Analyzing Jorge Duany's 'Visa For A Dream'

Decent Essays
Jorge Duany’s article focuses on the historical analyses and migration patterns of what he calls “the insular Hispanic Caribbean —Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic”. Explaining that Caribbean families from these countries have been the largest and most sustained populations of Caribbean migrants to the U.S. It’s clear that Duany is passionate discussing the wholesome and increasingly evident Caribbean diaspora and how that continues to impact American culture as well as other countries around the world they migrate to. He then introduces the independent Mexican filmmaker Sonia Fritz who has spent two decades living in Puerto Rico and her film Visa for a Dream—a documentary on Dominican migration to Puerto Rico. Primarily the stories

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In the book, Harvest of Empire by Juan Gonzalez, we are made aware that the book is indeed split up into different sections. The current section is section II which is entitled as Branches (Las Ramas) goes more in-depth about Gonzalez’s background and what made him the individual he is currently. In the chapter, Puerto Ricans: Citizens Yet Foreigners, the readers get a first-hand look on Gonzalez’s Puerto Rican background and about his family life. How his family migrated to the United States during the late 40’s which marked the beginning of Puerto Ricans migrating up North.…

    • 1038 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Even though the interchanging story lines may not have any direct correlation with Puerto Rican society , the story Macho Camacho’s Beat gives insight into the social complexities of Puerto Rican life because it emphases on differentiating statures between Benny, and Heathen Chinky. The story creates a contrast between the senator, his son Benny and Heathen chinky while displaying how they all relate to each other through the exchange of sexuality for wealth and how material culture ties everyone together, and through the interchanging story lines in which their relations with one another highlights the social relationship Puerto Rican society. The short stories in Macho Camacho 's Beat gives insight to the social complexities of Puerto Rican life because the emphasis on material culture differentiates between Benny, and Heathen Chinky. Despite Benny and Chinky being polar opposites on the social hierarchy, both of these characters display a link to the catholicism.…

    • 818 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dreamland, by Sam Quinones, focused on the opiate epidemic that has been flourishing within America. Similarly, the documentary, Heroin Cape Cod, USA focused on the widespread abuse of Vicodin, Percocet, and Oxycodone that has led the U.S. into the rise of an opiate addiction today. Both of these sources not only focused on the operations behind the administration of opiates like heroin, but also the factors driving the epidemic in the U.S. A driving factor of the opiate epidemic both emphasized in Dreamland and Heroin Cape Cod, USA was the over prescription of opiates, leading to what is known as “pill mills.” It is important to stop and to reflect on the statistic that 80% of heroin users start with prescription pills.…

    • 1508 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    For this assignment I have chosen to look more in depth at Immigration in the late nineteenth century until early twentieth century, and how this life changing experience was handled by different ethnic groups. In turn I will compare and contrast the essays of Victor Greene and Mark Wyman who both portray immigration in their own light. Victor Greens’s essay titled “Permanently Lost: The Trauma of Immigration” uses tools such as music and ballads to display how immigration effected certain ethnic groups and their families. While Mark Wyman’s “Coming and Going: Round - Trip to America” focuses on pamphlets given out in the workforce and more concrete evidence as to how and why immigration took place the way it did. To my mind Wyman’s use…

    • 1219 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    In Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao we get a greater glimpse into the politics of phenotypes and authenticity in Dominican culture. More specifically in its relationship to blackness. In Irene Lopez, a Puerto Rican clinical psychologist’s essay, Puerto Rican Phenotype: Understanding Its Historical Underpinnings and Psychological Associations, she posits that, “Puerto Ricans who consider being “Indian” more beautiful, or more authentic, than being Black and, thus, often prefer to claim this over a Black identity.” (164) Though the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico are two distinct countries possessing their own history and geopolitics when it comes to blackness, one cannot ignore the colonial and synchretic context in which…

    • 1265 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The United States is a unique country, Americans have many rights and freedoms, protection from the American government, but most of all America’s independence. While this may seem like paradise for many people living in poverty in third world countries. This idea has been blown out of proportions, leading to many false assumptions. Commercialization of the American Dream leads to many false ideas and assumptions, and to a heavy flow of illegal immigrants. These assumptions are shown throughout Sonia Nazario’s book…

