latinoidentity & Let my photos speak for me!

Happy Canada Day!

2010-07-01T10:02:00.001-04:00

Happy Canada Day!

Have a Wonderful Holiday!

The good things that I have had I have obtained them free

2009-07-15T19:10:00.000-04:00

The good things that I have had
I have obtained them free,
without contracts,
without signatures,
without appointments
without Visa
or MasterCard

The good things have interrupted quietly
have slid silently between the shreds of my life
and have invited to me to share them.

I am not in want of anything to be happy,
but I do need birdsong
a sky open without borders
stars twinkling
white clouds that fly

I am not in want of anything to be happy,
But I need the water
the dew
the sweet tear
the river
the rain
the sea

I am not in want of anything to be happy,
But I need the bread
the corn
the grass
the seed
the fruit

I am not in want of anything to be happy,
but I need the heat
the cold
the summer
the winter

I am not in want of anything to be happy,
but I need love
so I may follow my footpath without frontiers.

This was a Cool Place to spend the afternoon with an unexpected guest

2009-07-07T19:12:00.000-04:00

Eternal Love

2008-01-01T15:12:00.000-05:00

I love you
Idea …
For planting the seeds of battle
In my heart.

…nevertheless, I know that I could love you,
without having seen you,
without having met you,
because I would have sensed you
and I would have known
that something was germinating in my heart
which I had not met.

Is this where you stand to wait for the bus?

2007-07-31T23:04:00.000-04:00

The smoggy summer is keeping me housebound

2007-07-17T17:59:00.000-04:00

THE DIVINERS: Looking at Canada through Margaret Laurence's Eyes

2007-01-07T10:36:00.000-05:00

Albert Memmi said: “ Colonial racism is built from three major ideological components: one, the gulf between the culture of the colonist and the colonized; two, the exploitation of these differences for the benefit of the colonialist; three, the use of these supposed differences as standards of absolute fact... racism appears then, not as an incidental detail, but as a consubtantial part of colonialism.” There are a lot of people living in a big, rich country such as Canada, who already face marginalization, poverty, prejudice, abuse, and intolerance, all because of the way of this country was originally shaped by colonialism. As a result there is not a place for people with disadvantage to find support so that they can overcome their own challenges in order to integrate in this developed country.

Margaret Lawrence addresses these problems and she creates characters such as Jules who find ways to overcome those barriers and become the diviners, making their own path and bringing some support to others less fortunate. Margaret Laurence makes the point when she quotes: "In days of yore / From Britain’s shore / Wolfe the donkless hero CAME / And planted firm Britannia’s flag / On Ca-na-da’s fair do-MAIN. / Here may it wave / Our boas’ our pride / And join in LUV together / The THISTLE SHAMROCK ROSE entwine / The MAPLE LEAF FOREVER!"

Margaret Laurence uses these lyrics ironically, talking about the flag of a new land which was established by people achieving ownership by using violence against other, less fortunate, people. As a result, the descendants of these more fortunate people, the Anglo-Saxon community, feel that they are special just for their background and skin color, and because they can have access to some power positions. Meanwhile other people, such as Jules, are deprived of their rights in disadvantage, because they are poor, or they are native or metis, or they are women or children, and then the privileged people justify this subjugation by singing that song.

Margaret Laurence is suggesting that even though Canada at the beginning was created by a bunch of people who killed natives, expelled the French people and used the flu bacteria to kill many aboriginals, now is the time to be a progressive country that can offer to the less fortunate the necessary support to help them to overcome all those “isms” that contributed to making their lives miserable. For example Margaret Lawrence mentions two situations involving injustice, one with Piquette, who ended her life tragically in a fire, and yet many people showed little or no compassion for her. As a result she didn’t even have a decent obituary in the local newspaper, simply because she is a native.

The second example involves the white tourists who Jules thinks were responsible for the death of his brother Paul. The system is set up in such a way that nobody bothers to investigate why one aboriginal did not return from the trip, and as a result Jules never finds who was responsible for the death of his brother. The people who kill (the white tourists) and those who fail to bring them to justice (the Anglo-Saxon system) are the same people who sang in loud voices “The Maple Leaf Forever”, demonstrating the colonialism that exists in this country.

As an immigrant who is reading this book I can see that the central problem of “The Diviners” arises from the clash of the two different perspectives. Those people who originally sang that song when Canada was taking shape may have had to struggle for more power and control; but they were people who knew how to use the system in order to keep their own power and hand it on to their descendants, who continue to sing their own song. Others who lack power, as a result cannot take control of their own lives because the system cannot help them to overcome these barriers. They cannot identify with that song, as happens with Skinner Tonnerre (Jules) and with Morag. “He comes from nowhere. He isn’t anybody. She stops singing, not knowing why. Then she feels silly about stopping, so sings again”. Even though Morag does not know why she stops, she feels innately the injustice of the situation. Thus Margaret Laurence makes her point that this country belongs to those people who sing and can have the power to mould and protect their own interests, but not to those other marginalized people such as Christie and Jules who do not have access to that power.

