Branching Out

1
Branching Out

• Lecture Eleven
• Beyond the Binaries
• COM 490
• Professor Ralina Joseph

2
Catch up

• Rest of Panethnicity exercise
• Group Project turn in topics

3
Only HW for Wed

• On GoPost, each member of the group should post
  the following by Tuesday at midnight an
  individual paper title, 150-word paper abstract,
  and justification of how this paper adds to the
  groups major theme.

4
Terms for Today

• Floress four stages abandonment, enchantment,
  reentry, branching out
• postcolonial inventions

5
Juan Flores, Que Assimilated Brother Yo Soy
Asimilao

• From History Professor Ileana Rodriguez-Silva
  Never Assimilated, Brother, but "Asimilao". 
  The Spanish translation for assimilated is
  "asimilado" but most Puerto Ricans would never
  pronounce the "ado" at the end.  Puerto Ricans
  would eliminate the "d" (thus asimilao). 
• It is a way to mark Puerto Ricanness  (the
  tendency to eliminate the "d" is a well-known
  Puerto Rican speech trait in Latin America and
  the Caribbean) but also class -- The upper
  classes are too invested in using
  the dictionary-like ending, at least in formal
  arenas. 
• In sum, the irony in the title (taken from Tato
  LaViera's poem) is that "assimilation" only
  happens in working-class Puerto Rican terms. 

6

• Interdisciplinary piece Flores uses poetry to
  substantiate sociological theories
• Opening anecdote not only similarities between
  Chicano and Nuyorican (NY Puerto Ricans)
  communities, but also about the maybe not as
  obvious similarities between Puerto Ricans and
  African Americans.
• In cultural and socio-economic realms. Also
  social history, geographic placement, migratory
  patters and even racial characteristics as well
  as Caribbean origins and, even beyond that, with
  Africa (2).
• In inside/outside dynamic

7
Critique of Pan-ethnic Groupings

• the close, long-standing interaction between
  Puerto Ricans and Blacks, and between Chicanos
  and Native Americans, exposes the superficiality
  and divisiveness of the term Hispanic in its
  current bureaucratic usage.
• Panethnic terms (Espiritu) limiting. Just
  because a group is seen to have a racial
  similarity (although we of course know that
  Latinos can be Black, Asian, Native American or
  White looking) does not mean that they are
  connected culturally or socio-economically
• Hybridity an important concept here fusion of
  what many people might say are two dissimilar
  groups.

8
NOT Assimilation Sociological model Puerto
Ricans in New York

• 1. Abandonment/here and now Nuyoricans
  confronted with conditions of hostility,
  disadvantage and exclusion. Lack of cultural
  access and socio-economic mobility.
• 2. Enchantment (w/ PR) the movement is spiritual
  and psychological as opposed to geographical as
  Nyoricans imagine a transition from ghetto to
  garden. The second moment also marked by the
  recovered African and indigenous foundation of
  Puerto Rican culture.

9
NOT Assimilation, cont.

• 3. Re-entry (introduction of the national
  dimension to U.S. ethnic relations
  understanding role as a person of color in U.S.)
  return and re-entry into NYC. The sense of NY
  includes Puerto Ricans. Importance of bilingual
  discourse and access to Spanish. Identification
  with Afro-Caribbean culture, necessary in the
  bi-polarized Black/white U.S. culture.
• 4. Branching Out the selective connection to
  and interaction with the surrounding North
  American society. For PR in NYC this means
  connections with African Americans and other
  migrants from Caribbean and Latin America.
  Flores asserts, this growing together is often
  mistaken for assimilation, but the difference is
  obvious in that it is not directed toward
  incorporation into the dominant culture.
  Branching out happens along socio-economic lines
  and not necessarily along racial ones shared
  working-class reality and one expressive of
  recognized marginalization and exclusion.

10
Buff, Gender and Generation

• On postcolonial inventions like the powwow
  princess
• Powwow princess different type of tradition
  hybrid or mixed in nature. Contest doesnt have
  rules about enrollment so no blood quantum.
  Takes into account the historical realities of
  urban Indian populations
• Powwow forms and practices as generational (youth
  culture) and gendered (powwow princess vs
  drumming circles)
• Red road path of sobriety and respect for
  tradition

11
Buff, cont.

• Some adults were ambivalent about the effects of
  the contest powwow on Indian traditions and
  values like primordialists Espiritu critiques
  want culture to be what always been dont
  want change or dont want to recognize how
  changed. Buff defending the value of reinvented
  tradition.
• At the same time that the powwow princesses
  suggest an iconography of conquest, they also
  play a role, along with dancers and drummers,
  powwow bums and campers, in the massive
  pan-Indian political and cultural revival that
  began in cities as a response to the culturally
  genocidal programs of Termination and Relocation
  in the 1950s and 1960s.

12
Heads Together Groups of Four

• Group A What are the similarities and
  differences between Chicanos and Nuyoricans in
  Floress article? Whats the significance here?
  What do these four moments have to do with the
  idea that one either acculturates or remains an
  outsider? Give examples of acculturation or
  outsider-ness.
• Group B Explain Flores's notion of "branching
  out. What does this have to do with
  assimilation? Compare and contrast Floress
  branching out to Espiritus "panethnicity."
• Group C What does Buff mean by the optics of
  colonialism. Play with this notion a bit. Can
  you find other examples of optics of
  colonialism? Define invented traditions.
  What are some of the invented traditions in
  Buffs article? Give examples of other invented
  traditions.
• Group D What roles do contest powwows play for
  Indians? What role might they play for
  non-Indians? Discuss and relate. Explain what
  the title of Buffs article means. Do you think
  it accurately reflects the content of her
  article? Explain

13
Wednesday Daughter from Danang

• Please be in class on time
• By Friday, November 9 at midnight please post a
  paragraph responding to the following question
  who was "right" in their reaction to the "money
  question" Heidi or her Vietnamese family?
  Explain.