Viviendo con el Spanglish in Limbo.

Must Belated Update

citizenofpuertorico — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:50:11 +0000

Citizen of Puerto Rico has taken an involuntary break from writing for social and entertainment purposes. She will resume these activities as soon as academic and creative pieces geared at a degree or publication are finished.

“Like” Us on Facebook

citizenofpuertorico — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 17:47:15 +0000

Haven’t you started to wonder what “like” means today? Honestly! As I drove the other day, I noticed that the outlet mattress store next to my place said “like us on Facebook for a chance to win an ipad”. I have only been in this store once; when I needed to buy a mattress. I mean who visits a mattress store for window shopping? After all, you are well aware you are meant to have an employee on your ass telling you all about their merchandise. Yes, their prices are good, but I kinda don’t like shopping for mattresses, so I am pretty sure I don’t ‘like’ you. The ipad is indeed a catchy prize. Then, as I entered my apartment complex, I saw the following message “like us on Facebook and receive a discount on next month’s rent”. This got me thinking. Do I like my apartment? Yes I do! In fact it is the most wonderful apartment I have ever had. It is fully furnished, it is carpeted, it has a bathtub, and it is fresh most of the times. Now, what would it mean if I said I liked “Bay Pointe Apartments”? Do I like their policies? Their maintenance service? The people who live here? After all, I have been waiting for them to install my new garbage disposal for three weeks and it still hasn’t happened. Conclusion: I don’t think I ‘like’ you. I do like what I have done with my place; I will take all the credit.

Today, as I attempted to watch some TV shows on Hulu.com, it became evident how annoying the service has gotten since they decided to implement their premium package. However, they also have their “like us on Facebook and get a free month of Hulu premium”. How am I kidding? I do like some of the shows they offer, although I am not particularly fond of their movie selection. I enjoyed getting up-to-date with all of Seth MacFarlane’s creations: Family Guy, American Dad and the Cleveland Show. Still, I refuse to pay for a service when it entails sitting through commercials. One more reason why I prefer Netflix. So “NO Hulu.com, I don’t like you!”

All this really made me consider the role of social media in marketing; not that I know much of it anyway. Why are these companies so eager to find “fans” on Facebook? Maybe it’s perhaps due to its worldwide reach? Is what these companies doing, a form of bribery? Like me and I’ll give you something? I am not sure what the real reason is but it is undeniably an interesting phenomenon. Has ‘liking’ turned into an endorsement, an agreement, a promotion?

The Perfect Mojito/Thirst Quencher

citizenofpuertorico — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 01:17:48 +0000

I have lately become fond of the refreshing Caribbean cocktail that some pejoratively call the Cuban mouthwash. There is something special in the combination of limon and mint. Now, I refused to pay $8 for every glass of it and decided to hunt for the perfect recipe. I only made one change to the recipe; I substituted the sugar for a quick home made syrup: 1 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup water, simmered for a few minutes and cooled. In this manner, you make sure your mojito is as sweet as you want it to be. For the rum I have tried both Bacardi superior and Bacardi limon and they both taste great. Here’s the recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/the-real-mojito/detail.aspx

Celebrating a Most Loved Hobby—Cooking

citizenofpuertorico — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 04:08:47 +0000

Although at first I was not pleased with the idea of having a two-month vacation, I am coming to terms with it. Yes, I was basically forced to drop my Summer class; the professor said I could not be excused from our first class meeting, even if it was to attend a national conference. In short, she said I would not have an “A”. So the plan of action has been to relax, exercise (walking, biking, and using the Kinnect), eat well, and write a couple of academic articles. I already skimmed through possible journals and selected three for each manuscript. Also, I commenced the process of becoming acquainted with the kinds of publications they do, and have a rough literature review for one of the manuscripts.

