Quinceanera by judith ortiz cofer analysis, Study Guides, Projects, Research of Philosophy

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Inhabiting the borderlands: hybridity in

U.S. Puerto Rican literature

Liesbeth Vermont Faculty of Arts and Philosophy 2007- Supervisor: Dr. Leen Maes

Motivation

I chose this subject as it incorporates my interests in the specific situations of immigrants, seen from within, and the Hispanic minority within the United States. It is a fascinating subject since it unites two very different cultures, languages and literary traditions. It transcends traditional American literature and traditional ideas about immigration, assimilation, ethnicity, identity, gender behavior, literary forms and nationhood. The idea of working on minority literature dawned on me during Prof. dr. Berthold‟s classes which focused on the position of minority groups in American culture.

Table of contents

• Introduction
• Chapter One: General Framework
  • 1.1. Post-1965 immigration wave
  • 1.2. Puerto Rico‟s political status
  • 1.3. Judith Ortiz Cofer: biography and ideas........................................................................
• Childhood Chapter Two: Judith Ortiz Cofer‟s Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican
  • 2.1. Immigration
  • 2.2. Ethnicity
  • 2.3. Feminism
  • 2.4. Language
• Chapter Three: Judith Ortiz Cofer‟s Call Me María
  • 3.1. Immigration
  • 3.2. Ethnicity
  • 3.3. Feminism
  • 3.4. Language
• Conclusion
• Bibliography

Introduction

In this dissertation, I address the phenomenon of hybridity and the borderlands, as described by Gloria Anzaldúa in her work Borderlands/La Frontera (1987), in third wave immigrant literature, and more specifically in U.S. Puerto Rican writing. I analyze the theme of hybridity in Judith Ortiz Cofer‟s Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood (1990) and Call Me María (2004). Both these novels describe the development and the hybridity of a young immigrant girl‟s identity, who is faced with immigration. These novels are particularly interesting as they oppose different types of immigration, namely singular, reversed and circular migration, and cover the spectrum of possible behavioral adaptations to the new host country. They in detail cover the dynamics of ethnicity within the characters, and introduce an innovative idea of ethnicity as fluid and voluntary. Both these novels also specifically concentrate upon female migratory experiences and their strategies concerning traditions. Finally, they both focus upon the development of a young artist, and thus place a lot of emphasis on language and linguistic creativity. Although Anzaldúa‟s concept of the borderlands is specifically related to the situation of Chicanos around the U.S.-Mexican border, it is not limited to this physical borderland. By extension, it also applies to the crossing of cultures, ethnicities, social classes, races, gender behavior, languages, and literary forms. I focus upon the presence of these borderlands within the themes of immigration, ethnicity, feminism and language as determiners of puertorriqueña identity. Anzaldúa‟s theories are especially useful as she shares the characteristics of third wave immigration and as she embraces hybridity within all aspects of identity, as does Ortiz Cofer. Anzaldúa, like Ortiz Cofer, sees the inhabitation of the borderlands and an individual‟s incorporation of supposedly oppositional traits as enrichments, rather than signals of an incompletely developed identity.

linguistic creativity in the character‟s development and emancipation process will be discussed.

Chapter One: General Framework

This introductory chapter proposes a general framework for the more detailed analyses of Silent Dancing and Call Me María. As both these novels frame within the third great immigration wave, a detailed description of this migratory wave and of Puerto Rico‟s political status provide additional insight into the different aspects of these novels. Lastly, a short biography and sketch of Ortiz Cofer‟s literary characteristics and ideas frame the two novels discussed in Ortiz Cofer‟s work.

1.1. Post-1965 immigration wave

Both novels discussed in this thesis frame within the characteristics of the third great immigration wave to the United States. Although Ortiz Cofer‟s Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood takes place in the 50s, it does share many characteristics with the post-1965 immigration wave. Also, as explained below, the immigration from Latin America was initiated before 1965 and thus partly precedes the official boundaries of this new immigration wave. Payant has addressed the issue of third wave immigration extensively in The Immigrant Experience in North American Literature , as does Massey in The New Immigration and Ethnicity in the United States. The third great wave has its roots in the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act that abolished the immigration quota set up under the National Origins Act of 1924 (Massey 638). These amendments took act in 1968 and initiated a third great wave of immigration. Whereas former immigration waves brought mainly northwestern Europeans (1830-1860), and southern and eastern Europeans (1880s-1920s), this third great wave introduces immigrants originating mostly from third world countries, especially from Latin America and Asia (Payant xviii-xx). Even before the abolishment of immigration quota, immigration from Latin America, and especially Mexico, was on the rise as immigration from these countries was not regulated by the quota