One might ask why the native or metis victims didn’t fight back. Margaret Lawrence suggests that if people are facing injustice they either give way before that injustice, or they have to become diviners in one form or another in order to overcome emotionally or in material way their own disadvantage. Diviners, including Margaret Laurence herself, are these who “see” things that others cannot see. Margaret Laurence opens demonstrates the enormous opportunities for those who can seize them: we can become diviners if we see things that at the present moment seen invisible, and if we display compassion and find ways to make the difference. Many characters in the novel do in fact become diviners. Christie “reads” the garbage, tells stories and sees clearly his own position within society, which helps him to keep going by despising the hypocrisy of others. Morag uses the letters and words to write her own story and in turn demonstrates within her own writing how others become diviners. Royland divines for water, giving himself a purpose over and beyond his status in society. And Jules and Pique divine through their own songs, thus enabling themselves to overcome their pain. As a result we –the readers- don’t want to be part of the system, and we realize that, like the diviners, we have to find ways to control our own destiny, and therefore be in a position to fight back.

Canada started at the beginning creating those institutionalized abuses against many people. There is a lot of commitment in order to improve the conditions both in the novel and in the real world, but people still have to struggle for their rights and cannot overcome poverty because they do not have enough support. This novel strongly advocates for all people, especially the disadvantaged, who live in this country, and Margaret Laurence makes us reflect that Canada is not a paradise. There are terrible things that we need to clean in order to restore the value of dignity to everybody, because we cannot have a country divided into two kinds of people: those people who can live with dignity and those who cannot have dignity.

Everybody deserves to fully participate in society even if they are poor or native, or women or children. Margaret Laurence shows that everybody deserves respect, and that people can make the difference if they have the strength of conviction to allow them to work together in order to provide mechanisms that people can use to take control of their own lives in this country. When Margaret Laurence raised her voice on behalf of Morag or Jules or Piquette, she in turn was making a difference by talking about not just the problems of being a woman or native or poor, but also by showing that it is wrong that people are treated this way. Her novel shows that it is important that people with disadvantages have supporting systems that help them to take control of their own lives on their own terms so that they can fully participate in their own communities.

REFERENCES Laurence, M. (1988) The Diviners.

A short story which is becoming a tradition

2006-12-19T22:12:00.000-05:00

There is a woman with limited literacy skills who has come to Canada from the Third World. She left her country because she could no longer live there because of political turmoil ... And now she tries to reconstruct her life in Toronto, but for some reason she has lost control of her own life.

She is sad because she wants to do better, but nothing works. She goes to school to learn English, where she sees other students being promoted ‑ but not her. She quits the class and looks for a job but she cannot find a job. So she returns to school to learn more English, and the story repeats itself. (This is what happens to women without literacy skills).

Then she starts to be ill, to go to the doctor for help, but the doctor cannot help because the illness is in her heart, in her mind. She becomes more depressed. She badly misses her extended family and she knows she must help them with money. But she cannot learn English, she cannot get a job.

When she turns for help to her family in Toronto she finds that her children communicate mostly in English. She cannot communicate enough with them. It is as if there are two families in one house.

She wants to solve her problems, she wants to start a new life in this country, she wants to be part of this new society, but she cannot do so. She looks for help from social workers, counsellors, and psychologists. She starts to talk about abusive relationships, about the indifference of her children, about her psychological illness. She finds that these people cannot help her because they cannot put themselves in her shoes. Time passes. Her children grow up and marry.

Finally she has grandchildren who cannot talk with her because they speak a different language. Her children are so busy living their own lives that they do not have time to visit her. She feels alone. She needs people to help her when she goes to the doctor or the pension office. But her children visit her only when they need money or a babysitter. She feels very sad.

Some people say that the second generation does better than the first. But in the process, they leave the first generation behind. And you know why this continues to happen? Because we need more research into these women, in order to address their real needs and to create programs to help them to integrate into this country and to be happy happy here.

Who are you?

2006-12-15T19:52:00.000-05:00

A group of students a long time ago asked me on my first day as a teacher, “Who are you?” I already knew that I should show my peacock feathers to have them in the palm of my hand, but no, I decided instead to answer, “I am a human being". They did not understand my answer and again they returned to ask to me but they still did not understand. Throughout my life many people have continued to ask me the same question and each time I can anticipate their perplexity at my answer. If it would not stop them from following the thread of my answer, I could add that I am a human being who tries every day to extend its own nature, its fears, its preconceived ideas, its beliefs, its education. I have had to go little by little getting rid of all the old things I have learned in the past which are in opposition to the new things I am learning. This frees me step by step to find what is "me" in its unique dimension with no expectations, just flowing in the natural course of things. To reach this objective I must threaten my existing ideas with new ideas, because my yearning for transcendence is more powerful than my need for convention, acceptance or security. If anyone needs further explanation, go and ask Carl Jung!