But to be honest what I have been doing the most is prepping drinks and meals. Thus, I thought I would periodically share the recipes I have come to enjoy the most. For instance, the other day I craved a Mexican meal and made nachos with cheese (cheddar, Asiago, etc), supermarket brand salsa, green onions, and fresh cilantro. I coupled that with Mexican rice, for which I ‘recycled’ some white rice I had made the day before adding chopped onions, chicken broth and tomato sauce; it was an adaptation of the following recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/mexican-rice-ii/detail.aspx I must say it was simple and delicious! To season the rice and prepare the meat for the tacos I made my own taco seasoning following this recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/taco-seasoning-i/detail.aspx. I will never buy taco seasoning again, the only change I did was to not add salt and pepper; I like to add these to the dish in itself. The tacos were topped with sour cream, tomatoes and lettuce. Nothing too fancy yet satisfying.

A Most Belated Post

citizenofpuertorico — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 21:38:28 +0000

It has been months since I shared with you my thoughts on being a graduate student, teaching assistant, novice researcher, and puertorriquena. Here’s a compressed summary (please forgive the redundancy) of what has happened:

I carried out the events I planned with the service learning grant

Storytelling with the participants

Craft-making with the participants

I completed my second year as teaching assistant and doctoral student
I presented in my first national conference in New York

CEE conference at Fordham University

I went on vacation to Puerto Rico

Chinchorro boricua

In short, iIt has been a productive and fulfilling last couple of months.

Setting up the Events

citizenofpuertorico — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 17:57:05 +0000

Looking back at the process of applying for the grant, I am starting to feel that was not the difficult part. For the past two weeks, I have been immersed in the preparation for the two events I will be doing in response to the grant. The first event will bring together Latino families and pre-service teachers from campus in an effort to build connections that can aid the literacy practices of Latino children. The activities for this event highlight bilingual literacy, and dialogue through crafts and collaborative work. The second event will consist of a storytelling event at a public library where I will do an interactive retelling of a tale about a Latino trickster. Now that I have given you an idea of what I will be doing I will put you up to date with what I and my colleague have been able to accomplish:

General:

Sent invitations to VIP’s (Deans, Department Heads, etc)
Designed and posted posters
Submitted an IRB to make of the pre-service teachers experiences in the events a short study.
Started recruiting pre-service teachers for both events (we have 2 candidates so far, we need 7)

Activity 1:

Started prepping folders with information
Met through Skype with the speaker for the event
Met with the person in charge of the community center where the activity will take place
Received confirmation that our dean will be attending

Activity 2:

Bought the decorations (balloons and piñata included)
Bought the materials for the crafts (cardboard, cutters, animal masks’ designs)
Received confirmation that we already have 15 Latino children registered
Have been rehearsing my performance of the book

These are just some of what I believe are the largest accomplishments so far but of course the list is significantly longer.

I Received the Grant

citizenofpuertorico — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 03:30:36 +0000

As the latest posts clearly exemplify the process of drafting the grant proposal and finding the support from the necessary sponsors was not an easy one, and the submission process was indeed disheartening. Nonetheless, I am proud to say today that I have received my first grant to conduct a self motivated project. I received the news last Wednesday, February 23 two days earlier than I had expected. My university mentor was notified first and she was the one who shared the good news with me. Our reaction being the stereotypical image of the loud and expressive Latina was laughter ornamented by slight screaming. Now, last week was one of those periods in my life as a doctoral student when I was appointed as lead discussant for two of my graduate classes. In addition, I had to return the 5-6 page long essays to my 42 undergraduate students. In other words, I was too occupied with other academic tasks to capture the meaning of having been awarded a grant. Thus, once the hellish week was over, me and JC headed out to dine out on Friday afternoon.

At that moment, it hit me: I have to plan the events, dispense of the funds and submit a detailed report by April 30. For this reason, I found myself waking up early Saturday morning, stopping at Subway-in a pathetic effort to start the day on a healthy meal-and driving to the house of the project’s co-contributor. My beloved Saturday morning, which I should have spent sleeping and my dearest Saturday afternoon on which I usually rest were spent contemplating possible events, writing letters and emails, and looking up conference proposals. Before concluding our first weekend meeting, we divided some of the most pressing tasks amongst ourselves.

