Influences on Perception

Some notice an old woman first, and others a young lady.

When someone thinks about the word and concept of perception the concept of relativity may come to mind. This is so because the perception of something may differ between individuals. This difference is caused by multiple influences such as culture, age, gender, life experiences and situations, among others. 

The first aspect that would affect and influence my perception would be the fact that I’m a woman. Somehow being a woman gives you certain qualities that will affect the way you observe. In my case, I quickly observe the neatness and how well the object, idea or subject portrays itself.  Also have a tendency to have empathy with others. Another factor would be my age. With only 20 years of age I might not have the enough “reason” or urge to acknowledge nature and life to the fullest. Each year that passes, the normal human being realizes more of what life is really about and focuses more on living in to the fullest.  Older people, who have much more experience in years, are able to acknowledge life and the shortness of it. Depending on the age a person has their priorities will vary and affect the way the perceive things. With this we get to the combination of age and health; fatal combination. Because physically I’m probably in my best years, I will see things with less risk and physical harm. While a person with 50 years old might see a roller coaster as an invitation for dizziness, I on the other hand see it as an adventure. 

Another factor would be my bachelor’s concentration on operations management.  Because of the studies and emphasize on business I’m prone to focus on more administrative details other than arquitectural or biology details.  The details I give much more emphasize are those that have to do with my concentration. For example, everywhere I go the organization and processes taken to accomplish a certain task or service take a huge part of the analysis my brain makes. Therefore when it comes to perceiving something, my perceptions go straight to tactical and practical elements.

Then come the experiences in life. If you are old doesn’t mean you have all the experience in the world, you’ve had more time to experience different situations, but that not necessarily have experience them all. And maybe, a younger person has had some experiences you have not had yet. In the past six months my family and I have had two assaults. The first one was in October when a thief entered my house, meanwhile I was sleeping. When I woke up he was in the living room and instead of staying inside I confront him. Two months later my sister and father as the entered our house were point at with a gun. Thankfully nothing bad occurred. Yet these two incidents have affected the way we perceive things. We are much more aware of what’s happening in our surroundings.

Puerto Rican Flag

Another factor that will influence you way of perceiving is your culture. Culture takes a huge part of your identity and is probably the main element that forms your identity. In my case as a Puerto Rican the way of celebrating is throwing a huge party.

Another aspect would be also your biological formation. Focusing on the eyes only, people have different eye construction that affect the way they see. Take for example the famous blue/black or white/gold. The colors were not only affected by the light, the contrast, and the device from where you were looking but also the variation on the construction of the eye.  In conclusion each and everyone’s way to perceive things are different and unique.  

What Defines the Caribbean Identity?

In the introduction of The Roots of Caribbean Identity: Language, Race and Ecology, Peter Roberts he exposes some concepts that form part of the major concept of identity. He gives the attributes of nationality, language, gender, age and religion as attributes that help establish ones identity. "The notion of identity is based on the perception of sameness, consequently of difference."   To accomplish a sense of sameness, an individual will judge by the looks, sound, where was born and how it behaves. Therefore, the identity will be recognized and acknowledge through two important senses, sight and sound.  Components such as language, country, regions and culture affect the behavior of a person. With this we can conclude that the different variations and combinations of these components would create a series of different identities from which a person can identify with.

Some of the langurages around the world.

The most utilized component for dividing into identities would be language. After that, the country where a person is born together with nationality is probably the component that thrills a person the most. And with country follows culture and regions. Imagine living abroad, doing your habitual grocery shopping, when out of a sudden you hear from the cash register beside someone speaking your native language. You get very excited and go over and start talking. As the conversation develops you start asking questions in regard of their nationality, why they are living there, hell maybe you plan on meeting again. This is a perfect example of how language hoards a big part of the concept of identity. Depending on the situation, the restrictions a person put on language vary. For the example previously stated, the main character doing the grocery shopping was intrigued simply for the fact that his native language was been spoken. On the other hand if they were both locals the intrigue would come from the accents on the spoken language. Therefore, language can be subdivided into the speech, the word, the accent and the idiom structure. “Language establishes bonds and at the same time set them apart creating barriers. Yet the human being is not restricted to the use of one single language. So it’s an individual decision on creating bridges in communications.”

Applying these notions to understand the Caribbean identity

There are different theories of which countries pertain to the Caribbean. Taking as reference what the Caribbean site says about the countries that are considered as part of the Caribbean, we could not apply in a wholesome matter the language theory.  Many countries that are part of the Caribbean do not speak the same language, even dialects. The Caribbean identity would be more directed towards the spirit of the people, there climate, geographical, and demographic similarities rather than on language. Maybe because of the climate, but the Caribbean people tend to have an optimistic and happy spirit mix with hospitality. Another factor that may be affected by climate would be the type of cloth worn. 

