Multicultural Education in Puerto Rico

Multiculturalism in the Island of Enchantment

Multicultural Education in Puerto Rico

• http://www.coedu.usf.edu/culture/Puerto_Rico.htm (after I googled Multicultural Education in Puerto Rico this is what showed up)

• The Care Guide: Culture, Ability, Resilience and Effort:

• http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/CAREguide2011.pdf

• Worksheets: – Worksheet #1: Features of Culture– Worksheet #2: Everyone has a culture-everyone is

different

Diversity in Puerto Rico• Gender• Sexual Orientation• Race and Ethnicity• Immigration• Language• Age• Social Class and Status• Regions

All the above, and other cultural features, are connected to identity and to who we are. They are evident in our history, in our culture and in our institutions of learning : from pre-k to higher education.

Race and Ethnicity in Puerto Rico

• Brief Explanation of Ethnicity and Race in Puerto Rico:– Tainos – Spaniards– Africans– Other Europeans– Cubans– Dominicans and other Caribbean immigrants

Social Class and Status

• Poverty levels in Puerto Rico:– Access to excellent education– Access to higher education– Job and career opportunities

• Puerto Rico, Unemployment rate•Vieques17.0%(Aug 2013)•Puerto Rico14.7%(Oct 2013)•San Juan10.3%(Aug 2013)

Social Class and Schools

• The Puerto Rican dropout problem appears to be especially severe for young students, those at the 7th and 8th grade levels. Whereas high school dropout rates appear to be no higher for Puerto Rico than for the average of the 50 states (and thus significantly better than for many individual states), the dropout rate in Puerto Rico for pre-high school students appears to be higher than in almost all states. Overall, then, from the 6th grade to high school graduation, Puerto Rico is below all or virtually all of the states in its ability to engage and retain students.

Social Class and Schools continue:

• Extremely high dropout rates before the mid-1990s have left a legacy of adults without high school degrees. Forty percent of adults over 24 lack a high school degree, significantly higher than in any state.

Educational Attainment in Puerto Rico

“The Revolving Door Migration”

The Puerto Rican presence has been felt since the early 1900s; when President Woodrow Wilson on March 2, 1917 signed the Jones Act, Puerto Ricans were granted American citizenship along with the freedoms outlined in the United States constitution ((City University of New York. Puerto Rican Voters.2004. http://www1.cuny.edu/portal_ur/content/voting_cal/puerto_rican.html (accessed 4 24, 2010)

The first migration was during the 1900–1945, at which time the pioneers, who were also called los pioneros, arrived. However the greatest influx came in during the Great Migration period (1946–1964). Estimates are that more than one million Puerto Ricans migrated during this period ((Latino Education Network Service. History. 2010. http://palante.org/History.htm (accessed 4 25, 2010)

Puerto Rican migration slowed down by the 1960s and a “revolving door” pattern emerged: a back-and-forth flow of people between the island and the mainland as opposed to a larger migration to the States. There have been occasional periods during the recessions of the late 1970s in which the migration to the States was increased. In the late 1980s Puerto Rico began facing social problems including rising violent crime (especially drug-associated crime), increased overcrowding, and worsening unemployment. The conditions stabilized the flow of migration into the United States across all socioeconomic groups and led many Puerto Ricans to remain on the mainland ((Every Culture. Puerto Rican Americans. 2010.http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Pa-Sp/Puerto-Rican-Americans.html (accessed 4 25, 2010)

“La Guagua Aerea”The Air Bus

• Puerto Ricans on the “Guagua Aerea”

Our Boricuas in the US

http://diasporapuertorriquena.weebly.com/galeriacutea.html

• The Puerto Rican flag is draped across the crown of the Statue of Liberty on Oct. 25, 1977, after demonstrators occupied the monument.

http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/BE066091/puerto-rican-flag-on-statue-of-liberty

Vieques – Hunger Striker Protests Test Bombing! Nov. 2000

http://www.vvawai.org/archive/interventions/vieques-protest.html

Language Issues in Puerto Rico

English as Language of InstructionSpanish as Language of InstructionESL: Do we have enough teachers to teach ESL?SSL: Do our teachers have the skills?Spanish: islanders vis-à-vis Puerto Ricans living in the United States or coming from the U.S.

Instituto de Cultura PuertorriquenaInstitute of Puerto Rican Culture (ICP)

• Emblema Oficial: Ethnic/Racial Hierarchy is graphically encoded in the official seal of the ICP

Instituto de Cultura PuertorriquenaICP

• ICP Cultural Images

Instituto de Cultura PuertorriquenaCultural Images

• La Plena by Rafael Tufino (1952)

ICP Images

• Abolition of Slavery in Puerto Rico 1873

ICP and Cultural Nationalism

• Definition of Puerto Rican Culture by Ricardo Alegria, Anthropoligist and ICP Director:– “culture is above all, a concept and a way of life; it is a spiritual

state that defines the physiognomy of a people, of a nationality.” (Duany, 2002)

– “From the beginning we defined national culture as the product of the integration that in the course of four centuries and a half had taken place in Puerto Rico among the respective cultures of the Taino Indians that inhabited the Island at the time of the Discovery, of the Spaniards who conquered and colonized it, and of the black Africans who since the first decades of the sixteenth century began to incorporate into our population.” (Alegria,1996 quoted in Duany,2002)

Los Renegadospor Don Ricardo Alegria

• A story about who we are and who we want to be…

• Narracion Inspirada en un cuento popular puertorriqueno, ilustrador: Lorenzo Homar

Los Renegados, Xilografias de Lorenzo Homar

Los Renegados

• Según cuenta Don Ricardo...• “Cuando Dios hizo a los animales, hizo algunos para que volaran, otros

para que estuvieran en las aguas, y otros en la tierra. A un grupo de los que estaba en la tierra, especialmente los ratones, les dio envidia ver a las aves volar, y pidieron Dios que ellos tuvieran alas, pero Dios dijo que no y que debían estar conformes. Así, nace la envidia en la tierra.

• Finalmente, aparece el diablo y, aunque no puede crear, les promete que los va a hacer volar y, estirándoles la piel, les hace alas. Cuando las aves los ven venir, los rechazan por no ser iguales y no tener plumas, y ellos tienen que regresar nuevamente a la tierra y, allí, viven avergonzados por haber traicionado a los suyos. Como todo lo folclórico, tiene una enseñanza”.

Puerto Rican Culture Through MusicWhat is Puerto Rican Culture?

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8yIqoQ1LpI Salsa-Las Caras Lindas de Mi Gente Negra, interpreted by Ismael Rivera

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIPV6lDUALA Reggeaton, Rompe, interpreted by Daddy Yankee and Ft. Lloyd Banks and Young Buck

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEdfvyS1WnU Preciosa interpreted by Marc Anthony