Jesmir Santana Adorno

Engl 4256
Prof. Prez Osorio
September 3, 2015.
Puerto Ricans: Citizens Yet Foreigners
Outside the Southwest, Anglo Americans rarely saw Hispanics in
everyday life and knew almost nothing about them. Then the Puerto Ricans
came. I like when he says that final sentence because I think no mater were
when we, Puerto Ricans, arrive somewhere we make us notice.
I didnt know the history behind the massacre of Ponce. I remember heard
of it but no one told me why happened. I cant believe that this important fact
about our history teachers dont tell us the real history. Im so mad at the way
teachers in high school teach the story of Puerto Rico. I hate the colonial
education that we received! I know lots of Puerto Ricans dont know their history
and that is very sad. I think that is one of the principal problems of Puerto Ricans.
I felt I learn more history reading this essay than in my history classes. In
college I took two classes of Puerto Rican history because I knew the history that
teach me in high school was very bad and poor beside Ive always want to know
more about Puerto Ricos History. The first class I took was really good and I
learn so much but the second one was supposed to be about U.S. invade P.R.
but in my class I didnt learn almost anything about that. After taking the class I
felt like I had lost my entire time in that course. The only thing that I learn was
about political parties, but I wanted to learn real history not just about political

parties. Im so mad about the ship history education we received, especially on

high school.
Puerto Ricans went through a lot in the island and outside of it. Puerto
Ricans, who spoke no English, were frequently ridiculed by their fellow GIs.
Many of them were exposed to ethnic prejudice for the first time. They
encounter both helping hands and hostility. I think this proof my point. Is sad that
things like this happened and continue.
The stories of the ethnic war are shocking. Here in Puerto Rico I think the
racism is not that extreme. I know here exist racism although we think or try to
think theres not. In the U.S. racism organizations kill because of the color of your
skin. That is something that we arent just to.
One phrase that I liked was when he referred to Psychological scars from
Americanization. I think the majority of the Latino migrants carry with these
scars. Every time they are marginalize or rejected they suffer of a new scar.
Beside of these we have the second generation that is a generation more
educated. They go to colleges and graduate. In this process is when they get lots
of these scars.
In many cities, our communities emerged as buffer zones between blacks
and whites. In some of the Puerto Rican this caused a division. I watched my
aunts and uncles begin to adopt anti-Black attitudes, as if this were some rite of
passage to becoming authentic Americans. Seems like some of them forgot
about And your grandmother, where is she?.

Gradually the Puerto Ricans began to organize and make themselves

notice in the big U.S. There was a new sense of emerging Puerto Rican Power
it was a political and cultural awakening. The essence of that new realization of
who we were.