Public service announcement:
A few years ago (in 2016), I met someone who—quite politely—while making conversation, asked me a few questions that were a tad… insensitive.
I’ve had similar experiences ever since I moved to the mainland, as I am sure many Puerto Ricans have. To be fair, these questions are almost never mean-spirited, but as the proverbial drops keep hitting the rock, oh well…
As a consequence of these experiences, I have compiled the answers to several FAQs some people ask when meeting me.
Can you figure out the questions? (As I have said many times before, I have the humor of a six year old. I just imagined myself asking the question above using Dora the Explorer’s cadence… ).
Anyway, here we go:
*Yes, I am Puerto Rican. No, my looks are not uncommon in PR. Yes, my ancestry is actually Puerto Rican. Yes, they are blue. Puerto Ricans come in all colors.
*American Citizen. Since birth, as all Puerto Ricans are; just like Texans, Alaskans, New Yorkers, etc. PR has been a US territory since 1898 and since 1917 every Puerto Rican is born a U.S. citizen.
*Yes, I got my education all the way up to my master’s degree in Puerto Rico. Yes, there are doctoral programs in PR, very good ones too. I simply chose to come to the mainland.
*Why yes, my PR education was perfectly adequate to prepare me for graduate school in the mainland (If you must know, I earned a Cornell PhD…).
*Yes, Spanish is my first language. No, English is not a language barrier for me; I am fully bilingual. Graduate school in the US mainland would have been quite difficult for me if I did not have at least a working command of English, don’t you think?
(Here I must give a shout out to people from all over the world who leave their homeland to pursue the dream of better work, better education, a better life for their families, etc. I’ve met many, and I mean many people like that, and I deeply admire them. Not many of us have the courage to do that. That takes character, and historically, it is what made our country great).
Moving on…
*No, It is not difficult for me to teach in English (Yes, I’ve been asked this question).
*Why yes, I have an accent. Guess what? So do you!
*Yes, I am a published scientist with an active research group. At this point of my career, I have authored more than two dozen papers/technical book chapters, three books, a few in the way, and a few more goodies at various stages of development.
*Yes, in English.
*Yes, I “go back home” often. Actually, I go home every day. My home is in Pennsylvania, where my wife and kids are, and also where my house (and my mortgage, my taxes, etc.) happen to be.
😊
This is my “Really?” face:
How about you? What questions would you include in your FAQs?
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So many familiar questions 🙂 Although I could add a couple of common questions I get: “how do you like America?”, and “I know another person from your old country, do you know them?”
Absolutely! (:-)