CULTURAL HYBRIDITY AND ITS COMPLEXITY IN ESMERALDA SANTIAGO’S ALMOST A WOMAN

Abstrak. Tulisan ini mendiskusikan hibriditas dalam novel Almost A Woman karya Esmeralda Santiago. Novel ini menceritakan permasalahan kultural yang dialami Negi, tokoh utama, sebagai imigran Puerto Rico di New York, di mana ia harus mengapropriasi budaya Amerika agar bisa diterima oleh masyarakat induk. Untuk membahas permasalahan tersebut, kami akan menggunakan teori poskolonial Bhabha. Analisis tekstual digunakan untuk menjelaskan data terpilih dengan cara pandang poskolonial tanpa mengabaikan keterkaitan kontekstualnya dengan dinamika imigrasi dan diaspora. Hasil kajian ini menunjukkan bahwa tokoh utama harus menjalankan strategi kultural berupa mimikri dan hibriditas agar bisa diterima di masyarakat induk dan bisa mendukung impian modernnya. Meskipun menikmati budaya Amerika secara apropriatif, ia masih berusaha untuk tidak melupakan budaya Puerto Rico. Dengan strategi ini subjek diasporik bisa menegosiasikan kepentingannya di tengah-tengah masyarakat induk dan kuasa budaya dominan, tanpa harus meninggalkan sepenuhnya budaya Puerto Rico. Abstract. This paper discusses hybridity in Esmeralda Santiago’s Almost A Woman. This novel tells about cultural problems experienced by Negi, the main character, as a Puerto Rican immigrant in New York, where she must appropriate American cultures in order to be accepted by the host community. To discuss this problem, we will apply Bhabha's postcolonial theory. Textual analysis is used to explain selected data from a postcolonial perspective without ignoring its contextual relationship with the dynamics of immigration and diaspora. The results of this study show that the main character must carry out a cultural strategy in the form of mimicry and hybridity in order to be accepted in the parent community and be able to support his modern dreams. Despite enjoying appropriately American culture, she still tries not to forget Puerto Rican cultures. With this strategy the diasporic subject can negotiate its interests in the midst of the host society and the dominant cultural power, without having to completely abandon Puerto Rican culture.

Carmelo Esterrich. Concrete and Countryside. The Urban and the Rural in 1950's Puerto Rican Culture.

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The Church Offensive

In winter 1969, the Young Lords recited scripture, channeled the revolutionary Jesus, and occupied the First Spanish United Methodist Church for its indifference to social violence, which combined with its promises of happiness in the hereafter, they argued, cloaked a project of social control. Rechristened, The People’s Church, the Lords’ prefigurative politics and project included a free medical clinic and redress of community grievances and needs, from housing evictions to English translation at parent-teacher meetings. Their hot morning meals to poor school-aged children became what is now the federal school breakfast program. As antidote to the erasure of culture and history that accompanied colonization and slavery in the Americas, they sponsored alternatives to public school curricula on the Puerto Rican independence movement, black American history, and current events. In the evening, they curated spurned elements of Afro-Puerto Rican culture and music performed by underground Nuyorican Poets and new genres of cultural expression, among them the spoken word poetry jam, a precursor to hip hop. They served revolutionary analysis with Mutual Aid. Their daily press conferences created a counternarrative to representations of Puerto Ricans as junkies, knife-wielding thugs, and welfare dependents that replaced traditional stereotypes with powerful images of eloquent, strategic, and candid Puerto Rican resistance.

“El Grito de Caguana”

On July 25, 2005, a small group of “Taino” reclaimed the Caguana Ceremonial Center in Utuado, Puerto Rico, in the name of their ancestors. The protestors demanded, “End the destruction and desecration of our sanctuaries, sacred places, archeological sites, coaibays (cemeteries) and ceremonial centers now!” The Taino had utilized the site for years to celebrate traditional rituals, but due to changes in the center’s policies, were suddenly restricted from using the site during certain hours. For the Taino, this was the final straw in an ongoing and escalating conflict with the site managers, The Institute for Puerto Rican Culture, charged by the Puerto Rican Legislature in 1955 with the task of “conserving, promoting, enriching and disseminating the cultural values of Puerto Rico.” The result was a 17-day occupation and hunger strike that brought to the fore issues regarding Puerto Rican identity that had long lay dormant and unchallenged.

Meaningful Language and Cultural Experiences for Future Teachers in Puerto Rico

The authors describe a faculty led study abroad program implemented in Puerto Rico. The short-term study abroad model highlights both design and implementation strategies for travel abroad. This chapter also focuses on the unique cultural and linguistic experiences in Puerto Rico which were planned for college students in an early childhood education teacher preparation program. The chapter addresses the strategies used to facilitate learning about Puerto Rican culture and languages, methods to support students learning dual languages and strategies for working with families, communities, and other professionals. The chapter concludes with lessons learned from this experience and emphasizes both issues and recommendations for faculty who are developing future short-term travel experiences.