Week 4: Cultural Event

This Thursday, I attended the presentation given by Puerto Rican-American hip-hop artist Lah Tere of the group Rebel Diaz. In her talk for the Introduction to Latino Studies class and the various visitors who joined the lecture, she told her story of growing up in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood, which she frequently referred to as “her hood” or “her barrio.” She called the telling of this story a healing experience, saying her passion came from the pain and the hurt she had experienced. As a child, she was lucky enough to grow up in a household with two parents who were active in the community, and their involvement in the ASPIRA program allowed her to stay off the streets through cultural activities and sports like swimming. However, the majority of other children were raised by single mothers who didn’t have the time or the resources to keep them off the streets. Fifteen of Lah Tere’s high school friends were killed in gang warfare; countless others were jailed, working in prostitution, or dealing drugs. Her own father dealt drugs to earn extra money while teaching and using the family house as a community center to support the Humboldt Park youth. His choices eventually caught up with him and his heroin addiction spiraled out of control. The family lost everything, and Lah Tere went to college homeless, with no other place to live.
All the while, music played a significant role in her life, with songs like Queen Latifah’s "U.N.I.T.Y." serving as her inspiration. Around the age of fourteen, she began singing with a youth salsa band. As their music grew in popularity, the group realized they had a voice that they could use to combat the racism, violence, and hatred happening within and directed toward Humboldt Park. When she moved to the South Bronx at the urging of a rapper she sang with, she discovered a barrio even tougher than the one where she grew up. Lah Tere continued to take an activist stance with her music with the hip-hop group Rebel Diaz. She spoke of the power of music, discussing the strong hip-hop culture and saying that hip-hop saved her life. She believes hip-hop has the power to create change because the beats draw people in, and people then start listening to the lyrics and the message. The overall themes of music and the importance of telling one’s story served as a unifying thread throughout her narrative.
Overall, I found this to be a gripping story, though at times difficult to listen to, and as someone who enjoys listening to and making music, I could identify with her attraction to music and her message about its power to enact social change. I occasionally felt as though she spoke rather harshly and critically about people born into privilege or those who didn’t speak Spanish, though I suppose her stance makes sense considering her background. However, her story was still an eye-opener and a good reminder that there are people all around who don’t necessarily have parents sending them money or a home to return to over school breaks.
Though Lah Tere’s story focused more on the experience of immigrants within the United States than the actual process of immigration (her parents came from Puerto Rico, and she is a first-generation American), she still discussed concepts applicable to class discussion. The main commonality that stood out to me was the difference between the American dream that immigrants envisioned and the difficult reality of living in the barrio. For example, before Lah Tere’s mother met her father, she married a blond Norwegian man because that was how she envisioned the American dream – marrying a “Ken,” someone who looked like Barbie’s boyfriend. However, the marriage failed, and she married Lah Tere’s father, a black Puerto Rican who often got stopped by police when out walking with the light-skinned daughters of his wife’s first marriage. Even though Lah Tere’s parents were working and involved in education reform, they still fell prey to the traps of the barrio. Her father, for example, became addicted to heroin while trying to deal with the shock of seeing a young boy shot and the realization that despite all the work he did for reform, the streets were still more powerful. When asked if she would advise other Puerto Ricans to immigrate to the U.S., Lah Tere answered that she would not, because despite the poverty and social difficulties in Puerto Rico, at least the Puerto Ricans had their roots and their families all around them. Even though her parents entered the U.S. legally, they and their children were still treated as inferiors. I found this discussion of the difference between the American dream and the realities of being an immigrant to be very relevant to why people cross the border and the realities they face if they make the crossing.

Lah Tere integrated spoken word poetry and videos of her music and the music that inspired her throughout her presentation. Here are two of the videos she showed:
Rebel Diaz's "Otro Guerrillero" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKO16GFwBOg
Queen Latifah's "U.N.I.T.Y." - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8cHxydDb7o