Post twelfth- Reflection about the panel “Immigration and Puerto Rico Today” supervised by Prof. Petra Avillán.

The Department of English from University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras Campus at the College of General Studies offered for two days March 25th and 26th 2014 an interdisciplinary activity called “Student Interventions in General Studies: Interdisciplinary Projects and Creative Initiatives”.  I attended to the activity both days. Therefore, I am going to talk about the first panel I attended in the second day. In the second day I attended to the conference panel “Immigration and Puerto Rico Today” supervised by Prof. Petra Avillán. This panel was really awesome and I consider that was one of the best panels.

In this discussion panel three girls: Heilymar, Carolina Calderon and Emily Matos discussed the immigration topic and the different problems that immigrant have confronted when they arrive to a foreign country. Two of them, Calderon and Matos, talked about their own experiences as immigrants. They are Dominicans and they expressed how difficult is for immigrants leave their country to start a new life in a foreign country. Both panelists talked about how hard are leave their own country and come to a new country. She expressed that the concept of difference when she arrive to a new country is seen in their accent and their physical appearance. This automatically makes me think in the identity concept discussed by Peter Roberts in his essay The Roots of Caribbean Identity: Language, Race and Ecology, in which Roberts clearly describe how the accent, the language and the physical appearance can shape the identity of each human. Definitively, the panelist discussed very well the immigration problem present in the world. I quote both panelists, Calderon and Matos, who said: “It is not a horror story or a fable. It is the reality that is happening around the world”.

In addition both panelists emphasized the topic of the immigrant’s discrimination as a general perception in the world. They exposed the Diasporas between different nationalities. Also the panelists clearly showed how Dominicans, Puerto Ricans and Americans discriminate Haitians, Dominicans and Mexicans respectively. They clearly exposed how the xenophobia is present in the society and how hard it is for the immigrants. Even one of the panelists expressed a situation in which she lived a xenophobia situation in a modeling contest. I really enjoyed this conference because it allowed reflecting about the xenophobia and how sometimes during student's travels I have felt as an immigrant in the United States of America (USA), despite the fact that we (Puerto Ricans) are USA citizens.  

As an overall perception I think that this panel was very useful because it brings to the reader an important message about the immigration. In addition I think that this topic is very related with our English course, Journey in Literature, in which we discuss the identity and the othering concept. I could identify that the immigration topic is very linked with the othering and the identity concept in the fact that these concepts try to define a person. For example most of the immigrants feel identified with the discrimination concept that comes from the part of the native people who perceives the immigrant as the “other” and this represent the othering concept. That othering concept is absolutely exposed in the immigration topic with the point of difference. Definitively, this panel is very useful and important because the panelists bring the message that the discrimination problems and xenophobia need to be resolved. I would like to finish this reflection quoting one of the panelists who said: “It is not important if we are different because we all are humans”.