My Latino Identity

2006-11-24T21:38:00.002-05:00

To define latino identity is very difficult, because I have mixed latino roots and to adapt to living in a country such Canada. I know who I am, but it's very hard to explain. The only thing I can be sure of is that I am a working progress

In my country the majority of the population is metis (a mixture of aboriginal and Spanish/European), but most people of middle and upper class tend to ignore the aboriginal background and acknowledge more their European roots. Therefore, in the cozy moments of my family conversation during dinner I learned through listening to ‘whispers’ how appropriate it is to identify myself with our European background rather than our native backgrounds. That was one whisper during the conversation but there were more. Another one was to respect power, and to protect things that eventually were going to benefit myself, my friends and my group. Yes, I learned that I could dream, but only because I was part of the power system. I also learned for myself that there was another group of people who didn’t have enough time to sleep, let alone dream; those others were peasants and servants.

In my country I was taught another false lesson: that everybody is the same. The system (the schools, the church, the government) said that we all have one God and all of us are his children, we are all one big family. But during dinner I learned that there was another family too, the family of the class you were born into, the family in which you know the right people, the family that makes you who you are and helps you to go as far as you want.

But the most terrible lesson that I learned in those dinner times was that while we are working hard to get as much we can from the system, we should not worry about the people who don’t have those contacts, those friends or those opportunities. Their problems are not our fault. Too bad! I think that was the way that my family and other families justified unfairness; that was their response. But that was the worst lesson that I ever learned within my home. I couldn’t accept that lesson that I can call a survival lesson, from my mother, from the rest of my family, the idea that there were others who didn’t matter. And I couldn’t understand how power allows people who are taking control of things that are going to benefit their own interests to put more disadvantaged people in a worse situation.

So, my identity in El Salvador was based on class. And in my personal view I decided to commit myself to make things fair for everybody. I wanted to ensure that everybody had the right to use the system. This eventually became a dream in my life, my perfect love. And I worked in order to make the difference for all of us.

When I came to Canada I found myself in the other side, the same side as the underprivileged people in my country. I found that I belonged to a visible minority, that I didn’t speak English as a first language or without an accent; in fact I didn’t even speak English at all. Taking into consideration that language is a very important thing in this society, since it can open or close doors and can help you to have better opportunities, I was part of the invisible group. As part of this group, I didn’t have recognition or respect, and I had to face a lot of misconceptions, prejudices and racist attitudes. Perhaps surprisingly, I was very happy because, to prove myself, I had to learn how to be strong and humble and to get things by myself.

I knew that this should have been the moment to apply the dinner lessons, to master and to test the creed that says that working hard can solve your problems (Amen!). I knew that I had to work to learn the language, to make the right connections, to make friends, to find a job and to take control of my life in a new country. I also had to make a choice either to help others or to forget my beliefs and to work just for myself; I had to decide on which side I would stand, alone in a new country. Although my situation was temporarily bad, I knew that if I worked hard things would be okay again. But there were things that couldn’t change my dreams and my perfect love, because of all the underprivileged people who were here, living in a big country but being discriminated against, alone, without being able to use the system and without the right support for them; they were facing the same challenge as me but they did not have the knowledge in order to learn how to read or write a new language, or to obtain and keep jobs, while some people who knew their background were taking advantage of their fear and inequality. And my heart again stood for fairness. I do not know who I am but I know what I believe and love. My belief and my love make me be myself. A very simple equation.

I feel that Canada could be my home 100% if I didn’t experience racism . When I go back to my original country, because of the new things I have learned here I cannot be 100% at home there. It is as if I have one foot in Canada & the other in my country.

I do not have enough information about my own roots because as a metis I carry the blood of the conquistador (victor) and the conquistado (vanquished). The conquistadors took from me the right to learn about my native roots, my language, my traditions, and my religions. All of these were buried in history and that part is missing in my personal life as well as missing in my own country. It was destroyed and replaced by a social class system, and when I came here with my beliefs I found that we were exporting the same social class system here.

For that reason those immigrants who in their own country had the power, the privilege, the language, and the knowledge cannot understand people such as the former peasants and servants who were marginalized in their own country and who are at risk of being marginalized here. Sometimes some of them feel ashamed to have those peasants living in Canada, they just want to have doctors, engineers, etc, but here we have peasants as well as doctors, servants as well as engineers. I reject these attitudes. Although I came from the power group, I have chosen to work with the marginalized people. For me to learn to live in Canada was very difficult but at the same time I felt very proud of myself.

