Panel: “Immigration
and Puerto Rico Today"
The College
of General Studies presented the 2013-14 Student Conference titled: “Student
Interventions in General Studies: Interdisciplinary projects and creative
initiatives”. The conference consisted
in the participation of students of the current English courses presenting their
projects to the university community.
The panel hat presented “Immigration of Puerto Rico Today”, supervised by Professor Petra Avillán, exposes the point of view of two immigrants that study abroad Puerto Rico. These young women, talk about how living in Puerto Rico, an Island right next to the Dominican Republic (their native island), is difficult. They said that living abroad is not synonym with wealth, good life, but in reality is hard work and full of sacrifice. They present the term Xenophobia, which is an unreasonable fear or hatred to foreigners. They also explain the use of derogatory jokes, and other ways of stereotyping the immigrants. Part of the requisite of their class was to do a debate in pro immigration and against immigration. One of the panelists was to be in favor, while the other had to be opposed of the idea of immigration. This debate helps them present a complete interdisciplinary conclusion about immigration in Puerto Rico, and mostly experimented both sides of the story. They concluded that there should be a “culture bridge” was race, culture; regions or nationalities are not barriers. They presented as well, possible solutions such as offering classes about immigration in the university.
This panel in particular race awareness of the reality of our nation. Immigrations and international cultural exchange is inevitable. You may be a tourist and visit one time, but also you can choose to stay and live in another part of the world. How the immigration is understood by the perception of the immigrant and well and the locals are important to create an environment of equality of rights. Such things as Xenophobia and derogatory jokes, are hurtful and do not contribute to the cultural exchange that this world needs.
The panel hat presented “Immigration of Puerto Rico Today”, supervised by Professor Petra Avillán, exposes the point of view of two immigrants that study abroad Puerto Rico. These young women, talk about how living in Puerto Rico, an Island right next to the Dominican Republic (their native island), is difficult. They said that living abroad is not synonym with wealth, good life, but in reality is hard work and full of sacrifice. They present the term Xenophobia, which is an unreasonable fear or hatred to foreigners. They also explain the use of derogatory jokes, and other ways of stereotyping the immigrants. Part of the requisite of their class was to do a debate in pro immigration and against immigration. One of the panelists was to be in favor, while the other had to be opposed of the idea of immigration. This debate helps them present a complete interdisciplinary conclusion about immigration in Puerto Rico, and mostly experimented both sides of the story. They concluded that there should be a “culture bridge” was race, culture; regions or nationalities are not barriers. They presented as well, possible solutions such as offering classes about immigration in the university.
This panel in particular race awareness of the reality of our nation. Immigrations and international cultural exchange is inevitable. You may be a tourist and visit one time, but also you can choose to stay and live in another part of the world. How the immigration is understood by the perception of the immigrant and well and the locals are important to create an environment of equality of rights. Such things as Xenophobia and derogatory jokes, are hurtful and do not contribute to the cultural exchange that this world needs.
This panel was my favorite one, because in it we saw people that suffers racism here in Puerto Rico.
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed this panel very much. Like you wrote, it raised awareness of an unfortunate reality we currently live in.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite panel, well explained!
ReplyDeleteI like what you said about cultural exchange at the end. As a society, we all need to change our perspective towards "outsiders" and become more familiar with those around us instead of excluding them.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite panels. It was spectacular! Xenophobia is a very serious issue in Puerto Rico.
ReplyDelete