September 8, 2006
Lesson Plan: Laviera’s Bilingual “AmeRíca”
Assigned Reading:
“AmerRícan” by Tato Laviera
Discussion Questions:
1.La Bomba and La Plena: The influence of music on Laviera’s poetry.
In “AmeRícan” Laviera makes several references to traditional Puerto Rican music. He mentions the composer Pedro Flores (13), “sweet soft spanish danzas gypsies” (15), “beating jíbaro” (18) and “walking plena-rhythms in new york” (32).
Watch the film clip of Los Pleneros de los 21 playing “Testigo” at the Smiths
onian Folk Folklife Festival, 2005. Also watch Los Pleneros’ demonstration of how the drums are played in Plena music. Los Pleneros de los 21 are a New York-based music group that plays Bomba and Plena, two African-based music styles that have flourished among the black communities of Puerto Rico proper and American Puerto Rican neighborhoods. Bomba and Plena are the result of the blending of various influences, including West African music, European music and Native Taino music.
What similarities do you notice between “AmerRíca” and the music of Los Pleneros de los 21? In what ways does Laviera structure his poem like a song? Why might Plena and Bomba music be especially suited to Laviera’s message?
http://www.smithsonianglobalsound.org/archives_03.aspx
2. The word “AmerRícan” is a combination of the English “America,” and the Spanish “Puerto Rícan.” Why does Laviera blend these two words in his title and then repeat this word at the beginning of each stanza? What is the significance of placing the accent on the “í” (instead of on the “é” as in the Spanish “América”)?
3. In “AmeRícan,” Laviera writes “AmerRícan, across forth and across back / back across and forth back / forth across and back and forth / our trips are walking bridges!” (21-24). How might Laviera’s playful use of “back and forth” here refer not only to a physical but also to a linguistic or cultural freedom of movement? What does he mean when he writes that the immigrant experience is like “walking bridges”? In these lines, does Laviera depict the Puerto Rican immigrant experience as disorienting, challenging, or liberating (or some combination thereof)?
4. Consider the following passage from an interview with Tato Laviera:
“Fortunately and unfortunately, my nation is bilingual. The people are into the English and into the Spanish, and if you do it right, no matter what language, it’s fine…Spanish is not an issue in this country; Spanish is the most grounded language in this country. No hay problema con el español. [Spanish is no problem.] For every five Nuyoricans who are speaking “Spanglish,” there’re ten Dominicans that come and bring the Spanish over; and there’re twenty-five salvadoreños that bring it over. Eso no es una problema. [That’s not a problem.]…Now being a Nuyorican, one of the things that I’ve noticed is that the world is in a bilingual tension: the Africans in Europe, the Turkish in Germany. There are movements from mother country to urban centers in conquering countries and it is not isolated to Puerto Rico. As Nuyoricans, we have captured the political and linguistic changes. People are looking for a Spanish or an English or a German point of view. But if you think about it, Europe tends to be multilingual. American isolates itself in the English only and it want to control biocenosis*. You can’t do that—it’s a stupid move. It’s exercising bigotry. But the broad world isn’t looking at it that way; the linguistic tension exists everywhere in the world and the Nuyorican element of it, prestigiously, has grown in many ways. I’m not saying that’s the only school of Puerto Rican writing, I’m not saying that I know, but, I’m saying that there’s nothing a Puerto Rican can do about bilingualism. It’s a fact of life and a fact of the world movement. That’s the way I see it.” (1031)
*OED: Biocenosis (n): An association of organisms forming a biotic community; the relationship that exists between such organisms.
From: Luis, William. “From New York to the World: An Interview With Tato Laviera,” Callaloo, Vol. 15, No. 4. (1992). 1022-1033.
Laviera sees bilingualism as a source of pride for Puerto Ricans. According to Laviera, why is bilingualism so important? What does it mean for America to “want to control biocenosis”? Which lines from “AmeRíca” highlight the poem’s bilingual nature? Laviera writes in “AmeRíca” that he is “defining the new america” (50). What is his vision for how “america” should be?
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