    • 1907 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Contrasts in Living – Cuba vs. the United States of America An island of great natural splendor and cultural beauty languishes in the Caribbean Sea just 90 miles south of the tip of Florida, directly separating the USA mainland from its own territory of Puerto Rico. This island, called Cuba, was once a popular “playground” for the wealthy Americans who recognized the economic potential of this exciting and intoxicating country. Many considered it a paradise, because of its natural splendor, beautiful Hispanic women, exotic and erotic musical culture, and highly-treasured Havana cigars and island rum. Beneath this illusion of paradise lies a country of distinctive contrasts of living for the occupants.…

    • 1002 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In Ray Suarez’s book entitled Latino Americans he shares the rich history of Latinos who helped to shape the United States. Latino Americans share the personal success and struggles of what it means to be an immigrant and the obstacles they have faced. The book offers a rich history of immigration and certainly reflects present day events of the United States. It tells the story of how people from different regions and continents across the globe came to be one.…

    • 1230 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout the years there has been much controversy on what events in history have influenced the world the most. Many scholars have agreed that both the Spanish conquest and colonization of Mexico and the Caribbean and the U.S. acquisition of Mexican and Caribbean territories are important turning points in history that have helped shape the social, economic, political and cultural characteristics of different Latin American countries. In order to comprehend the great importance of the Spanish and the American’s invasions, the reader must analyze the readings of Born in Blood & Fire by John Charles Chasteen and Harvest of Empire by Juan Gonzalez. Both of these works are useful in discerning ideas that make the Spanish conquest and colonization and the U.S. acquisition similar and different. The Spanish conquest and colonization of Mexico, the Caribbean, and the U.S. acquisition of territories are similar because both had a racial and hierarchical, political and social system that rose from the transculturation of different races but different because they had different ideas on what Manifest Destiny meant, and they imposed their invasions in different ways.…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    20th Century Latinos

    • 1605 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Variant Identities of 20th Century Latinos Oxnard, about fifty miles north of Los Angeles, is one of many in California’s expansive agricultural regions. A small town, ideally situated on a coastal plane, providing the perfect balance of soil, and moisture from the Pacific Ocean. Great conditions for the strawberry. The desirable low growing fruit is not the easiest to harvest though, requiring arduous labor under the intense Southern California sun. On any given late-spring afternoon, you’ll will find a handful of hooded workers, stooped and picking basketfuls of the sweet berry.…

    • 1605 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Latinos in the United States is a dense process that enabled the U.S to expand towards the South and the West. And so, with the annexation of Texas and California it created a variety of push and pull factors that enabled the United States to thrive and grow exponentially. Therefore, it is helpful to understand the annexation process in order to analyze the effects the U.S had in South America. Consequently, this enables us to understand the Puerto Rican and Mexican migration towards to United States.…

    • 1316 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Haitian in the Dominican Republic Introduction There always have been a battle between the Dominican Republic and Haiti; even though they are neighbors they treat each other as enemies. On February 27, 1844 independence was declared from Haitians, after that they protect the country from dictatorial rules. Even after the independence Haitians is still part of the history till now days. Dominican Republic has been a point of foreign immigration mostly for Haitians.…

    • 828 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The turbulent history of Hispaniola and the constant change of control on the island are two of the main reasons for this bad relationship between the countries. From 1822 to 1844 Haiti had complete control of the entire island. Trujillo used this twenty year period as a point of reference to blame Dominican problems on the Haitians. He often said that before the Haitian control of the Dominican Republic, the Dominicans were blond hair and blue eyed.…

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages
    • 3 Works Cited
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Neha Patel AMST 135: Section 10322 Professor Alicia Chavez Essay 1 November 14, 2017 The Role of Gender Norms, Sexuality, and Diaspora within Dominican Culture Through The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz explores the presence of various conflicts between personal and community identity within the culture of the Dominican Republic. Within the book, these conflicts are presented through the experiences and interactions of many characters who struggle with identifying their beliefs and have trouble finding a sense of belonging. Therefore, the onset of physical and emotional Diaspora among the newer Dominican population is caused by the desire to escape a hurtful past by focusing on the optimistic future. While integrating into American…

    • 1792 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The journey of immigrants is one that has become a controversial topic recently. It is a topic that is receiving mass amounts of media coverage lately in the United States. No other journalist has taken the extreme measures that Sonia Nazario has, in order for her to write Enrique’s Journey. Sonia Nazario reproduces the extensive journey taken by Enrique in order to reunite with his mother in the United States. Enrique, the protagonist of her novel, faces many difficulties over his 1,200-mile journey.…

    • 1297 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays