Dominican Immigrants Face Challenges in New York City Public Schools

This article is about how Dominican children are having trouble in the school systems of New York City. It points out that many of the newly arrived students were not formally educated back in the Dominican Republic. Most of these children’s parents left them for years before they could be brought along with them to America. When the children arrive, they are surprised to find out that the youth in America is allowed to have opinions instead of always having to refer to their elders. The parents of these children feel the pressure of American society because they cannot punish their children like they could over in the Dominican Republic without having someone from the outside step in and say something. In their home country, those matters would be considered private affairs.

Language is a huge barrier to try to break for many of these students. Most of them do not really even have a grasp of their own Spanish language. A lot come over who are illiterate. This is because formal education is not pushed in their country because their family may need money to survive. The children would then be working instead of going to school. It makes it even harder to learn English with no academic background. Most of the students end up in a bilingual class instead of being placed in an English only class with the rest of the students. That ends up alienating them right off the back. Many of the Dominicans will feel constantly attacked and look towards their own for guidance. This can end up being a chance for gangs to recruit. The areas where the Dominicans are going to school are not particularly nice neighborhoods.

Another thing that can become another challenge for the youth is that parents will become jealous of their child’s chance at education. This is because the parent has to go through the struggle of trying to learn English too, but does not get the same support their children are getting. Also like I said before, the youth are also getting see that America offers them a lot more freedom from their elders. Some parents may not like the fact that they are losing control over their children.

Most of the Immigrants from the Dominican Republic come over poor. America has become a “golden grail” to their country. During the height of the crack movement, money was being transported back to their homeland. It made it look even more enticing. When the Dominican youth returns to the Dominican Republic, they are looked at with suspicion because of their baggy jeans and Yankees caps. They are also more likely to resist authority rule because of their experience in the U.S. The Dominicans are having trouble “fitting in” where ever they may be. "When you go home, everyone sees you as an American," Nuñez says, "while in New York, you are a Dominican."

Here's a link to the article I was talking about.
http://www.worldpress.org/Americas/2330.cfm

Multi-racial in a Bi-racial United States

Puerto Ricans have been in a long struggle with United States to gain equality. The main reason that I feel that Puerto Ricans have not gained equality is because they are multi-racial in a bi-racial country. The Puerto Rican community does not feel it belongs to the black community or the white community. If they did not speak Spanish, they could melt into the U.S. system without a problem. I am not advocating that, because they would also lose their culture if they were to do so. Latino is another category that is thrown out to label Puerto Ricans, but when most people think of Latinos in the U.S., they think of people with very ethnic qualities. Not all Puerto Ricans are ethnic looking.

Puerto Ricans are more a nation than an ethnicity even though they are a common wealth of the U.S. That also blurs the line between ethnicity and nationalism. People do not know what to think of them. Puerto Ricans can be seen as many different ethnicities when just using their appearance. Appearance separates many minorities from one another. The Puerto Rican community does not have the luxury of looking different in a racial way to separate from the long standing ethnic labels such as black, white, or Latino. They are very stigmatized as a whole even though many people cannot pick Puerto Ricans out in the crowd. The feelings brought up by being stigmatized has lead Puerto Ricans to look inward and focus on each other, because mainstream America was not interested in them. The fact that they were forced to “dance with their own people” has made it even harder to gain the equality they seek due to not being visible in the rest of America’s eyes. The Young Lords made Puerto Ricans visible to the masses, even if it was only for a little while, but it was ultimately a phase that American media went through with them. In the end, it left the Puerto Ricans standing on the outside looking in and other directions still not finding their niche in bi-racial society of U.S.

Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Economic Fiasco

This video is an old one that uses U.S. propaganda to show why Puerto Rico is better under U.S. rule. They talk about the assassination attempt on President Truman and how the some Puerto Rican nationalists want to overthrow the Puerto Rican government because of their involvement with the U.S.

Another part of the video takes a look at "Operation Bootstrap", and all the companies moving to Puerto Rico to supposedly employ Puerto Ricans in their industries. Puerto Rico was another attempt of "democracy" to win over the hearts of another country. After reading three chapters in our book, you find out that the U.S. is just always looking to exploit people for cheap labor. Puerto Rican Governor Marin was not looking out for his own people like the video said. He was only looking to make a quick buck. The whole thing about opening businesses down there was to have a labor force that did not have a choice on wages. They also used many machines which, in turn, puts people out of work.

The Dance for Power

The book, Boricua Power by Jose Ramon Sanchez, talks about the struggle for power as a dance between two or more agents. He said that it cannot be compared to a gun because not everybody is afraid of death or is willing to do anything for their life. Dance is more of a way that you can express your wants and needs through interpretation and manipulation. Power is not something that is solid. You cannot just go out and state what makes something powerful. It is more fluid than that and ever changing. The key is keeping your partner interested in you. He alludes to a girl who is lusted for after a powerful man. The girl uses his lust to get what she wants only to have her own power taken away by saying too much. Power is something that people constantly try to attain in a capitalist society. The thing that people forget to notice is that the people in power need the people who are powerless to remain that way in order to keep their power.

The power of dance relates to immigration because the people in power need the immigrants to dance with them in order for them to turn a profit from the immigrants. If the immigrants decided to get up and leave the dance, there would be a shortage in labor by the jobs they create from their own work. Mexico (I used them because they are directly bordering the U.S.) and the U.S. need immigration more than the immigrants need either of the two countries. I say this because Mexico relies heavily on the funds that are sent back into the Mexican economy by the workers in the United States. The corporations in the United States need the cheap labor force. The immigrants have more power than really think but choose to keep dancing to the same beat given to them.