Puerto Rican Narratives, NCTE and IFC

Spike Lee introduced most of us to Rosie Perez. She danced with boxing gloves behind a beat and Chuck D’s rhymes. ‘Just do-ing the right thing’: a young Puerto Rican woman representing multi-ethnic Brooklyn. Now with the Independent Film Channel, Rosie Perez offers viewers a similarly engaging personal narrative with rich socio-cultural and historic documentation.

NCTE members and English teachers generally have been in love with Puerto Rican narratives for at least the last ten years. In Atlanta in 2002 Judith Ortiz-Cofer shared her narrative at the opening banquet of the NCTE Annual Convention. She appeared at our convention at least three other times since. Similarly, Esmeralda Santiago spoke at the Baltimore convention the year before and at least three other times. And Victor Villanueva, keynote speaker at the last NCTE Spring conference in Portland shared his narratives at NCTE many times in a variety of venues and roles. In fact, Victor’s book Bootstraps is an enduring classic NCTE publication.

These narratives often have a media component produced implicitly in some cases, and overtly in others with teachers in mind. Annenberg CPB gave us the award-winning The Expanding Canon and Teaching Multicultural Literature in Middle School. These teacher-professional development series feature Santiago and Ortiz-Cofer respectively. Annenberg CPB’s series for high school writing teachers includes Villanueva as an advisor, and Judith Ortiz-Cofer appears on camera as a writing teacher in each episode.

There is no shortage of candid personal or family stories evoking laughter, sighs, or tears in Yo Soy Boricua, Pa’que Tu Lo Sepas! (I’m Boricua, Just So You Know!), directed by Rosie Perez for IFC. However, the richness of the archival images—moving and still, the artifacts, unflinching explorations of linguistic, literary, economic and military themes surrounding Puerto Ricans, their relationship to the United States, and the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States in this documentary sets it apart from the other texts. My friend and mentor Tony Baez nurtured me with many stories of his days with the Young Lords so I was especially intrigued by the treatment of this aspect of Puerto Rican history in the US. Scenes depicting performances from the Nuyorican Poets Café on the Lower East Side of NY offer a unique glimpsed into one of the premier literary movements of our time: spoken word.

Of course this film is not just for teachers. Indeed the general public has much to learn from and enjoy in this documentary. Because this film’s markets most likely include the general audiences, “indy buffs,” or Latino audiences, I highlight its instructional value for high school and college English teachers as a professional development experience and teaching tool. Writers and researchers will also find Yo Soy Boricua interesting and valuable for their creative and scholarly work. Hats off IFC; Thank you Rosie Perez!