Nuyorican
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nuyorican is a blending of the terms "New York" and "Puerto Rican" and refers to the members or culture of the Puerto Rican diaspora located in or around New York State especially the New York City metropolitan area with a major hub of over 500,000 Puerto Ricans living in Northern New Jersey, or of their descendants (especially those raised or still living in the New York area). The term is also used by Boricuas (Puerto Ricans from Puerto Rico) as to show the Nuyoricans are not the same as Boricuas. The term Nuyorican is also sometimes used to refer to the Spanish spoken by New York Puerto Ricans. An estimated 800,000 Nuyoricans are said to live in New York city, the largest Puerto Rican (Nuyoricans are not considered Puerto Rican by Puerto Ricans) community outside Puerto Rico.
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[edit] Beginnings
Mainly the Nuyoricans are second and third-generation, but their parents or grandparents represent the Gran migración of Puerto Ricans. The majority of Puerto Ricans in the city began to arrive in the 1930s, then came in larger waves in the 1940s and 1950s, and the Gran migración came to a halt by 1960. Historically, the Nuyoricans resided in the predominantly Hispanic/ Latino section of Manhattan known as Spanish Harlem, and around the Loisaida section of the East Village, but they expanded across the city in the 1960s and 1970s into newly-created Puerto Rican/Nuyorican enclaves in Brooklyn, Queens and the South Bronx. Today, there are fewer Puerto Rican-born persons than Puerto Rican-descended people as a proportion of New York City's large Hispanic community, now made up of other Latin Americans since the 1990s.
[edit] Puerto Rico's rejection of Nuyoricans
A study was done by University of Puerto Rico (Aguadilla) of Nuyoricans returning to Puerto Rico, with the result that the vast majority of Nuyoricans were rejected by island Puerto Ricans stating that Nuyoricans are an embarrassment to the Puerto Rican people and the culture.[1]. In summary, Boricuas (Puerto Ricans from Puerto Rico) do not consider Nuyoricans to have Puerto Rican culture. It is a stereotype that Puerto Ricans elsewhere (usually from the island, Florida, California, Texas and even Illinois) have on Nuyoricans. They claim that Nuyoricans represent Puerto Ricans in a negative way. Nuyoricans are often portrayed as trashy, ghetto (also known as "cafre" in Puerto Rico) and imitate African-Americans. Many 3rd and 4th generation Nuyoricans have intermarried with blacks therefore feeding to the negative stereotype that other Puerto Ricans have of them. Puerto Ricans that reside in Florida or California are more accepted in Puerto Rico for the fact that many are affluent, well-educated and mannered and resemble those of the middle class in Puerto Rico.
[edit] History of the term
The Oxford English Dictionary cites this word as evolving slowly through roughly the last third of the 20th century, with the first cited reference being poet Jaime Carrero using neorriqueño in 1964 as a Spanish-language adjective combining neoyorquino and puertorriqueño, and many other variants occurring along the way, including neorican, neoricano, newyorican, Neo-Rican, Neorican, and New Yorrican. Nuyorican itself dates at least from 1975, the date of the first public sessions of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Some of the best known "Nuyoricans" who have written and performed their experiences of being a Puerto Rican in New York are: Pedro Pietri, Miguel Piñero, Giannina Braschi, Miguel Algarín, Piri Thomas, and Sandra María Esteves.
In recent decades, the term has been use as a derogative term by native Puerto Ricans when describing a person that has Puerto Rican ancestry but is born in the United States, in the same way that Mexicans call people of Mexican descent that are born in the USA, Chicanos. This has been changing with the increase in travel back and forth to different parts of the United States and the globe to include Puerto Rican ex-pats and descendants in areas other than New York.
While the term has negative connotations to some, it is proudly used by some members of this community to identify their history and cultural affiliation to a common ancestry while being separated from the island, both physically and through language and cultural shifts. This distance created a dual identity that, while still somewhat identifying with the island, recognizes the influences both geography and cultural assimilation have had.
[edit] Notes
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Sofrito For Your Soul Online Magazine
- Capicu Poetry & Cultural Showcase
- Association of Hispanic Arts (AHA)
- Nuyorican cinema
- Soraida Martinez, New York born artist of Puerto Rican heritage known as creator of Verdadism
- [1] "Nuyorican Power," Current TV program on Nuyorican culture, featuring portraits of Pedro Pietri, Fat Boy, Rita Moreno, J-Lo, Rita Moreno, Macho Camacho and Giannina Braschi;Produced By: Evan B. Stone & Carrie Pyle for CURRENT TV.
