In Intercultural Academic Contexts in America To- Day
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n intercultural academic contexts in America to- dices, which invariably spread to the terminology used: day, from small private colleges to large universi- peaceful, righteous (English) settlers vs. bloodthirsty, Ities, a question about the origin of the dollar rapacious conquistadors (knights, soldiers, and sign—this most iconic emblem of U.S. currency—will explorers from the Spanish and Portuguese empires). likely provoke collective shrugs and head-scratching. Henry VIII married his Spanish sister-in-law “What is the meaning of an S with a bar through it, Catherine of Aragon and thought he drew the wrath and how does this symbol relate to the word dollar?” of God upon his offspring. By divorcing Catherine The answer is that the dollar sign is a symbol for the and deeply offending her nephew Charles V of Spain, Spanish peseta, one of the few legal currencies ac- Henry struck a fissure into Christendom, resulting in cepted in colonial America. Other questions along this line include: “Why is there a colonial building (the Pontalba) with a Spanish name in the French Quarter of New Orleans? Why is the shape and style of homes in the Quarter of Spanish design? Why does the Quarter have a market on one side and a Cathe- dral facing the river, a typical Spanish arrangement?” The answer to all these questions is that the so-called French Quarter was built by Spaniards. But perhaps the most important question of all is, “Why are Ameri- cans so uninformed about the Spanish heritage of the United States?” Most Americans embrace a foundational myth about Protestant English settlers fleeing religious per- secution and landing on the shores of an almost pris- tine wilderness where amiable natives shared their food and taught grateful settlers how to farm the land. Typical American history courses teach mostly about the English colonies and their expansion into (empty) territories, spurred by Manifest Destiny and “pioneer spirit.” Even in recent textbooks, where discussion of indigenous peoples and the destruction of their cul- tures appear, the role that Spain took in the forma- tion of the American identity—understood as U.S. identity—is rarely and ineffectively conceded. “History is written by the victors,” said both Winston Churchill and Niccolo Macchiavelli, and it is certainly true of U.S. history taught in K-12. This imbalance is the result of a cultural myopia in- herited through both language and law, which privi- leges English as a language and a people, over the Spanish language and the people who speak it, in the way the mythologies of the United States are framed. Due to the deep-seated animosity toward Spain and its religion held by the English monarchs, English-speak- ing colonists unquestionably adopted similar preju- King Henry VIII (Wikimedia Commons) xxiii Spanish Heritage of the United States Great Lives from History: Latinos centuries of war and conflict between England and Spain, not only on the Continent, but in the Colonies, a trauma that still manifests itself in an Anglocentric (even Francocentric) version of American history. The “Black Legend”—historiographical prejudice against Spanish and Catholic culture—is the result of a confluence of factors—including works by English Jesuit Thomas Gage, and the English translation of Bartolomé de Las Casas’ Short History of the Destruction of the Indies. Las Casas, in defending the bodies and souls of Natives in the Caribbean to Charles V, argued that the Natives were humans, and so deserved hu- mane treatment, but in doing so he etched a portrait of the Spanish conquerors as beasts of war in danger of mortal sin by burning and torturing Native bodies. His description, pungent in its excess, accurate or not, Pontalba Buildings, New Orleans (Paolo Zampella via Wikimedia flung fuel onto the flames of anti-Spanish sentiment Commons) in sixteenth-century England that continued into Las Casas’ work further fanned the flames of nineteenth-century United States. Republished at an Hispanophobia just as the Spanish-American war ig- opportune moment in the late nineteenth century, nited. Partnered with this political antagonism then, is an anti-Catholic bias and suspicion that the Catholic faith is promulgated by the most vicious and hedon- istic of all men. Back in New Orleans, the Pontalba building was de- signed by Micaela, baroness of Pontalba, daughter of Don Andrés Almonester y Roxas, a Spanish civil servant and benefactor who also restored the cabildo (Spanish for civil government building) and the St. Louis Cathe- dral in Jackson Square—all the result of Spanish city planning and engineering during the Spanish forty- year tenure of New Orleans and Louisiana. But because of the English preference for all things French, and animosity towards all things Spanish, we only stumble over Spanish traces and see mostly the