Overview
When I started writing these commentaries Nov ‘01, I started by asking questions that would guide us in our attempt to define the term "Nuyorican" such as:
What are you? -Who are you?
Are you a poet, because you call yourself a poet, or someone else calls you poet?
Do you use labels to include or exclude?
WE went through some study of the origin of the term, in the meeting of cultures and language, which brought us to the cultural/language dynamics of English/Spanish interaction. We did an aside to trace how the two languages developed from ancestral groups. We also speculated on the effect of language on groups and how they meet in the New World. In our speculations we ventured to suggest that language, its structure, rhythm, visual cues and sound establishes perimeters of perception for the group. It facilitates communication within, providing common identity and a means of enforcing the authority of the group. It also diferentiates the "not us". And this is the part where it gets messy.
I like to think of these commentaries today as: Identity, Indentification and the Id
If the difference of languages, cultures, religions, political belief systems, philosophies and just plain looks is not messy enough, try the first question:
What are you?/ Who are you?
The difference? Who versus what. A label categorizes, classifies, defines, subsumes the individual to the group. A descriptive term, points out, clarifies, signals, brings out the individual from the group.
And since from this point on we will be stepping on many a toe, you might want to consider making some notes and send them in as retort, refutation or disagreement.
(nuyoricanPC@netscape.net) or (nuyorican@mindspring.com, attn: Sam)
The greatest danger to the survival of humans on Planet Earth is not nuclear war, the shifting of the poles, the greenhouse effect, overpopulation, an object in deep space headed this way to slam into us within the next 30 years, the Avon Lady (from a poem by Rev Pedro!), an alien invasion, the Sun running out of fuel, all nations rising against each other or some new pandemic desease. Though any of those possibilities would do. The answer to the question is: Human beings. The things we do to ourselves!!
In attempting to answer the question, we are confronted by the implications, meanings and assumptions of the very words used to ask it. Language or communication requires that we understand in common how we use the terms we use or have a means in common to determine how they are being used. Or we fall back to visual cues to determine how we react to an "unknown".
Let’s do an aside to explore some of these implications of identity.
If you write poetry, are you a poet?
If you write, are you a writer?
If you speak Spanish, are you Spanish?
If you speak English, are you English?
Are you your name? -Is your name you?
Are you your skin, eyes, hair, height, girth?
Who Says???
And therein lies another set of problems concerning identity. For as long as a group defines its identity, "others" (outside the group) also define it. And the individual (the Id of the title) accepts or rejects (not always possible) and maybe comes up with a new personal identification. In order to further explore this, allow me (please) to use the term identity as made from within the group, identification (or label) as used by "others" and the id, as a self generated identity.
Individuals that have studied the concept of identity, generally, ascribe identity on the basis of source. That is, who determines identity. They agree (somewhat) that identity starts individually, is modified by the group (read parent, tribe, clan, etc) and is verified or confirmed by "others".
In its most basic sense, the id formulates its identity, in a dynamic interaction with parents who are part of a group, that reaffirms (and/or modifies) the identity. However it is this identity formulation, that is most difficult to explain. Surely, it does not arise spontaneously, out of nowhere. Does it start physiologically, as in, exploration of body and sensation (all the senses). Does it start from external cues by mother/parent. Or is it indistinguishable and then proceeds to differentiate. Who knows?
The Poet
But the relevancy to our endeavors can be compared by analogy, in terms of the poet. You learn to talk, you learn about words (and its complimentary: you are taught). No poet yet. You begin to explore the use of the words, the language, you might even make up combinations of sounds into "words", to the perceived rhythms, cadence & tones of the language (spoken first, later written). You try new combinations, new words, new structures and patterns. Still no poet, but an ever easier flow of words. You show, share & communicate, and a poet is in the making! But the poet, does not arise in vacuo, it is the very sharing & communicating that forms and establishes the Poet. But no Poet yet, a child. The id has set a foothold, but still does not have the term that identifies him to himself or to others. In the process, the "others" (Poets) must verify and/or affirm the term, the label, the identification. But the id, now aware, of the identity, must claim it. Then it is recognized. I am a Poet. Yes, you are! Or No, you are not. And in this dynamic interplay of the social forces that define identity, lays a microcosm of our search for identity.
Identity is Claimed
Self identification, the struggle of the individual to be known by terms that are defined by others, ranges within the human experience from the exploratory: AM I? through the questing MAY I? to the independently assertive I AM!.
It is the struggle and result that establish the definition, it is the search for identity that modifies or expands or even challenges. But the process of recognition, acceptance and denial, rejection is the story of human beings becoming more than they are. And since thats a whole other story, we’ll take a break (to be continued) for now.