immigrants. An additional difference is that, unlike the earlier immigrants, third wave immigrants are able to maintain close ties with their family and countries and culture of origin through modern means of communication. Additionally, Latin American immigrants are united through their use of Spanish, whereas former immigrant groups were scattered among different nations and languages, making English the lingua franca among these first and second wave immigrants (Massey 646). In the United States, their common language interestingly overarches the otherwise distinctly different cultures and ethnic identities and gives rise to a new ethnicity, namely Hispanic or Latino (Portes and Rumbaut 158). This new U.S. Latino identity thus slows the assimilation process as Latin American immigrants identify themselves first and foremost with other Latino immigrants, rather than with mainstream American culture. Also, many of these immigrants live in ethnic enclaves and thus continue with the customs of their native lands. Although many third wave immigrants consider themselves American, they consciously choose not to assimilate to certain aspects of the American lifestyle they consider undesirable for themselves and their children (Payant xxi). First and second immigration waves are associated with traditional immigration patterns, namely a “single, one-way, and permanent change of residence” and reverse migration (Duany 161). Third wave immigration in contrast introduces circular migration, by which immigrants move “back and forth, or circulate, between their places of origin and destination”. These “two-way, repetitive, and temporary moves” are especially the case for Mexican and Caribbean immigrants, among which Puerto Ricans whose circular migration is facilitated by their U.S. citizenship. Therefore immigration from Puerto Rico also precedes immigration from other Latin American countries. Due to their frequent relocation, Puerto Ricans could be considered trans national, rather than inter national. The differences in geography, climate, religion, ethnicity, cultures, and languages are sufficiently large to create

symbolic frontiers between the United States and Puerto Rico, yet legally they are not different nations (Duany 166).

1.2. Puerto Rico’s political status

Officially known as Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States. Duany states that it is “neither a state of the union nor a sovereign nation, but a dependent country with limited autonomy under the current Commonwealth status” (Duany 163). Puerto Rico is thus officially part of the United States, yet it does not hold the same rights with regard to representation in Congress. This political situation started in 1898 when Spain ceded its colony of Puerto Rico to the United States. The U.S. was welcomed by the Puerto Rican population as they expected either becoming an independent nation or a fully incorporated state of the Union. The 1900 Foraker Act however reduced Puerto Rico to an unincorporated territorial possession of the United States and left little hope for self-government. The Foraker Act soon caused resentment and anger in the Puerto Rican population. This discontentment led to the more liberal Jones Act in 1917 which did not change the Puerto Rican political status as an incorporated territory of the United States, but did provide “for a larger measure of self-government, including an elective insular legislature” (Fliess 636). Moreover, the Jones Act granted the Puerto Rican population United States citizenship. To this day, Puerto Ricans hold U.S. citizenship, but they are still not entitled to vote in presidential and congressional elections on the island.^1 Even though they can vote in the Primary, Puerto Ricans residing on the island are not entitled a vote in the general presidential elections. In Congress, Puerto Rico is represented “by an elected resident commissioner who has a voice, but no vote, in the House of Representatives in matters

(^1) As Puerto Ricans hold U.S. citizenship they are entitled to vote on the mainland, but these elections are not held on the island.

several prestigious awards and received a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize. Many of her collections of poetry and short stories appeared in independent journals and small publishing houses that are not specifically linked to U.S. Latino literature. Her literary memoir, Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood (1991), and her collection of short stories and poetry, The Latin Deli (1993), incorporate her best known stories, poems and essays. Silent Dancing received the Pushcart Prize in 1990. Both these publications focus upon the lives of Puerto Rican immigrants in the Puerto Rican barrio in the United States and emphasize the issues of female immigrants. Her novel Call Me María (2004), which will be discussed here, was selected in 2005 as one of the two texts to receive Honorable Mention for the Américas Award, which awards U.S. literary texts that succeed in authentically and engagingly portraying Latin America, the Caribbean or the lives of Hispanic immigrants in the United States. Ortiz Cofer is strongly influenced by her Puerto Rican heritage as she relies on Puerto Rican culture and the Puerto Rican oral tradition in all of her novels and poetry. Her grandmother‟s cuentos serve as inspiration for her predominantly English literary texts, and introduce Puerto Rican culture in American literature. With regard to her grandmother‟s storytelling, she claims that: “[e]arly on, I instinctively knew storytelling was a form of empowerment, that the women in my family were passing on power from one generation to another through fables and stories. They were teaching each other how to cope with life in a world where women led restricted lives” (Acosta-Bélen 86). Although Ortiz Cofer denies being a feminist (Pagán^2 ), her literature can be considered feminist as she focuses upon the specific migratory experience of women. Her most powerful characters include Puerto Rican women who defy restrictive cultural and social conventions or who “develop survival strategies to deal with the sexism in their own culture” (New Georgia Encyclopedia). Ortiz

(^2) Page references for Pagán‟s article are not mentioned as page numbers are not shown on the online version.