French in a city designed by Spanish colonial engineers according to the traditional Spanish traza—checker- board street design—with a church at the head of the square, flanked by the cabildo and the market. Although those traces of Spanish presence in the United States were erased intentionally by our Anglo- phile forbears, we are now able to reconstruct a more accurate origin story by including more characters in the history of the formation of the American identity. Conquistadors arrived in North America with the landing of Christopher Columbus on Hispaniola in 1492, and quickly followed into Cuba, Puerto Rico, Bartolomé de las Casas (Wikimedia Commons) and elsewhere in North America before the expedi- xxiv A Elizabeth Acevedo graduating from college and joining the 2010 Teach for America Corps. Her students, who were about 80 American poet and performer percent Latino and 20 percent Black, asked her why Acevedo is an award-winning Young Adult writer, teacher, none of the characters in the books there were re- poet-performer, and National Poetry Slam champion. quired to read looked like them or shared similar life Latino heritage: Dominican experiences. They cited this as one of the reasons they Born: New York, New York felt disincentivized to read. Moreover, even though Areas of achievement: Literature; poetry; teaching the student population was Latino and African Ameri- can, Acevedo was the first Latina teacher to impart a EARLY LIFE core subject. This led Acevedo, who identifies as Elizabeth Acevedo (Ah-ceh-VEH-doh), was born in Afro-Latina, to realize that she could write such Morningside Heights, New York City, to Dominican- books. From that, she created her first character, born parents. She was the only girl among her sib- Xiomara Batista, an Afro-Latina girl growing up in lings and her mother, a devout Catholic, reared her Harlem and torn between her family’s expectations, close to Church teachings. When she was around religious teachings, and her desire to be a Poetry Slam twelve years old, Elizabeth began to compose rap lyr- artist. ics that reflected her family life and the Afro-Carib- bean and Latino culture of her neighborhood life. LIFE’S WORK She soon moved to poetry because, she said, it gave Acevedo has long been involved in the Slam Poetry her greater expressive freedom, as it was less movement. She is a Grand Slam champion as well as a restrictive than rap. former head coach for the D.C. Youth Slam Team. Acevedo attended the Beacon School, a college-ac- She has also performed at the Aspen Institute, Madi- ademic prep school that focuses on excellence, lo- son Square Garden, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy cated in the Hell’s Kitchen area of New York City. At Center of the Performing Arts and performed in Beacon, Acevedo was recruited by English teacher Ab- Brussels, Kosovo and South Africa. She has delivered igail Lubin to join the poetry club. She competed, at fourteen of age, on her first poetry slam at the Nuyorican Poets Café. From there, she proceeded to participate in open mic events in the city, including storied venues as the Bowery Poetry Club and Urban Word NYC. Acevedo attended George Washington University where she earned a bachelor of arts degree in per- forming arts and earned a master of fine arts degree in creative writing at the University of Maryland. She also worked as an adjunct professor for bachelor-level creative writing courses and as an English teacher in public middle schools. A major turning point in Acevedo’s life was teach- ing eighth grade in Prince George’s County, after Elizabeth Acevedo (Avery Jensen via Wikimedia Commons) 1 Aceves, José Great Lives from History: Latinos several TEDX Talks in order to speak about inequal- migrants in general. Her fiction and poetry, which ity and using poetry to confront inequality, racism mirror her own life, have received much praise from and violence against women. Acevedo’s work has been readers and writers of color, who claim that Acevedo’s featured in mainstream and online magazines, in- books make them feel seen and heard. cluding Latina, Cosmopolitan, and The Huffington Post, —Trudy Mercadal among others. She is also the author of four books. The poetry col- Further Reading lection Beastgirl and Other Origin Myths (2016), written De León, Concepción. “Caught Between Worlds? For Eliz- abeth Acevedo, It’s a Familiar Feeling.” NYTimes.com, over several years, centers on the experiences of first- May 4, 2020. generation Caribbean American women. The Poet X https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/04/books/eliza- (2018), which was a New York Times Best seller, won beth-acevedo-clap-when-you-land-poet-x.html. An au- the 2018 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Walter thor profile and book review on the publication of Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children’s Litera- Acevedo’s fourth novel, Clap When You Land.