In the second part of Jamaica Kincaid’s novel “A Small Place” she
explains the political history of Antigua. She explains that Antigua was a
colony of England during a lot period of time, but they finally were able to
obtain their independence. The author explains how the English came to the
little island and tried to impose their culture and their way of being. To do such
thing they abused of the locals, mostly black people, because they thought
their way was the only way, because they “thought” they were doing the right
thing, that they were making a better environment for the locals. As JamaicaKincaid expresses herself, describing all the horrible things the colonizing we
can really feel her anger towards them, because of the abuse and discrimination
of the people that really belonged to Antigua, the men and women who suffered
from the bad treatments of the English.
Jamaica Kincaid feels very attached to her people, the people of
Antigua, because they have suffered and still suffer discrimination and disdain
from the English un the colonization era and from the tourists that feel like
they are superior, because of nationality, color, race, and many other factors
that unfortunately are wrongly used to discriminate. The author identifies with the Antiguans,
because she has lived discrimination too.
If we compare Puerto Rico’s scenario is not that very different. Puerto
Rico is a country that was colonized by Spain and was forced to adopt their
language and religion. The Indians that inhabited the island when they “discovered”
Puerto Rico, The Tainos, were also abused, mistreated, and were terminated.
Puerto Rico and Antigua were both colonized and changed to what, in the heads
of the colonizers, was the only correct way. The difference is that the Indians
were terminated completely, so Puerto Ricans in the society of today don’t feel
that attached to the Indians as Jamaica Kincaid feels about the Antiguans.
Another difference in Puerto Rico is that we are still, in some way, a colony.
We are part of the United States, we are the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
It is interesting how you compare their history to ours, Not many people know the history of Puerto Rico and that we have a mixture of three races due to the colonization of Puerto Rico and slavery. Yet we do not use it as an excuse to become a victim, it is part of our history.
ReplyDeleteMore so than the treatment is the sudden imposition of a whole new culture completely disregarding their true customs and beliefs, as if it meant nothing. I think that is where most of her anger stems from and rightfully so. The important thing now is to make her island a better place that glorifies their own culture.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with Gabriel, I believe that history says alot about who we were but not about who we are. We are in an ever changing time and I cannot asume a country is either good or bad because of its past. Time changes, people change and thus so does the future and hence so does the past.
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