Cofer stands independently from the Nuyorican^3 tradition. She claims that “I continue reading [ Nuyorican writers] and supporting them. However, they do not exactly speak to me and for me in the sense that the Nuyorican school is specific to that area. Although I lived in Paterson, it is not the same as living in New York City, in the barrios , and in those large communities where there is support and confirmation of culture and literature” (Ocasio 45). Furthermore, Ortiz Cofer is a fervent defender of the idea of transnational identities, a concept that defies conventional ideas about immigration and assimilation. Whereas traditional theories of migration focus on voluntary and necessary assimilation to American life (Sollors), this transnational vision on immigration allows the immigrant to “maintain his identity independently from geographical location” (Faymonville 124 ). Ethnic identity is no longer inextricably defined by geographical location. The idea of a transnational identity makes complete assimilation less obligatory, and even undesired. It allows the immigrant to develop a hybrid identity that unites the cultures of both his home and host country, rather than choosing either one or the other. This transnational identity is particularly significant for third wave immigrants, as they have the means to keep in touch with relatives and the culture of the homeland through modern communication. Ortiz Cofer broaches the themes of assimilation and transnational identity in all of her novels that deal with immigration. She especially does this in Call Me María as this novel focuses strongly on immigration and the dynamics of adaptation to the new homeland. Ortiz Cofer explores the dynamics of the migratory experience by contrasting the different reactions to immigration in her characters. She does this in both Call Me María and Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood^4. In Silent Dancing , the protagonist experiences difficulties to unite both Puerto Rican and American ethnicities. Ortiz Cofer tries to offer an alternative to the difficult (^3) The term “ Nuyorican ” refers to the Puerto Rican community in New York, and more specifically to the literary school of these Nuyoricans. (^4) Ortiz Cofer also broaches this theme in The Line of the Sun , an autobiographically inspired novel.

Chapter Two: Judith Ortiz Cofer’s Silent Dancing: A Partial

Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood

Judith Ortiz Cofer‟s Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance Of A Puerto Rican Childhood (1990) is an autobiographical novel that consists of a collection of prose essays and poetry. The novel begins with the parents‟ marriage, and recounts Ortiz Cofer‟s early childhood among the women at her grandmother Mamá‟s house. Later, she is snatched from this environment to live in the United States with her mother, her younger brother and her father who is on leave from the Navy. The family returns to Puerto Rico whenever the father is on a mission abroad, which causes a constant back-and-forth migration between Paterson in New Jersey and Hormigueros in Puerto Rico. Silent Dancing recounts Ortiz Cofer‟s development from childhood to adolescence as she lives in between cultures, places, and languages. Interestingly, none of the main characters in the novel are called by name. The parents are referred to as Mami and Papi, and the name of the protagonist is never made explicit.

2.1. Immigration

Judith Ortiz Cofer‟s autobiographical novel Silent Dancing focuses on processes of migration and assimilation, as does Call Me María. My discussion firstly addresses the representation of both Puerto Rico and the United States separately. This contextualization allows for a more in-depth analysis of the complexities of the migratory experience between both countries.

In Silent Dancing , Puerto Rico is presented as a tropical paradise characterized by both physical and emotional warmth. The protagonist associates Puerto Rico with physical warmth as the island has a tropical climate and her visits mostly occur during the summer. The island