I feel happy to be a Latina because of all the people doing good things in our community: the sociologists, the writers, the artists. I am proud of our political struggles, our accomplishments in politics, and our contributions (successful & otherwise) to history. I feel part of all that.

But I cannot feel happy with the image of ourselves that we have in the community, the image that others project onto us. I think that the mass media has a responsibility for this because they show us through meringue, through salsa, the ‘Latin’ roles in movies and on TV. When I tell people where I’m from, they react to “Latina” in a sexually-charged way because of the media image that we have. I have to control myself to stop myself from punching them in the face!

One thing I have discovered is that for me, because I was a political activist in my own country, to be a Latin American woman in Canada means that I need to learn more from political activists and others in this country about racism, sexism, homophobia, and about becoming more tolerant. One reason for this need is that in Canada people have learned from the time they were in school about the values and principles embodied in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The amount of knowledge in this field in Canada can be overwhelming. Human Rights is an idea primarily found in developed nations, such as Canada; therefore my experience in this field is very different from the experience of those born in Canada. Therefore, in Canada I need to challenge my own political experience, assess it and improve it, in order to eradicate some preconceptions that I discovered in the inner core of myself. If I am really honest with my own ideas, I have to learn new things in order to become a more effective person in the political area. Here I need to work harder in order to challenge all my ‘isms’ and to learn so many things that I did not need when I was in my own country, in order to live with my own political principles in a situation where I appear to have many options but really have no options. There is not a map or set of instructions. This is a challenge without theories or explanations, and is like being a blind person trying to find an answer so as to solve the internal impulse to answer the question about what I am, when I am living in a foreign country where I have to start a new life, looking for new friends who will become my new ‘family’ in order to integrate in a new land. One result of this is that I feel guilt because I am not sharing these experiences with my real family. In this new life, I lose my sense of self, and there is nobody to assure me that I am who I am, nobody to recognize who I am, and I am in a new life, with no past but with a present in which we can learn to work together in order to make a difference to ourselves and to our communities.

We have many challenges in this country, and I think it is very important that Latino women meet each other and work together because union creates strength. But we are working under so much stress trying to find funding, to deal with problems in our own communities, that we have no time or energy to create the links that we need in order to share the experience, the knowledge and the information that can make us stronger. This is true not just in Canada. The same needs exist in the USA, where many Latinas are doing a great job, such as the woman in the PBS program “Farmingville” who unified the Mexican men.

It is very important to have links with our communities throughout the Americas because we need the feedback. We need to know what programs they are implementing, such as workshops, co-ops and farming groups. At same time we need to tell about the job we are doing here so that all of us can learn from the experience of others. We should be creating mutual feedback so that we can get funding from the various organizations, profit or non-profit, which will allow us to strengthen programs both in Latin America and here. In this way, we will be able to create models throughout the length and width of the American Continent. From my experience looking for funding I think there are many organizations interested in the situations in Latin America, but because we are not well organized in that area we are missing opportunities.

As a Latino woman in Canada I feel a hybrid. I was a hybrid in El Salvador because of my mixed roots; I am a hybrid here because I have characteristics from my own community but also Canadian characteristics. I am trying to understand how to put things together in myself but meanwhile I am having fun with the whole situation because I took from my community in El Salvador traditions and things that I needed for myself, and I have taken from my new community in Canada things that are not in conflict with my own political ideas. So I took things that I liked from both cultures, but I am still having problems putting things together. Therefore I decided to enjoy myself by simply taking the things that I wanted, as if from a supermarket.

Toronto is a very cosmopolitan city. Here I can see other immigrant groups with very strong identities, such as the Chinese, the Indians, the Somalis. These people have an identity as a country, as a people. This is something that I lack in myself. What I do is to learn from these other communities in order to understand myself better. What I try to do is to talk to people at first hand about their traditions, their ideas, their beliefs, their rituals and what I try to reach is the collective unconscious that is in all of us that enables us to ‘speak the same language’. I am trying to learn more about my own roots as a human being, our origins, and who we are, to try to read the past in the history that is carried in the souls and hearts of all those people who are living here in Toronto. This makes me a more complete human being; all of us are inter-related and we all have responsibilities in this web of relationship. I am not one unit separated from the rest; I am part of that web, or family. All of us are one family. As result I honour and respect all beliefs and all traditions, and I want to learn more about my roots, that are not in conflict with my political ideas. This validates both the conqueror and the conquered. Both of them make me me.

P.S.

Thinking about all the processes that I went through in my life I hope that I am not ending as the dancing penguin’s “Happy Feet”; I prefer to disclose my own reality more or less as Borat show the reality of American attitude.