Michael’s Autobiography

My name is Michael Pérez and I’m a CUNY BA student of Bilingualism. I decided on the Macaulay Honors College because I felt it was the best fit for me. Not only was it free, but also unlike the other the universities that accepted me, I felt that CUNY was the only one that wanted me. People and the way they interact with each other interests me dearly and is a key component of my concentration as it is through language that they make themselves as the rest of the world will see them. The migration of people to, from, and with-in Brooklyn represents the creation of multi-cultural and consequently multi-lingual spaces where bilingualism is a strong force of either assimilation or ascension and I feel this class will enlighten me on this phenomena. Through studying bilingualism I hope to be able to travel teaching ESL at high levels, reform bilingual educational policies, use my observations to publish academic papers on code-switching, second language acquisition, and ESL methodology, and mostly promote multilingualism and cultural pluralism.
As a Puerto Rican raised on the island and not NYC, my knowledge of migrant experiences is limited to the historical migrations of Western Puerto Ricans in the 1950s and my own migration in search of higher education. However I will begin with the historical as one could say the ramifications had some inspiration for my choice of concentration.
As a result of the mass industrialization of many parts of Puerto Rico per the Mano a la Obra act, many of the towns began to centre around their neighbouring factory. This coupled with the continued monopolization of the sugar cane harvesting and processing excluded a good number of individuals from jobs paying liveable wages or any job at all. Spurred by the dreams of success in America, many Puerto Ricans left to join the ever-increasing immigrant work force in the US. Unfortunately NYC was not prepared for this influx of nonfluent population and couldn’t deny them because the Jones act a decade earlier granted them American citizenship. So the situation was that NYC was then flooded by a non-English speaking populace and had neither the structure nor the services in place to provide appropriate bilingual education, bilingual legal dissemination, or any necessary bilingual mode of assimilation. This led the Puerto Ricans to isolate themselves and begin to raise crime rates all around NYC in a desperate attempt to escape not only poverty, but also the racist hate of all the groups that could not understand them. For them and for those who experience what the Puerto Rican experienced I study Bilingualism. To be able to prevent and educate before the established power structures trap them in a substandard, disadvantaged linguistic, social, political, and/or economic position. Comparatively my migration was much, much easier due to the excellent assimilation, indoctrinatory education I received.
When I came to this country I was an any American until I said where I was from, then I started getting the “oh, you do have an accent!” When frankly I find absurd given my migratory past. I was born in Manhattan to a starting CPA and a Sales analyst turned stay-at-home mom. I left at the age of 2, still unable to speak. It was not until I was in Surrey, England after a brief stint in Puerto Rico that at the age of 3 ½ I spoke my first Spanish words. However, whatever Spanish I had mastered at that point was destroyed by the ESL I was given as a child in school and by my parents, effectively pushing Spanish outside of my repertoire. At the age of 7, I moved to Florida were this continued yet was not so repressive because of my frequent trips back to the island. Unfortunately though, it was too late and an ingrained hate or rather distaste for the language was instilled by embarrassment (which I must admit still persists today depending on the situation). On the other hand, by age 12 I was back in Puerto Rico and it was only a matter of time before I accepted my roots and have grown to cherish and display them adamantly. Thus I do not appreciate the “accent” because I am sure that whatever that person is picking up is not actually something the hear but rather the sound of an assumption that they hold to what Latins should sound like, though to Latins I sound like no one. In the Latin community at my kitchen that is predominately Mexican, I am implacable and if anything put with the argentines or Americans because of my accent or my blue eyes. And this migration has not ended I am unrelenting in my desire to rediscover my Latin roots through the language, food, and people. My favourite place, however random this plug may seem, is tied between my ex-girlfriends wooden house in Culebra, PR, the curvy mountain roads of Puerto Rico, and Old San Juan. Culebra is my favourite place because it represents the untouched beauty and simplicity of Puerto Rican beauty and the purity of itself as an island. The Curvy mountain roads are great because they represent the seemingly endless expanse of awesome power and beauty of Puerto Rico though the island is actually very small. And thirdly, Old San Juan, because it represents fun, good times, party, and work since I worked the first job I loved there.
Below are links to pictures of the house, followed by links to pictures of mountains and a link to a picture of the bar I used to work at.
1. http://www.culebra-island.com/CulebraIsland/Places_to_Stay/Vacation%20Planners/singing_house/singing_house.htm
2. https://www.google.com/search?hl=es&safe=off&q=cordillera+central+puerto+rico&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&ion=1&biw=1536&bih=842&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=e6MwT_jgEeTk0QGL4rn1Bw
3. http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/jFKpl-LpFjRpmWSgU8o9bA?select=g-zQoWh1JlY5tGBkArKReA