Blog #4

As an immigrant, I have always thought of myself as a Jamaican first.  When I first arrived the simplest things seemed incredibly odd.  Something as ordinary as drinking orange juice for breakfast was unusual.  As a British descendent, we drink tea, like the Queen.  Cold substances are thought to give you stomach aches so early in the morning.  In general, I ascribed and still prefer my own Jamaican culture first and foremost.  I am of course very biased towards my own culture which I suppose is the entire point of Anderson’s chapter on Creole Pioneers.  He discusses the struggle of how and what criteria people should use to define their existence.  Once they have done so, the next question is to incorporate the various restriction imposed on our identities by our social environment.

He mentioned if the father was not in Spain when the child was born, he would be considered creole.  Even though in truth he may well be otherwise indistinguishable from a regular privileged Spanish born child.  Anderson said, “Yet how irrational his exclusion must have seemed.”  I agree.  To be excluded from an ancestry that one’s birth, station and patriarchy tells you is yours based on your father’s location.  It seems ridiculous from my own perspective. I couldn’t imagine how incredibly illogical it must have seemed to those men who lived during that time.  It is safe to say, for the amount of emphasis given to one’s birthplace, other people who were fortunate enough did not easily forgive this oversight.