Nuyorican & Latino Poetry

Xavier Martinez wrote:

- Considering the label “Nuyorican” was originally an insult, until artists transformed its meaning, how does this alteration of language carry through Nuyorican poetry?

- Similarly to the film Lone Star, Latino poetry highlights the blurred lines between multiculturalism and intersectionality. How do the works of Laviera, Morales, and Baca convey these complexities?

 

- How does Algarin’s use of the term “moonlighting” in the poem “Latero Story”, or Pietri’s central focus on the “dead Puerto Ricans” in “Puerto Rican Obituary” help address the Latino communities faulty view of “the American dream?”

Nuyorican and Latino Poetry Questions

Both the Baca and the Laviera pieces deal with issues surrounding the space Latinx people navigate. This space can be physical, intellectual, or metaphorical. In what ways do the poets depict how Latinx people occupy or are denied these spaces? How are these spaces important to immigrant communities? Keep in mind the imperial/colonial history of the United States, and that history is not limited to physical land.

All of the poems in this week's reading portray feelings of pain. In fact, I would argue every piece we have read in "The Immigrant Experience" have dealt with pain. Do you think that emotional pain is an integral part of the immigrant experience in America?

Lone Star Question

1. What was the sheriff that racist and bigoted in the movie? In what way and why?

2. Is the Texas borderland one big melting pot?

Lone Star Questions

In what ways is the depiction of the Texas borderland as "multi-cultural and multi-racial" ironic, seeing as there is a patriarchal white savior narrative that dictates the plot?

Rio County is structured by the hierarchies of race and power and it’s most centralized vehicle of systemic power is the sheriff’s department; in what ways does hegemonic whiteness (and privilege) rear itself in Mexican/Tejano spaces and narratives within the movie?

The interactions between three distinct racialized groups account for the tension within the town: the “anglo’s,” the black people, and the Mexicans. How does the representation of the interactions between the Anglos and the Mexicans, the Anglos and Black people, and the nonexistent interactions between the Mexicans and Black people express the racial separatism present in this movie?

Brooklyn Questions 2.0

Is Jim an actual temptation for Eilis, or is he simply more convenient and comfortable, a simple way to stay home and solve a lot of problems all at once (such as who will take care of her mother, being somewhat friendless in Brooklyn, leaving her exhausting job behind, etc.)?

Eilis leaves Ireland very abruptly. Do you think this was out of shame or because she wanted to avoid the small-town gossip? Another reason?

In the beginning of the novel, Eilis is very much an Irish immigrant. She comments on food, the weather, crowds, mannerisms. It is clear she feels very far from her home. By the end, she is married, leaves behind her mother almost happily (that small smile on the journey back) and seems almost distressed by the small town she grew up in. At the end of the novel, is Eilis still an Irish immigrant, or an Irish-American? Another way to phrase this would be - Where does Eilis feel most at home now, Ireland or America?

Essay 2 assignment sheet

The Immigrant Experience (Eng 3165/AmSt 3304)

Fall 2016, Prof. Davis

Essay 2, due Tue Nov. 8

Option A

In an essay of 5 or more double-spaced pages, analyze the theme of remembering and forgetting in any two of the following: No-No Boy, Brooklyn, and Lone Star.  How is the tension between remembering and forgetting developed in the two works you’ve chosen, and how does it relate to immigration?

 

Option B

Rewrite the ending of Brooklyn or No-No Boy.  In 5 or more double-spaced pages, give the novel an alternate conclusion.  Make every effort to imitate the author’s narrative style and tone, even as you alter the content.  Indicate where in the original novel your revision begins.  Attach to your revised ending a brief account (1 page) of why you made the choices you did in rewriting the ending.  Your work will be evaluated on your fidelity to the style and tone of the original, and on the insight your discussion demonstrates into the issues raised by the novel.

 

 

 

Guidelines (Option A)

• Early in your essay, include an organizing statement – a sentence or two that expresses the main ideas you’ll discuss and offers a “road-map” of your essay.
• Quote from the texts in order to illustrate your ideas.  When you quote, place the page number from the original text in parentheses at the end of the sentence.
• This is not a research paper.  You need not consult or refer to any additional sources.  If you borrow ideas or language from others, be sure to attribute properly and include a list of works cited at the end of your essay.

 

Brooklyn Questions

"And tell me something: if you hadn’t married him, would you still be going back?” “I don’t know,” Eilis said. “But you are getting the train in the morning?” her mother said.  (p. 258)

As the reader, what do you believe Eilis would have decided to do if she had left America and arrived in Ireland without actually having married Tony?

What does it say about her mother that she went to her bedroom and refused to spend any time with Eilis the night before she left, or the next morning?

Eilis left without really knowing whether her mother knew about Tony before she arrived back in Ireland.  How do you think Rose handled the information in Eilis’s letters, and why?