Back to the Cafe
Sam
In the Service of Poetry, Art and Community
When I started writing these commentaries Nov ‘01, I started by asking questions that would guide us in our attempt to define the term "Nuyorican" such as:
What are you? -Who are you?
Are you a poet, because you call yourself a poet, or someone else calls you poet?
Do you use labels to include or exclude?
WE went through some study of the origin of the term, in the meeting of cultures and language, which brought us to the cultural/language dynamics of English/Spanish interaction. We did an aside to trace how the two languages developed from ancestral groups. We also speculated on the effect of language on groups and how they meet in the New World. In our speculations we ventured to suggest that language, its structure, rhythm, visual cues and sound establishes perimeters of perception for the group. It facilitates communication within, providing common identity and a means of enforcing the authority of the group. It also diferentiates the "not us". And this is the part where it gets messy.
I like to think of these commentaries today as: Identity, Indentification and the Id
If the difference of languages, cultures, religions, political belief systems, philosophies and just plain looks is not messy enough, try the first question:
What are you?/ Who are you?
The difference? Who versus what. A label categorizes, classifies, defines, subsumes the individual to the group. A descriptive term, points out, clarifies, signals, brings out the individual from the group.
And since from this point on we will be stepping on many a toe, you might want to consider making some notes and send them in as retort, refutation or disagreement.
(nuyoricanPC@netscape.net) or (nuyorican@mindspring.com, attn: Sam)
The greatest danger to the survival of humans on Planet Earth is not nuclear war, the shifting of the poles, the greenhouse effect, overpopulation, an object in deep space headed this way to slam into us within the next 30 years, the Avon Lady (from a poem by Rev Pedro!), an alien invasion, the Sun running out of fuel, all nations rising against each other or some new pandemic desease. Though any of those possibilities would do. The answer to the question is: Human beings. The things we do to ourselves!!
In attempting to answer the question, we are confronted by the implications, meanings and assumptions of the very words used to ask it. Language or communication requires that we understand in common how we use the terms we use or have a means in common to determine how they are being used. Or we fall back to visual cues to determine how we react to an "unknown".
Let’s do an aside to explore some of these implications of identity.
If you write poetry, are you a poet?
If you write, are you a writer?
If you speak Spanish, are you Spanish?
If you speak English, are you English?
Are you your name? -Is your name you?
Are you your skin, eyes, hair, height, girth?
Who Says???
And therein lies another set of problems concerning identity. For as long as a group defines its identity, "others" (outside the group) also define it. And the individual (the Id of the title) accepts or rejects (not always possible) and maybe comes up with a new personal identification. In order to further explore this, allow me (please) to use the term identity as made from within the group, identification (or label) as used by "others" and the id, as a self generated identity.
Individuals that have studied the concept of identity, generally, ascribe identity on the basis of source. That is, who determines identity. They agree (somewhat) that identity starts individually, is modified by the group (read parent, tribe, clan, etc) and is verified or confirmed by "others".
In its most basic sense, the id formulates its identity, in a dynamic interaction with parents who are part of a group, that reaffirms (and/or modifies) the identity. However it is this identity formulation, that is most difficult to explain. Surely, it does not arise spontaneously, out of nowhere. Does it start physiologically, as in, exploration of body and sensation (all the senses). Does it start from external cues by mother/parent. Or is it indistinguishable and then proceeds to differentiate. Who knows?
The Poet
But the relevancy to our endeavors can be compared by analogy, in terms of the poet. You learn to talk, you learn about words (and its complimentary: you are taught). No poet yet. You begin to explore the use of the words, the language, you might even make up combinations of sounds into "words", to the perceived rhythms, cadence & tones of the language (spoken first, later written). You try new combinations, new words, new structures and patterns. Still no poet, but an ever easier flow of words. You show, share & communicate, and a poet is in the making! But the poet, does not arise in vacuo, it is the very sharing & communicating that forms and establishes the Poet. But no Poet yet, a child. The id has set a foothold, but still does not have the term that identifies him to himself or to others. In the process, the "others" (Poets) must verify and/or affirm the term, the label, the identification. But the id, now aware, of the identity, must claim it. Then it is recognized. I am a Poet. Yes, you are! Or No, you are not. And in this dynamic interplay of the social forces that define identity, lays a microcosm of our search for identity.
Identity is Claimed
Self identification, the struggle of the individual to be known by terms that are defined by others, ranges within the human experience from the exploratory: AM I? through the questing MAY I? to the independently assertive I AM!.
It is the struggle and result that establish the definition, it is the search for identity that modifies or expands or even challenges. But the process of recognition, acceptance and denial, rejection is the story of human beings becoming more than they are. And since thats a whole other story, we’ll take a break (to be continued) for now.
Back to the Cafe
Sam
In the Service of Poetry, Art and Community