If you have read, or are beginning to read Bodega Dreams by Ernesto Quiñonez, you will have been introduced to excerpts from the poem Puerto Rican Obituary, a poem by PedroPietri, a famous Puerto Rican author. In Bodega Dreams, Quinonez uses the poem to highlight life in Spanish Harlem, where the poem and the novel are both set.
Pietri is a Puerto Rican poet, and is one of the founders of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, a non-profit organization that is known for its involvement with the arts in New York City. It is primarily Latino performers, and has been in business since 1973 when it was founded. It was this cafe that was first introduced to Pietri's “Puerto Rican Obituary,” and the cafe is what gave Pietri the notoriety he gained in life.
The poem is a story of boricuans, the Taino name for Puerto Ricans, living in Spanish Harlem, trying to make their American dreams come true. However, the poem is permeated with sadness, because many of the characters in the poem do not accomplish their dreams, and leave this world hating their lives, and the other people around them. The line “All died/ waiting dreaming and hating” (line 46) shows the readers of the poem that even though Puerto Ricans come to America in search of a better life, sometimes the dreams fall flat, and the anger and bitterness are what are left for the relatives and children.
The poem is also a commentary on the life situation of a Latino in New York City. Even though Puerto Ricans are US citizens, there is a prejudice in this country against Latinos of all forms. Pietri points out in his poem that many of the Puerto Ricans who work here do not even know what the front door of the national bank looks like (line 22).
When I first read this poem, I will admit that I was a little put off by the fact it is quite a long poem, similar to an epic in the vein of Beowulf. But as I began to read further into the poem, I began to realize that there are many facts that I believed in, but was proved wrong. I have known for a long time that Puerto Ricans are American citizens, so because of this I always believed that they would have the same status as other Americans in the US. However, after reading Bodega Dreams and Puerto Rican Obituary, I came to the realization that mainstream American culture views Puerto Ricans not as American citizens, but as another Latino group, and due to this are not as understanding or accepting of Puerto Ricans into this country.
Instead, many Puerto Ricans move to Spanish Harlem in NYC, and get jobs that no one else wants, because they want to live the American dream in America, and they will do whatever it takes (sound familiar?)
It’s interesting to me that you link “Puerto Rican Obituary” to traditional epic poems. I was a bit fazed by the length, too – I personally struggled through the “History of New Mexico” poem we read earlier in this class – and was concerned that my mind might wander when I read it. Thankfully, the opposite was the case and I was drawn in. Although it is more easily read in terms of style, though, I do feel like you are on to something about the link to epic poetry. The poems deals spans a wide geography (Puerto Rico to the US), a few generations, and certainly has a lot of tragic elements in it. Perhaps Pietri is trying to show how what is one culture’s epic can go unnoticed by another culture.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, when we were reading this poem I was struggling to get the mood of the poem. I was caught between the sadness of the dying Puerto Ricans and their situation, and the excitement I felt for New York and East Harlem. I think that reading this poem in conjunction with Bodega Dreams confused me a bit, because I carried the excitement from that book into the poem.
ReplyDeleteIn that sense, I really appreciated your analysis of the poem. Having spent more time with it than I had, I was able to gain more insight through your analysis. Like you say, the poem is about more than just the New York lifestyle of Puerto Ricans, and more about the Puerto Rican experience as a whole. But in the end, I like that you connect it to the rest of what we’re studying, saying, “sound familiar?”
Puerto Rico is one of those countries my heart goes out to. When people talk about sending aid it is always to Africa. Since my December visit to PR, I realize the oppression the USA is putting on PR and it saddens me.
ReplyDeleteOver this past weekend PR was having one of their elections and it was shown all over the TVs. The one thing that caught my eye, was all the reporters that were covering the story were white. If PR is an American land while are there no PR reporter.
The other issue I had was one of the issues the US was having with PR was language. They did not feel like the people knew enough English. How can we complain about a country knowing there own language when we do so little to help them?