 

Therefore we can conclude that Caribbean Identity does not have to do with the language spoken, but more with the similarities between them that include climate, geography, and especially the spirit of the people. Where you feel more at home and relax, that there is your identity.

English: US or UK?

Puerto Rico is US territory since 1898.  In the beginning of this era many people tried to establish English as its first language. Some of the strategies taken towards that goal was establishing English as a compulsory course in all public school. If you think of from an independent point of view you would think that it is unjust and a way to assimilate the puertorrican into an others culture. Yet if you see it form a statehood point of view then you're probably in favor of that decision. From an objective point of view, even though it was a measure to absorb a culture, it does indeed benefit the society and the people within it.  It is up to the people in the society to have the ability to make the differentiation between both cultures.


In a study made comparing English spoken in Puerto Rico and Malta and whether to which country did they had more similarities with the U.S. or U.K. the results were that Puerto Rico had more similarities with the English spoken in the U.S. while Malta had more similarities with the English spoken in the U.K. Apart from being a logical conclusion based on geographical terms, it was interesting observing that the difference between the English spoken in the U.S. and U.K. is much wider than the difference between the English spoken in Malta and Puerto Rico.


How could this be?


Well, Puerto Rico has more influence from the U.S. culture, because of their relation plus their geographical positions. The same happens with Malta and the U.K. The reason why the difference between the English spoken in Malta and Puerto Rico is less the the English spoken in U.S. and U.K. is due to the background and origin language. Spanish, spoken in Puerto Rico, and Italian spoken in Malta both derive from Latin and are both romance language. Therefore it is understandable, and the  research confirms it, that there is more similarity between the English spoken in Malta and Puerto Rico than the similarities between the English spoken in U.S. and U.K.

Losing Purpose: Reflection on Running Brave

Running Brave

Last week in our English class we saw a movie called "Running Brave". In this movie the protagonist, Billy Mills, is long distance Indian runner, yet half Indian, half white.  It portrays the internal and external journeys of the runner whose dream is to reach the Olympics.


In the beginning of the movie we can appreciate Billy's life in the reservation. Over there, what is his home till that point, he feels comfort and a peace.  With his father by his side to shown him how to follow his heart and Frank to show him what to do with his feet Billy finds the strength to run.  His first internal journey was shown through the death of his father. He was now left alone to face the world and chase his dreams without his father support. Yet he had one thought that never left his mind, and it was the ‘want’ to live among the white, as his father once said he should even though it was going to be hard.  Maybe this is why, when the opportunity arisen he showed his ability to the coach of Kansas University.

Then the next journey began, the one that involve leaving what he knew to chase his dream; live among the white and head for the Olympics. Once in Kansas, Billy noticed the looks, the difference in treatment towards him and the way many ‘white’ men want to benefit from him and don’t care about him, like the insurance seller and how he perceives his coach. Some scenes that may exemplify the differentiation are the following: when he introduces himself to his roommate Denise, the questions the press asks him, the way he wasn’t permitted in the fraternity, and the way the national team coach had zero faith in him at the last run. Even the Coach of KU was not pleased when he first saw he was an Indian. Worse, the Coach even though gave Billy the opportunity of being in KU, he still wasn’t convinced that Billy would last and make it to the big league. Yet he kept coaching and pushing Billy to run, but always with ambiguous tone.  I never quite understood the real feeling of the coach towards Billy. Sometimes, his tone could have been taken as despiteful or as in ungrateful or unsatisfied with Billy’s performance, race and way of being.  Yet when he was left alone you could noticed how he knew Billy was indeed a good runner and maybe felt doubtful about the way he was treating him.

As time passed, and Billy got more and more submerged in the ‘white’ society, one could see how, little by little, he was bloating.  The differentiation of treatment, the comments, and the prejudice and the scene where his family came to visit and showed rejection toward his new adopted life, brought him to doubt his own beliefs and dreams. He no longer understood why he was running nor why was he going through all those obstacles. He felt without purpose. As he lost purpose he began to lose; finally he broke by yelling to his coach “I don’t know what wining means. Hell I don’t know what running is anymore.” In this conversation Billy admits he is facing through a difficult moment where he needs a break and decides to go back to the reservation.

The same way the rejection from his family towards his new adopted life brought him to explode, that same way Franks death and the little Indian boy’s admiration toward Billy, brought back purpose to his life, running. He understood that running wasn’t only to win but he represented the dreams and goals of many in the reservation. He some way brought hope to the reservation. Even though some of the Indian had some sort of rancor towards Billy, it was mix with pride.

