“Like I said, man, you can be a nigger if you want to,
This argument resonated with me because I often have a very similar one with my mother. We are Dominican, and I am black, but she has always denied being black, and probably always will. I get Piri; it hurts.
The funny thing ts, and you hear people say this all the time, but it's true, | never knew we were poor. | just thought that's how everybody was.
This statement immediately gave me a bittersweet feeling. I believe the feeling is shared widely by people that grew up in poverty. I know it definitely applies for myself. We are often too caught up in the trials of childhood to notice what ends aren't meeting. I think it's beautiful that even children in poverty can just be kids, unburdened by the difficulties of financial stability (although I am aware that not all children living in poverty hold that luxury).
Ves, it is nice here in a way. It is nice if you are young and 182 Grandma, Please Don’t Come! 183 willing and able to go down five flights of stairs two or three times a day. If you can “take it” in a crowded subway where you are squeezed in tight twice a day as if you were a cork in a bottle. It is all right in a way—and remember-—I only say in a way —for young strong people. We come to New York young and leave old and tired. All the fun and joy of life extracted from us by the hurry-up machine way of living we are forced to live here.
This description of New York reminds me a lot of the song "America" from West Side Story. It seems like our narrator is on the men's side of this argument. After further research I've learned that Colon published this around 1961, which is the same year West Side Story came out. I am not surprised he shares a similar sentiment with the characters in the movie. I have attached a link of a fun "supercut" of the song, with visuals/music from both the 1961 version and the 2021 version. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0jVQT0Brzw
Why don’t you talk United States?” Or even threaten you with a beating because you are speaking Spanish.
It's very disheartening to realize that this is still true in 2023.
rivulet
I looked up the definition; it is a "very small stream"