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Diasporic Identity Formation in Contemporary Puerto Rican and Dominican Narratives of Migration

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Diasporic Identity Formation in Contemporary Puerto Rican and Dominican Narratives of Migration NATIONAL DISIDENTIFICATIONS: DIASPORIC IDENTITY FORMATION IN CONTEMPORARY PUERTO RICAN AND DOMINICAN NARRATIVES OF MIGRATION By Octavio Borges-Delgado A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Hispanic Cultural Studies —Doctor of Philosophy 2016 ! 1! ! ABSTRACT NATIONAL DISIDENTIFICATIONS: DIASPORIC IDENTITY FORMATION IN CONTEMPORARY PUERTO RICAN AND DOMINICAN NARRATIVES OF MIGRATION By Octavio Borges-Delgado In the 20th Century, the mass exoduses that displaced thousands of Puerto Ricans and Dominicans to the United States marked the beginning of ethnic diasporas that have redefined preconceived notions of national identity. This dissertation focuses on contemporary narrative representations of Dominican and Puerto Rican migrations to the United States beginning in the first half of the 20th Century. The project addresses the processes of negotiation that take place in multi-ethnic and multi-cultural sites that result in the development of diasporic identities. At the same time, the project proposes that the intersections between the geographical and identity boundaries of these groups allow for cultural and individual interactions that affect the ways in which they negotiate their national ties beyond a state of liminality. The interactions resulting from these spaces of contention facilitate varied relationships and affiliations between diaspora and homeland. At the root of this project is my belief that the texts selected present diverse positions that rearticulate national identification in order to develop diasporic identities. The study contributes to critical work on diasporic identity formation as it comments on the processes of acculturation of Puerto Ricans and Dominicans in the United States. While many studies dedicated to this topic have read identities in the diaspora as being located in liminal dilemmas, this dissertation presents how diasporic subjects develop national identifications that are not perpetually in conflict. In the Introduction I discuss the critical approaches that see diasporic subjects as individuals that are located in an “in-between” space, and propose the study of Dominican and ! 2! Puerto Rican narratives of migration as case studies in which we can assess the intricacies contained in the development of diasporic identity formation. In chapter 1, “Carving Identities in Writing: The Migrant Jíbara, Gastronomy, Class and Encounter with the United States in Esmeralda Santiago’s When I Was Puerto Rican (1993),” I explore the author’s narrative representation of her younger self as a Puerto Rican migrant, and the identity changes and national identification shifts brought upon dislocation. In chapter 2, “Etching Identities in Alien Turfs: Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality in Piri Thomas’ Down These Mean Streets (1967),” I examine the role multi-ethnic and multi- racial urban environments play in the development of diasporic subjectivities and their impact on the subject’s racial, ethnic, and national identity consciousness. In chapter 3, “(Re)Assembling Home in the Diaspora: Gendered Returns, Religion, and Patriarchy in Loida Maritza Pérez’s Geographies of Home (1999),” I analyze the domestic junctures in which the formulation of “home” reproduces national discourses and their reexaminations from members of different migrant generations. In the last chapter, “Fictionalizing History: Comic Books, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and the (Re) Articulation of the Past in Junot Díaz’s The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007),” I focus on the process of writing about the nation-as-ancestral land as a form in which discourses about nationness can be rewritten. ! 3! ! Copyright by OCTAVIO BORGES-DELGADO 2016 ! 4! ! ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project started as a question I made about Puerto Ricans in New York in a Hispanic Caribbean class the first weeks of the Master’s program at Michigan State University. That day Prof. Danny Méndez enticed me to rethink my views and, afterwards, suggested me to revisit those “anxieties” as a migrant Puerto Rican in the United States. I am greatly indebted to him because, throughout my years as a student, he continued to encourage me to think and read with a critical eye. His classes not only deepened my knowledge and appreciation of Caribbean Literatures, but also taught me how to teach, how to motivate our students to learn, and how to engage them in class discussions. As an advisor, his professionalism and dedication to the field has been a constant source of motivation. He has provided me with a model to follow as I begin to forge my identity as an educator and researcher. Gracias por todo querido. My sincerest thanks to my committee members, who probably do not realize the impact they have had on this project and on my formation as a professional in this field. I am very thankful to Maria Mudrovcic for her support and availability throughout the years. Her professionalism and integrity as a professor and scholar has influenced the vision of the scholar I would like to become one day. I want to thank Helene Weldt-Basson for her invaluable professional and academic advice while she served as a Graduate Advisor and throughout the years. I also wish to thank David Wheat for teaching me to see the Caribbean beyond its Hispanic origins. The various insights that I gained in his class opened my eyes to different ways of looking at Latin American history. I must express my gratitude to the faculty members in the Department of Roman and Classical Studies who taught me invaluable classroom lessons: Joseba Gabilondo, Anthony Grubbs, Nancy Marino, and Rocio Quispe-Agnoli. I also want to thank Victoria Reynaga and v! Walter Hopkins who do an amazing job as Graduate Secretary and Assistant Director of the Spanish Language Program respectively. Thank you for your availability and openness to help at all times. Oscar Linares, thank you for being a source of constant support all these years, and for doing the dishes all those nights when I was writing. Ángel Álvarez, thank you for telling me one day to go ahead with “this school thing,” and for seeing in me what I did not at the time. Kate Caccavaio, thank you for your reading and incisive comments on the original manuscript. Any errors that remain in this work are entirely attributed to my negligence. Finally, to the people with whom I have forged friendships that have transcended the boundaries of academia and who made the journey more enjoyable: Marina Cuzovic, Alejandro González, Cristina González, Bernie Issa, Astrid Román Hernández, Amy Swiderski, and Andrew Wrobel. I am grateful to have met you. Thank you for being an example of friendship, for your encouragement, the countless coffees, the beers, and the laughs. vi! TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………………………………. 1 National Disidentification in Contemporary Puerto Rican and Dominican Narratives of Migration ....................................................................................................................................... 1 NOTES ........................................................................................................................................ 43 CHAPTER ONE ………………………………………………………………………….….… 46 Carving Identities in Writing: The Migrant Jíbara, Gastronomy, Class, and Encounter with the United States in Esmeralda Santiago’s When I Was Puerto Rican (1993) .................................. 46 NOTES ......................................................................................................................................... 93 CHAPTER TWO …………………………………………………………………………….… 96 Etching Identities in Alien Turfs: Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality in Piri Thomas’ Down These Mean Streets (1967) ........................................................................................................... 96 NOTES ....................................................................................................................................... 135 CHAPTER THREE ………………………………………………………………………...… 138 (Re)Assembling Home in the Diaspora: Gendered Returns, Religion, and Patriarchy in Loida Maritza Pérez’s Geographies of Home (1999) .......................................................................... 138 NOTES ...................................................................................................................................... 183 CHAPTER FOUR …………………………………..………………………………………… 185 Fictionalizing History: Comic Books, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and the (Re) Articulation of the Past in Junot Díaz’s The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) ..............................................185 NOTES ....................................................................................................................................... 236 AFTERWORD …………………………………..………………………………………….… 240 National Identification in Disidentification Processes ............................................................... 240 WORKS CITED ........................................................................................................................ 265 7! vii INTRODUCTION National Disidentification in Contemporary Puerto Rican and Dominican Narratives of Migration On April 20, 1992, as part of the welcome remarks at the Segundo Encuentro de Escritores Puertorriqueños de Puerto Rico y Nueva York, Puerto Rican writer Ana Lydia Vega briefly traced the historical, economic, social, and ideological aspects surrounding the mass migration of Puerto Ricans
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