Rosales1 Adrián Rosales Gamboa Professor López LM-1481 Intercultural Communication 03 April 2014 Did Actually Happen? The following reaction paper is based on the novel Limón Blues written by Anacristina Rossi who tells a story about the struggle faced by the Afro Costa Rican community to be accepted in our country; the story provides a view of the constant violations of human rights related to work permits, owning the land, freedom of transit within the country, access to education, the freedom of believing in other religions than Catholicism, among others rights that currently are taken for granted. The story also narrates the interracial love between Afro Costa Ricans and “white” Costa Ricans, Afro Costa Ricans and AngloSaxon people; thus this story is linked to each other by the Afro movement held in the twentieth century to grant rights not only to the Afro Costa Rican community, but also to the Afro community all over the world. By the end of the book, we may sympathy ourselves with the Afro community with the constant fight for validating their citizenship as members of a specific culture, in this case, Costa Rican. I think that the story explains very widely the sufferings of the Afro Costa Rican community to be accepted as Costa Rican even when they lived here, worked her and invested in the community. Despite all those efforts they were still considered as “animals” instead of people by the so called “white” people from the central valley of Costa Rica all due to the color of their skin. A good quote that exemplifies the denial of the Afro Costa Rican culture says: “Si quieren vivir en San José tiene que naturalizarse. La nacionalidad costarricense será tu única defensa cuando no te dejen entrar a un cine o subirte a un autobús, o cuando alguien te insulte en la calle. En esta época de nacionalismos, al que no tenga un estado bajo el cual ampararse le puede ir muy mal” (Rossi 401). The above quote demonstrate who the Afro community was required to be official citizens in order to live their lives with no complications due to their color. However, as it was pointed out in the novel, getting Rosales2 the citizenship was no easy task because their files may not be reviewed, or they would be sent to the bottom of the pile of requests again all due to their color. Moreover, I was shocked while reading the novel to see how the Afro community was constantly asked to abandon their customs and traditions since they were considered as pagan; this scenario made me think about the hate crimes we hear about in the news nowadays against the LGTB community, muslins and immigrants to name a few, where they are all asked to leave their beliefs behind and to accept the mainstream idea of what culture is. The next quote highlights this rhetoric from the XX century for leaving the personal beliefs and customs behind in order to be accepted: “The question is: ¿queremos o no ser ciudadanos costarricenses? Para naturalizarnos nos exigen que dejemos ser como somos y nos pongamos a ser como ellos” (Rossi 346). It just makes me think, how come some people are obligated to change at the extent of others; how some cultures have the wrong impression that their culture is above others; but the worst part would be, how come no one from the mainstream raises the flag and says “hey! We are under a clear violation of human rights.” What comes to mind is that mainstream equals to being passive and cold blooded. Another point that stroke me was the lack of social and labor legislation in favor of the Afro community to enjoy holidays which nowadays we may take for granted. Despite the fact that our Labor Legislation (1940s) contemplates the rights from the workers and the duties from the employers towards their subordinates, some of us did not have a clear understanding of what certain cultures suffered. ... tomaremos feriado el 1 de agosto ... Look man, todas las demás comunidades tienen libres su día nacional: los yanquis disparan cañonazos desde su buque de guerra el 4 de julio... los pañas se disfrazan y bailan borrachos el quince de septiembre ... y a nosotros las compañías aliadas nos hacen trabajar el día de nuestra independencia. ¿Acaso somos animales? (Rossi 70) Rosales3 The fore mentioned paragraph stands out how retro our culture was back then even when we called ourselves “La Suiza Centroamericana”; I consider it as a foreshadowing of what for some people may be a Costa Rican feature today having double standards. Throughout the novel you will be able to acknowledge a non-very known reality of our origins as a culture; you perhaps may ended up identifying yourself with a minority group that suffered an eradication of their heritage; a group of fellow citizens that were not considered as citizens due to the color of their skin, or the way they behave; a group of friends that did not have the same rights as we do now. This novel brings an opportunity to actually think about the past and analyze if we want history to repeat itself, or to actually take a stand and make a 180 degrees change in acceptance of differences and suppression of any type of discrimination.
