Primer Papel

Carminia Almanzar
Professor Klatzkin
English 201/SEC 911
April, 2012

When I was in the seventh grade of a New York City public junior high school, in
the heart of the famous Washington Heights neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, I remember this time being the first time I was ever interested in any literature my English teacher had ever chosen for our class. Idistinctly remember the book; it was the highly acclaimed novel The House on Mango Street, by Mexican- American writer Sandra Cisneros. The title of the book was striking to me, but not as appealing as the name of the author, Cisneros. I felt she must have to be Hispanic, and we would share some commonality other than our last names being from a Hispanic origin. I also felt a sense of joy, my eyeslit up, and my teacher had my undivided attention for the rest of the semester. I knew exactly where that feeling of joy was coming from.
During my short school career, from first grade to seventh grade, I had not read
anything from a Hispanic-American writer as part of school curriculum. I was only twelve or thirteen, an avid reader and familiar with Hispanic literature, such as Pablo Neruda,Grabriela Mistral, Octavio Paz, and my favorite Carlos Fuentes. So in class I thought to myself “Finally, no more Edgar Allen Poes. No more dead white men writers”; however, as I read more of The House on Mango Street, I realized I had nothing in common with the characters as I thought I would. It was a mistake for me to think that way, just because of our last names being of the same heritage.Being Hispanic and having been part of the New York City public school system,
I find it a bit disconcerting how some teachers, part of the New York City public schools, consider that teaching literature made by a particular race will be more appealing to the minority students, because they feel this strategy will engage the students more in the lessons as if they will connect more with theauthors because of their background or origin. I believe students should be taught a variety of classic literature, not just according to racial background. During my first semester at college, this was a subject I brought to my English professor’s attention. We had read in class an essay by Christina Boufis, Teaching at the County Jail. This essay narrates the story of Christina’s first job teachingliterature to women prisoners at a county jail in San Francisco, California. Most of the women there were from inner city backgrounds. Most of them were African American, and very few of them were literate. Christina was fresh out of graduate school and in need of a job. She was in culture shock her first day there. Shocked by the sub-culture of prison, intimidated by the orange jumpsuits, thelack of teaching supplies, and the fierce attitude some of the inmates possessed. In order to relate to them and be able to teach them something, she fell into the safety net of African American authors. She read them The Color Purple by Alice Walker and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Both novels are amazing, and Alice Walker is one of the greatest American authors. However, theargument I made to my English professor was: Why did Boufis choose only African American writers? Was it because she thought her students would not be smart or clever enough to relate to other stories of struggle by non African American characters. My professor did not agree with me, and actually thought that sharing more “ethnic” writers with students from a minority background, is a good way toattract and engage them.
Human struggle is universal, and literature has the power to reflect that and
have readers identify with it. Mario Vargas Llosa once said on his famous Why Literature? Essay, “Nothing teaches us better than literature to see, in ethnic and cultural differences, the richness of the human patrimony, and to prize those differences as a manifestation of humanity’s...