When I Was Puerto Rican

19 Pages 4765 Words

vironment was available to Negi and she was able to take advantage of it.



One can say she lived in poverty and was at risk to become one of the women in her community that remained in Macun all her life, raised a family, and took care of the household. However, examining the way her and Papi exchanged conversation this family seemed unique. She would ask him questions about religion, death, or politics and he was very good at answering her questions without just giving her a simple answer to quiet her. One got the sense of Papi being a quiet and humble man who was in and out a lot without a mention of where he was going. He read very often and brought books, magazines, and newspapers into the home. He seemed a smart man and Negi inherited that trait. She liked to read and write, she was a hard worker in school, and liked to go through her father’s readings that he left lying around. This type of intellectual curiosity was a strong base for Negi to start to grow and develop mentally. She started to gain different views of the world.
Psychologically Negi was a stable child and showed resiliency in her community despite the assumption of her role to become senorita and follow in the other women’s footsteps. Garmezy (1993) explains that there are three factors that protect children from infancy to childhood in high-risk settings (high-risk here meaning surrendering to the cultural norm), one of the factors is “affectional ties within the family that provide emotional support in times of stress, whether from a parent, sibling, spouse, or mate…” (p.132). Whenever Negi was uncertain about something she would ask her father. When she was sad or depressed she would look to her mother for comfort. Negi was given emotional support which is crucial to development. It is important for a child to feel comfortable in the home and to be able to express their concerns or day’s events with a family member. Negi felt com...