Yo Soy Boricua Pa’Que Tu Lo Sepas
This weekend, the movie “Yo Soy Boricua Pa’Que Tu Lo Sepas” aired on IFC. In English, the title means “I Am Puerto Rican, Just So You Know”. Produced and featuring Rosie Perez, the movie deals with the complex identity issues of Puerto Ricans in the US. Rosie told of how her mom wanted her to speak English, and how this family conversation where the parents would speak Spanish and the kids would answer in English, led to “Spanglish” or Nuyorican”, a mixture of Spanish and English. The movie also showed the Young Lords, Puerto Rican-American college students who occupied a church in the late 1950s in East Harlem, and turned it into a community center. As a former high school Spanish teacher in East Harlem. I could always tell that the Puerto Rican identity was a strong one, soon to be further compromised by the yuppification of Spanish Harlem. Across from the school l used to teach in, they tore down a baseball field to build a luxury apartment building and realtors are marketing the area as SpaHa.
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good documentary..very lighthearted and fun..i liked it..lots of rosie’s family is featured.
I haven’t seen the movie, but I would like to make a comment in regards to the luxury rental building you referred to. I would just like everyone to know that the baseball field they “got rid of” was replaced by a brand new multi-million dollar baseball field and Harlem RBI has an office there where children in East Harlem can play baseball. I would also like to mention that about 50% of that “luxury rental building” was rented to low income individuals.
I am so happy to hear that RBI is still very much alive and ass-kicking!!! Many of my students were involved in that wonderful program.
And I am even more delighted that the luxury building set aside 50% instead of the usual 20% for lower-income families!
Thanks Jessica for letting us know that
Fern
Good first post, Fern! Welcome to Metroblogging, I look forward to reading more of your stuff…