The stereotype and the truth about Puerto Rico

      There is a lot of things that people say about Puerto Rico. Are they say the truth? Or, They are wrong? We discuss alot of point of views about what people (not puerto ricans) think about us. The discussion was very interesting because I thought that every people in the world have a bad perspective about what is Puerto Rico and puerto ricans. Most of the comments was about how wonderful and friendly we are. As a puerto rican I believe that is true. I've been in a few states in USA and the people are very introspective. I love to smile at random people and when I was with my dad at Philadelphia they look at me like I was a crazy! Maybe is because I’m use to the act that most of the people smile at me back.
     Sadly a bad comment about us was that we are lazy and I think there is a little bit of truth. Is bad to say ALL the puerto ricans are lazy, but we can’t say anything about that because our reputation around the world is that we live “great” thanks to the money of USA. Lets be realistic we like to party a lot. Our favorite parties are after the hurricanes, we even celebrate 4 of July and the Independence of Mexico. I think if the people look at us and all that they see is the parties and celebrations they make this conclusion: a person that party too much can’t work a lot. The truth is that some of us like to party and some not.
    In conclusion people have this extreme point of view about us: We are lazy, we like to party, we are almost indians (some of the people think that PR is like 1920 and we still living like Tainos). It’s frustration what I feel when I read all this stuff, but lets be honest, we all have this idea (stereotype) about that one country.

Dead Poets Society (movie)

The movie of Dead Poets Society talk about a profesor that makes the difference in a institution were control and order was the only way of teaching. Mr. Keating was that professor that change the perspective of the students and makes them to fall in love with poetry. However, he was not a traditional professor and that was a problem to the school. Mr. Keating was totally different professor from other classes; he teaches poetry using sports and walking outside the classroom. His class was relaxed and that was the defense because the students were exited about it they did not feel obligated. For my experience literature classes (not this year) was mostly the same, they try to put everything for one perspective; everything is definitions and a lot of boring books that I read years ago. Mr. Keating was more that a teacher for those students, he was a role model. This class makes a partnership “the dead poets society” that makes this group of friends more close to each other, more than they real parents. This friendship was powerful and encourages each other to be part of something else. For example Neil encourages Todd to participate in the Dead Poets Socity.

This new experience makes the boys change in some many ways like Neil was following his dream and let it go all his fears about not be the perfect student that dreams to be a doctor; Todd was shy in the beginning of the movie and then he was the first rebel student that was standing in the table of the classroom. This kind of changes was very difficult to them because Welton was a school of boys that represent the best students ever. We can compare Chris’ school that was mix (boys and girls) and Welton: Chis school was normal and Welton was very strict in every aspect.

Mr. Keating was the captain (Oh Captain, my Captain) of the internal journey of this students. For example Todd a super shy student and Keating makes him improve a poem in front of the class, Keating help him to let out his talents and makes feel Todd like a very special student when he thought that he was nothing important. In the other hand the captain choose to be silent when Neil said that his father knows about the play because he is just a guide not his father. However his mother stay in silent when her son was suffering. When something like that happens to me in life I prefer to stay in silent sometimes you don’t understand the full complication of the situation, I can understand the point of view of Keating. Also I can relate to Keating reaction because he was his teacher and teachers have this line of personal problems that they can’t pass. Maybe I’m old fashion but if a professor is to close to you he can’t teach you that well because he will be supporting you in a lot of stuff, teacher should be a little strict, it’s the only way the student can respect the class.
           Nail suicide was an exaggeration because there was other options like at the age of 18 he can do whatever he wants and start his career as an actor. I try to understand why he did that but I can’t, but if I were in a depression like he was I probably can’t think that clear as I can think right now. Something that I did not like was that the school was searching for someone to blame about this tragedy. The only person that we can blame (apart of Nail, it was a suicide not a homicide) is Mr. Perry with “You’re going to Harvard, you are going to be a doctor”. Maybe this could work on Nail before Mr. Keating class, but it’s was too late, Nail at the end of the movie was a free thinker. He prefer to suicide than be something that he is not. Mr. Keating was nothing but a good mentor and he lost his job. After all the boys sign a document incriminating Mr. Keating. From my point of view I would not sing the document because they own all the freedom that they had to Mr. Keating. The professor teaches more than poetry he was teaching about life and honor. Part of have honor is to be loyal to all those things that they learned as a student in the class of Mr. Keating. Teach poetry or any kind of literature needs passion because art needs to be like that, full of freedom. We can learn to be free, it’s no easy but music, literature and poetry can help us in the journey.

My Story

Lets start from the beginning, I was born and raised in Caguas, P.R. I’m the first girl in the family and for a long time I was the only girl. My parents get divorced when I was 6 and when I was 16 my mom had a baby. I always wanted to be like my big brother Gustavo (he is from my dad’s first marriage) because he was always playing with my dad, they was

“the cool guys” for me, so I started to play video games at very young age, my taste in music was Queen, Bon Jovi, Black Sabbath and The Beatles and I never missed one game of the Lakers (NBA); apart form that I got a lot of cousins of my age and all of them are boys and of cause we can’t ignore that my dad was in the U.S NAVY… and you can imagine that he is very strict. Everything is fun when you are a kid but in high school for me was impossible to have girl friends; I was so DIFFERENT from other girls. Obviously my mom was worry about my skateboard and me so she inscribed me on modeling classes (which I hated it), apart from that I was a very happy girl.

In my family I’m the smart one but when I was in second grade my teacher asked me “What you want to be when you grow up?” and I my answer was “I want to be a mermaid”. My mom told me that was impossible, but she also told me that I can study marine biology and since that they I feel in love with science. I figured out that I want to be a doctor on high school when one of my cousins at the age of 2 years was diagnosed with cancer. That day I realized that I want to help people, but if you don’t have a “Dr.” before your name no one in this planet will let you help them. I got a lot of plans for my future as a doctor in medicine and one of them is to donate all my money to pay the treatment of children with cancer. I never had a lot of money so I can live without the glamour. I really hate the idea of have a lot of money just because I’m a doctor. I can’t live in peace knowing that those children are dying and I’m here making me rich.  I just want to help those kids 100%.

Since I was a child nothing has change too much. I can look myself in the mirror and see the same girl that dream to be a mermaid and to be honest I don’t want to change that. I’m 21 and my hobbies are the same: play video games, watch Pokémon and sing in the shower Bohemian Rhapsody. I want to be innocence because see the world through the eyes of a child makes everything more interesting. I want to learn everything that I can, eat a lot of food, smile to strangers, laugh and talk to elderly people. In conclusion I want to stay simple.