is also linked to emotional warmth: the protagonist is surrounded by her large and loving family, and their reunions are described at length. However, the paradisaical and stereotypical image of Puerto Rico is problematized: the island is not spared of economic regression, social inequality, and a rapid Americanization of the traditional Puerto Rican culture. With regards to her grandfather, the protagonist mentions that “I believe he saw heaven as an island much like Puerto Rico, except without the inequities of backbreaking labor, loss and suffering which he could only justify to his followers as their prueba^5 on this side of paradise” ( Dancing 32). This conflicting image returns in Call Me María: on the one hand Puerto Rico is presented as a tropical, colorful and social paradise, but on the other hand it is depicted as a country without a future. Puerto Rico is starkly contrasted to the United States in Silent Dancing. The United States is associated with physical coldness, emotional distance, lack of color, and loneliness. The protagonist‟s early childhood memories are significant in this respect: My memories of life in Paterson during those first few years are in shades of gray. Maybe I was too young to absorb vivid colors and details, or to discriminate between the slate blue of the winter sky and the darker hues of the snow-bearing clouds, but the single color washes over the whole period. ( Dancing 87-8) These memories unite physical coldness and the impression of an absence of color. The protagonist associates her home countries with opposing impressions of color: in contrast to the vibrant colors of Puerto Rico, the cold city of Paterson in New Jersey seems to be covered by a gray film. Life in the United States is lonely and this is not only due to external circumstances. The protagonist is forced into an isolated position both in the family structure and in her American surroundings: Papi warns against an emotional attachment to immigrant neighborhoods and Mami refuses to adapt to American life and learn English. The warm,

(^5) A prueba is a spiritual term that denotes the test of one‟s abilities. ( Dancing 30)

into the borderlands between traditionally defined Puerto Rican and American culture as it incorporates the seemingly unconciliatory oppositions of natural and urban atmospheres. As Puerto Rico is described as a paradisaical island however lacking economic opportunities, the main reason to immigrate to the U.S. is economic, never ideological or emotional. This also returns in Call Me María with the exception of the reverse migration of María‟s father, who wishes to return to the world of his childhood. The protagonist in Silent Dancing for instance describes her uncle‟s migration to the United States as an illegal farm worker. Many Puerto Rican men immigrate to the United States by themselves in the hope that they will return to Puerto Rico as men of wealth in order to eventually relocate to the U.S. together with their families. The protagonist‟s father likewise joins the Navy to be able to provide sufficient financial support for his family, as there is little work on the island at the time. He moves his family to Paterson, since the Navy stations him in the area around New York.

In this novel, as in Call Me María , the act of immigration entails different and sometimes opposing ways of adapting to the host country. Some of these behavioral adaptations are successful, while others are not. It is important to distinguish adaptation from assimilation, as the latter is only one possible manner of adapting to the new host country. A large number of Puerto Rican immigrants remain emotionally attached to the island through childhood memories. These immigrants are reminded of their homeland by food and music. This recalling is especially noticeable in the essay “Silent Dancing” which centers around la Navidad^6 : “[t]he men drank Palo Viejo rum and some of the younger ones got weepy. The first time I saw a grown man cry was at a New Year‟s Eve party. He had been reminded of his mother by the smells in the kitchen” ( Dancing 94). Some Puerto Rican

(^6) La Navidad is the Spanish term for Christmas.

immigrants cling to ethnic symbols such as Puerto Rican food and music to remain connected to the island: “ Sofrito was one of the items that women hoarded, since it was hardly ever in stock at La Bodega. It was the flavor of Puerto Rico.” ( Dancing 94) However, some of the characters deny their Puerto Rican roots all together, preferring complete assimilation to American society. Vida, a Chilean immigrant girl, for instance dreams of a life in Hollywood, the ultimate symbol of American capitalist society and materialism. She tries to deny her Chilean family and their traditions as she hopes to marry an American and assimilate to American life. Reality however shatters her aspirations of becoming a famous Hollywood actress, and she is forced to experience the hardships that typify the American immigrant experience. The protagonist‟s parents both deny one part of their ethnic identity to fully embrace the other. However, they favor different ethnic identities. Whereas Mami refuses to adapt to American life and solely embraces her Puerto Rican identity, Papi fully embraces his new life in the United States. He believes that his family will have a brighter future due to the benefits of American education and economy. They refuse a hybrid Puerto Rican and American identity. Nevertheless, their marriage unites both respective identities, which provides a hybrid ethnic background for the protagonist. Papi‟s wish to ensure his family‟s and especially his children‟s future is expressed in his insistence on an American education, both in language and behavior. He moves his family away from the Latino and Puerto Rican barrios^7 , so that they can adapt to American life. Moreover, he does not wish his family to be associated with the stereotype of the Latino immigrant: “[w]e were going to prove how respectable we were by being the opposite of what our ethnic group was known to be – we would be quiet and conspicuous” ( Dancing 64). The protagonist‟s father denies his Puerto Rican identity in his idealistic vision of a prosperous American future for his family.

(^7) The term barrio refers to a multiethnic immigrant neighorhood.