Jacob Brockert
Professor Metherd
English 153
19 November 2018
Academic Alienation: A Transformative Experience
According to Nelson Mandela, “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” In reality, the contrary is often more accurate—that education is a powerful weapon affecting its participants. In When I was Puerto Rican, Esmeralda Santiago expresses her discontent with American and Puerto Rican schools, especially in the context of their “dumbing down” and mistreatment of marginalized youths, through the narration of a girl named Negi. Given the alienating circumstances of her education, such as verbally abusive teachers, being held back, and being forced to humiliate herself, it is imperative to explore the treatment of marginalized individuals in both American and Puerto Rican schools. To do this, it is important to look at the academic experiences of Negi in both Puerto Rico and America, as well as her personal transformation into a blend of both cultures. Considering the inherent differences in the conditions of Negi’s upbringing, her distaste stems—in part—from her inability to see past her own differences and to embrace them. Though it is also clear that the American and Puerto Rican school systems Negi was enrolled into had little sympathy for these changes, even to the point of exploitation.
Negi was raised in Macún, Puerto Rico, a region considerably isolated from the mainland, and was labeled a “Jibara”, which is the equivalent of being called a hillbilly. This term is important in the context of her life because it is used primarily in a derogatory or punitive manner—especially once she moves from Macún to America, El Mangle, and Santruce. In fact, whenever Negi is unable to do something, expresses her confusion during her classes, or tries to communicate when she’s in Santruce, Puerto Rico, the kids all jeer at her, yelling out “what a Jíbara” (39). This is significant because, even in Puerto Rico, the term is used in a derogatory manner to diminish Santiago’s confidence: to make her feel as though she doesn’t belong in the mainland. This is one of the first times that Negi’s identity is used against her in an academic setting—and consequently, the first time where she recognizes the negativity implicit in identifying as or being a Jíbara.
The differences between mainlanders and non-mainlanders are most apparent in their everyday practices. Negi, being born in a rural environment, has a distinct “closeness to nature” and lives a life of simplicity in a “box squatting on low stilts, the kind of house Jíbaros [live] in” (12). Whereas those born in a suburban or urban Puerto Rican environment live a life where resources are readily available, intelligence is a given, and people have the right to alienate outsiders. Consequently, this privilege feeds into the schools of mainland barrios like Santruce and El Mangle. In order to recognize how this privilege grows into toxicity, it is integral to recognize specific moments in Negi’s academic life where she is singled out by teachers. In fact, the teachers don’t necessarily appear to care about the other students’ mockery, even participating in it at times. This is best demonstrated in El Mangle, Puerto Rico when Negi’s teacher, Sra. Leona, calls her up to solve a fraction, something she had yet to learn about in Macún. When Leona sees Negi struggling, she says, “Esmerelda, do you need help […] didn’t you learn fractions in that school for Jíbaros that you came from?” mocking her differences (138). This shows a deep-rooted bias in the teacher, because rather than supporting Negi, she alienates her, making her feel different and unintelligent. If teachers, who are supposed to mentor and encourage students, treat marginalized youths like this, then what is the point of attending school in the first place? During the incident, Negi’s imagines her soul “leaves [her] body” and “flies to the flámboyan tree” (139). The flámboyan tree represents the simplicity of her old, rural Puerto Rican lifestyle, the bittersweet beauty of something she no longer has. This illustrates Negi’s duality of cultural identity and her difficulty in adapting and assimilating herself into American society. Ultimately, Negi’s duality of cultural identity is a barrier to her assimilation into American society.
In America, Negi is not singled out by teachers, but rather academically sidelined by officials at the schools she attends. For example, upon her registration at her middle school in New York, the administrator initially says Negi “needs to repeat grade seven” because she “does not speak English” (226). Regardless, Negi is determined to fight her oppression in America and does so by striking a deal to “get better at English” and go into the eighth grade (227). At this moment, it is as though Negi is finally coming to the realization that she will always be different in her own way. Even when she is enrolled in a special education class, she goes the extra mile to demonstrate that she can be everything others say she cannot be. Regardless of the fact that students recognize she doesn’t belong in her class section, the academic administration remains blind and indifferent—but also cognizant of her advancements.
In addition to this discrimination, it is interesting to note that the American schools are portrayed as being comparatively better than the urban schools of Puerto Rico. Negi enjoys her teacher Miss Brown because she “teaches English composition as if everyone finds it appealing” (228). Given the polarizing environments her previous teachers created in Puerto Rico, this demonstrates a drastic difference in the treatment of disadvantaged youths, though it is also significant that Negi’s teacher is an African American woman. This is important because a marginalized member of society—like Miss Brown—will often do what they can to make other marginalized individuals—like Negi—feel comfortable and supported. Regardless, Negi is still fearful of her differences because as her classroom environment becomes better, she is able to see the bigger picture more clearly. She can recognize the divided pond in which she is a fish—the cliques of black and white, rich and poor, dumb and smart, and everything in between. Most importantly, she sees the two “types” of Puerto Ricans and recognizes that she doesn’t like either of them. “The newly arrived Puerto Ricans” are “afraid [and] critical of everything” while the “Brooklyn Puerto Ricans [speak] English, and often no Spanish at all” (230). She dislikes both groups because she realizes that she is stuck in between. She doesn’t want to forget who she is, but she also doesn’t want to be afraid of taking the steps necessary to becoming an average American teenager. This is the moment where Negi becomes someone else: she is not just Negi, she is not just American, she is not just Jíbara, she is something different, stuck in a limbo state of mind and identity.
The bigger picture shows that Negi ultimately submits to her inability to be the same as everyone else, to be “American.” And thus, she recognizes that her past is not necessarily defined by her actions, regardless of whether those actions are academic, social, or personal. Privileged individuals supporting the polarization of marginalized youths, directly or indirectly, implies that there is no universal experience to academic adversity, or rather, academic prosecution. Realistically, Negi feels as though her academic career is a never-ending trial of egregious mistakes and shortcomings—regardless of whether she is in the barrios of Urban Puerto Rico or the streets of mainland America. The saturation of privilege in schools becomes defined through a series of ridiculous encounters with the blind intentions of misguided teachers, who, have no recognition of their own problems—so they create problems for those who cannot fend for themselves.
In the case of Negi, this purposeful targeting has a dramatic effect on her life as a Jíbara woman living in a polarized, American world. It is not easy to forget yourself, to step into someone else’s shoes, but that is what Negi does; just as the world forces many of us to do. It molds us into what it wants us to be, taking away our past and often condemning our future. Whether we want to recognize our own faults or not, we take the differences of others and turn them into weapons, obliterating any sense of hope that people, like Negi, have in becoming one with themselves. It is important to keep in mind that we should never put people down because of the color of their skin, the language that they speak, or the clothes on their backs because they never had any choice to begin with.
Works Cited
Santiago, Esmeralda. When I Was Puerto Rican. Massachusetts: De Capo Press, 2006. Print.