From left to right: Real life Billy Mills and actor Robby Benson (played as Billy Mills in Running Brave)

My Identity

My name is Andrea Castro, born and raised in Puerto Rico. My parents decided to enroll my sister and I at a bilingual academy (Wesleyan Academy) so that we could learn and be able to speak English fluently and without stress, or at least not the same level of stress as the one they had when they spoke English. From a very young age, four years old, we started our journey with the English language. Exposed to it constantly, practically eight hours a day without including the exposure outside the school, the words and sound began to stick in our minds. My sister has always shown more ability and dominance over the language than I.  I've always been able to read and understand English perfectly, but when it comes to speaking the language I get really nervous and forget the words I’m supposed to say.  But thankfully I’m aware and been able to focus and work on that. So yes, we could say that English has been one of the my internal journeys.

Another journey started in the summer of 2004. For the summer I didn't want to stay at my house nor did I want to go from house to house just watching movies and doing nothing, so I decided that I wanted to be enrolled at a camp.  One afternoon in the entry to the school a guy was giving out some flyers that said "FRAIGCOMAR", which is a famous and excellent soccer club here in Puerto Rico.  When I took the flyer in my hand I automatically said to my mom that I wanted to go to that camp. That summer I fell in love of the sport, soccer, my beloved 'futbol'.  Ever since then I've played soccer in many teams as a defender and taking on other responsibilities such as captain.

Captain and president of the class would be two of the most interesting and demanding leadership position I've had.  Through these periods, which actually intertwine, with the added bonus of playing for two or three times at a time was challenging.  Some days I left home at 6 a never got back till 10pm, with a day fill with classes, at least a practice and a game, and i got home to study for the next day.  Even though it sound like a lot, those days I can truly say that were the best. Though those position I was able to learn things that you don't normally learn at that age. For example in the presidency position I had to work and communicate constantly with the parents of my fellow companions, and must say that the were a hand full alright. Those positions also helped me chose the career I'm studying now. All the organization and planning little by little enchanted me and I ended up in the faculty of Business.

These two journey describe above have had a significant impact in my life. They have shaped, together with the teachings and beliefs of my family, the person I am today. Through those times of hard work, patience, no sleep, discussions and more, y learned that I was a person that looked for the best way to solve the problem I was facing. Learned that one can't take a problem and sink under the water with stress, anxiety nor depression, but that one must learn how to float/work with it the best you can.

External

I have a dream and that is to visit as many countries I can in my life. Until now the most visited country has been United States. Many family members have moved over there first to study later it became something permanent. I've gone to Atlanta and Savannah,Georgia at least six times, which we also visited by car to Orlando, Florida and South Carolina and Minnesota. Also have visited two times Dallas, San Antonio, Houston and Austin, Texas. Outside of U.S. I visited Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and some of the Caribbean Islands. This summer me and my family hope to visit Spain, France and Italy. And this is for sure, on July I'll go to Paraguay and Argentina for some workshops.

In the occasional trips to Atlanta, Georgia or Dallas, Texas to visit our family the language became more familiar and useful in our lives. On average, every two years we take a trip to visit our family leaving abroad. The summer of 2010, summer of celebration for the FIFA World Cup held in South Africa, we planned on helping my aunt and uncle move from Atlanta, Georgia to Dallas, Texas. It was a huge event because it wasn’t just help them pack and unpack their stuff in the different cities, but that we, and by we I mean my mother, father, sister and me plus my cousin, aunt and uncle , would drive (by car) for sixteen hours to get to Dallas. Yes, seven people in a Minivan for sixteen hours. Sure we stop a various places and stayed for the night at an Inn, but still it was a very… interesting trip.  We passed through Alabama, Mississippi and Lousiana each very, very different from one another.  I remember like yesterday when we stopped at a gas station in Mississippi and my sister and aunt stepped out of the car and went to buy some munchies and pay for gas. They were heading toward the line normally and naturally and out of a sudden my sister realized that there were two lines and that, for any reason, one was all with white people and the other was with black people.  My sister and aunt looked at each other and stayed in awe. First it was choking to see the division so clearly. Division that they were not accustomed.  Second they didn’t know where they were supposed to line up after, was it the black or the white? Would it make any difference or have some sort of repercussion if they chose wrong? Finally they chose the white line, but not because of the fact of “white” but because the line was shorter.

This short story opened my eyes to a reality that I had only seen in movies and in rare but very disguise situations. It made me acknowledge the social behaviors I had acquired from the customs and traditions from Puerto Rico, my family.  My identity it’s not defined by the color of my skin, nor the language I speak, nor the position I've held, yes that does influence, give it a direction or impact the identity, but my identity is defined by the values I have, the things that I believe are true and the way I am. Therefore part of my identity involves doing the best in everything, caring of others other than yourself, and having faith.