Today, I proceeded to complete my two tasks: contacting the keynote speaker via email (activity #2), and walking to the public library under a chilly windy afternoon to provide them with the information for our event (activity #1). Both parties explained they were excited about our partnership and the events that we will celebrate together. Soon, the keynote speaker and I will Skype to discuss plausible topics and presentation formats. This Friday however, I will be meeting with a local community center to discuss the possibility of hosting our second activity in their locality

The Grant Proposal Is In

citizenofpuertorico — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 02:39:10 +0000

The deadline-February 10th- finally came and it was time to turn in my proposal. I printed the final copy of the proposal, which had been revised by three readers: me, my main collaborator and the project’s proposed mentor. Then, I labeled a brand new folder with my name and the grant’s title, and grabbed my winter gear. So I commenced the march to the office in charge of the grant, after a few minutes walking under intense cold weather, I arrived to the corresponding building. Once there I searched for the correct office number and came across a lot of empty desks. As I walked through them, I saw the name of the lady I had shared emails with to clarify questions I had regarding the proposal’s write-up.

Me: Good evening! I wanted to submit a proposal for the Service Learning Project’ grant.

Her: The student grant?

Me: Yes.

Her: You can put it in that box (pointing at a sad looking table on top of a small table)

And this is how three weeks’ worth of work was received; a depressingly impersonal treatment that resulted in my work being thrown in a pile of paper. The biggest irony of it all was the office’s name: Office of Engagement. It sadly reminded me of the day in which I submitted my master’s thesis after working on it for a year and a half. I somehow expected cheer and confetti…how silly of me; there was not even three seconds of eye contact from Mrs. Parks. Well I guess I will know their answer in two weeks.

Letter that Recounts the Current Turmoil in PR

citizenofpuertorico — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 14:43:42 +0000

Thanks to a friend for sharing this letter to a Senator. Thanks to the lawyer who wrote it. See it here: http://nuestrasvoceslatinas.com/?p=801

Still Afloat

citizenofpuertorico — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 00:41:36 +0000

The strategy of refusing to ‘perish’ has worked. Since the community organization that I had intended to work with to apply for the grant never answered my letters or my emails, I have moved to ‘step two’. The second organization I had in mind, another public library, is closer to campus and thus is not surprisingly more embedded in a diversity initiative. This is perhaps the main reason why I wanted to work with the other library, I felt strongly that they would benefit more from the event I was trying to organize. Sometimes however, we have to accept that some people are not willing to alter their deep held biases for more socially just ideas.

Whereas the first library had no collections of Hispanic literature for children, and no formal way of cataloguing their holdings in this category, the second library does. I called the second library last Thursday at about 11:30. I provided the lady in the Children’s Collection a brief overview of my proposed project, her reaction: why don’t you stop by to see if our children’s room works for what you have in mind? Thus, I put my winter gear on and went outside to dig my car from underneath the snow and ice. Unfortunately, a thick layer of ice prevented it from moving and I had to rush to take the buses. Apparently the cleaning crews that cleared the area surrounding the bus stop thought it would be a good idea to amass all the snow from the road and parking lot around the bus stop. A few maneuvers and two buses later, I arrived to the library. As I walked into the library I could see a variety of book covers, some of which included work by my favorite Latino illustrator: Raul Colon. This was a warm welcome and a positive foreshadowing.

The two ladies in charge of the Children’s Area, older Caucasian women, were polite, approachable, and above all enthusiastic. They showed me the children’s room which has a large carpeted area for book sharing and a handful of tables on top of a vinyl floor to work on messy crafts. In the end, they showed me the dates on which the room was available, and I picked two tentatively to discuss it with my partner in crime. That night, my partner and I agreed that April would be a good month and so I confirmed the date with the library on Friday morning. At that point, I asked the ladies in the library whether they had already discussed the proposed project with their supervisor, the ladies told me he was pleased with the idea and approved of it. In other words, all the pieces to the puzzle (a guest speaker, a community organization, a mentor) are coming to place, all I need to do is gather the signatures and submit the final proposal on February 10. Wish me luck!