culture and etc.) so it makes me think that she doesn't know anything about it; maybe her parents didn't help her to know about their culture.
Seriously. she doesn't know who she is.
I didn't notice her swaying to one side at first. Carlos and a few others picked up on how she identified more with the Puerto Ricans. Maybe she was only influenced by them in her barrio. ?????? Everyone was very insightful to this poem/spoken word piece. I would like to keep up with this every so often and throw a piece at you all and see what you come up with. Good work!
ReplyDelete