Puerto Rican Obituary

Chicano Studies 135

March 23, 2011

Puerto Rican Obituary

History and society has painted a picture where Spanish speaking peoples have been unjustly thrown into a category that labels them as uneducated, lazy, and worthy of separation into the lower class. They don’t fit here in America yet they don’t fit at home, wherever that may be. They are outsiders even to the outsiders.

Pedro Petri illustrated how, in this case the Puerto Ricans, spent their whole lives unsatisfied with the social promises of the American Dream. He describes them as being hard workers, but only being paid for half a day’s work. They came to America for an opportunity to escape from poverty or from a hard life into a slightly easier one. What they found was just as difficult, if not more so, because of the injustices they suffered and because coming to America made them realize how much is available yet how unattainable it is.

Throughout the poem, Petri writes about five personajes who each lived their lives focused on what they didn’t have. They each envied what the others had and begrudged their days of hard work because it never seemed to get them anywhere. Petri writes “All died yesterday and will die again today”. I interpret this to mean that they have lost their souls because they have forgotten what is important. They feel that their journey to America was for nothing because they still suffer in the country where the streets are made of dreams that come true. He goes on to describe that they also spend their lives waiting for extraordinary miracles to happen, such as winning the lottery. It does not occur to them to take the initiative to seek the opportunities that America has to offer. I believe that they must think that it is better to accept the way things are because it will always be better than living in Puerto Rico. They let their lives pass them by dreaming of what could have been and what they could have had. While they are dreaming,...