Matthew's Honors FYE Blog: Week 8: Make Your Home Among Strangers

Introduction

Make Your Home Among Strangers book cover (1)

Well, this week went a bit different🙃. We finally got to discuss the common read, "Make Your Home Among Strangers", assigned to all those who had FYE classes. On Wednesday, we didn't have an FYE class so that we can go to Jennine Crucet's Lecture at the Performing Arts Centre which turned out to be entertaining for me😂.

Class Discussion

Donato Dalrymple holds 6-year-old Elián González on April 22, 2000, as federal agents recover the boy from the home of his relatives in Miami (2)

Prior to our class on Monday, we had to read up to Chapter 18. We were handed an article from 2001 which recounts the Story of Gaspar Leiva who came to the U.S. from Cuba on a boat/raft with his kids, he's currently a Professor at Georgia Southern University. I'm really impressed that he managed to survive the journey with his kids. In class, we focused on some of the real life events that were reflected in the book- Elián González who is portrayed as Ariel Hernández in the book. I was the only one of my classmates who had knowledge of Elián's story, but what I didn't know was the manner in which he was taken. Dra. McGrath showed us some news footage (3) of the raid to capture Elián and deport him back to Cuba. If I were Elían, I would be traumatized😨. While there were many other kids who faced the same immigration issues as Elían, his immigration status was a national concern in the U.S. Maybe he was chosen by the Cuban-Americans to be their icon on Cuban migration to U.S. Similarly, he was also chosen to be Cuba's icon when he returned. My Caribbean Studies teacher in high school told my class that he would be at the front of Cuban parades and would be raised so everyone would see him. This boy's deportation also changed the outcome of the U.S. 2000 Presidential Elections. To me, it's sad that Elían was forced into being a puppet for the Cubans and Cuban-Americans in order to push their agenda.

In class we also talked about how Cuba was taught in schools- Cuba was painted in a negative light by American Schools whilst in my High School, we had a somewhat balanced view of Cuba. All in all, Monday's class discussion educated me on U.S.- Cuban relations.

Make Your Home Among Strangers

Author, Jennine Capó Crucet, holding her book (4)

This book reminds me of a generic Wattpad© story that was written by a teenage girl (and not in a good way). The book may also pose a difficulty to some readers for two reasons. Firstly, the dialogue isn't placed between apostrophes which makes it hard to distinguish who's speaking. Secondly, if you don't know simple Spanish then you wouldn't be able to understand the Spanish dialogue that some of the characters speak in. Luckily, I learnt Spanish in highschool, so I was able to understand most of the Spanish dialogue. However, the only well-written parts of the book were the parts that were unnecessary to the plot; I don't need to know what Lizet and Omar did in the backseat of his car, the floor, the couch ,bed and even the doorstep😐.

This is probably what I imagine Omar's car to look like (I won't advise you to sit in the back seat because it smells weird and has sticky stains.) (5)

The story is overly dramatic and ridiculous. The majority of Lizet's problems were caused by herself. She was the key reason why her parents divorced. She wasted her hard-earned money on a flight ticket to visit her ungrateful family for only two days during Thanksgiving. She attended a mandatory diversity ice-cream social where she was given handouts and pamphlets on tutoring and academic writing, yet she chose to ignore that and failed most of her courses and had a Hearing for Plagiarism in one of her writing papers🤦. Her boyfriend, Omar, doesn't understand her problems that well, but she continued to be in an unstable relationship with him for purely physical reasons until they eventually broke up. Lizet also lacks effective communication skills where she can't express her problems and feelings in a clear and concise manner. As a result, she destroyed her friendship with Ethan. Lizet is a person who gets easily upset and throws tantrums. Despite her academic achievements, Lizet is an utter pillock. She's a really unlikeable character. What I did enjoy in this book, were the themes and issues discussed - going to a new school, being a freshman, different values and beliefs, and imposter syndrome. I also liked the references and details to illustrate that the story is set in 1999-2000: Ariel Hernández, frequent use of TV, physical mail instead of email,inefficient flat irons, and the recounting of votes in Florida during the presidential elections between Bush and Al Gore. One theme that interested me was the Cuban Diaspora. In highschool, I learnt that a diaspora refers to a group of people who share common beliefs and cultures. A more simple explanation can be found in the movie, Thor: Ragnarok , where Odin says,"Asgard is not a place. It's a people". In the book, we learn some things about the Cuban Diaspora in America such as food, drinks, dances and Nochebuena. We learn that Lizet doesn't consider herself as a Cuban for most of the story until Ariel's issue. She practices a culture influenced by Cuban culture such as her meals, dancing in nightclubs in Miami and listening to Reggaeton. This part of the story made me reflect on myself; I don't consider myself to be a true Indian because my ancestors left India in the 1800's and I don't know that much about their culture despite my country's culture being influenced by India's. The only issue I have with the Cuban Diaspora's portrayal in the book, is the accuracy of the portrayal and does it truly reflect Cuban-American's values because readers will make general assumptions about Cuban-Americans based off of this book.

Jennine Crucet's Lecture at the Perfoming Arts Centre

Jennine Capó Crucet during the Q & A session of her lecture.

I guess this is probably one of the highlights of my week. The Performing Arts Centre (PAC) was so packed that some of us had to watch a projection of the livestream in another room. As the norm with most featured speakers, they usually tell their boring life story to the audience. After telling us her life story,she began to talk about representation on campus in terms of race and white privilege. She says this because she went to Cornell University where there was only one Latino Professor and the majority of students on campus were white and wealthy-she said many of their parents were lawyers.

Then it was time for the Q and A session where the drama began😂. Basically, a whole debate about white privilege was sparked by a girl asking Crucet about her authority and qualifications to talk about white privilege. There were lots of uproar and laughter.

I felt that she spoke with a condescending tone towards the white audience , especially when making generalizations about them in regards to white privilege. I do believe that white privilege exists through systematic inequality and common beliefs, but white privilege does not exist to the extent that she described , because some white people live in trailer parks, work minimum wage jobs and live in a cycle of poverty-their privilege isn't significant.

I also don't agree with the belief that a University should reserve teaching jobs for people solely on their race. If it were based on race and qualifications, then I would agree. I don't take much consideration to my professor's race. Out of the six professors that I currently have, five are white Americans while one is Chinese. I currently have no professors that are of Indian descent. The only friends of Indian descent that I have on Campus are two girls who are also from my country. That information doesn't bother me. Despite being a minority, I don't feel depressed or face negative effects. I can't relate to Crucet's or Lizet's experiences as a minority in College. Maybe I'm also privileged or ignorant of social stratification in America in order to relate Crucet's beliefs.

The aftermath of the Q and A was somewhat chaotic. Some frustrated students felt the need to burn the book ( that they paid for) because of the author's belief. Obviously, a simple one on one discussion with the author would have resolved the issue. Ironically, by burning the book and facing no repercussions/punishment, demonstrated that they have white privilege 💁‍♀️.

What was really shocking and heartbreaking to me was that the Crucet had to be moved to a different hotel after people were threatening her at the hotel she was staying in. It's sad that she had to experience this incident which doesn't reflect Georgia Southern's way of dealing with different viewpoints.

Final Thoughts

Just a few Articles from a Google search about the whole incident.

The book aimed to help every freshman relate to moving to college as well as understanding how some minorities feel. The Q and A session was a wasted opportunity for students who have to analyse the book, and would have wanted Cupet's input for their analysis of her book. The book burning made its way into a lot of news articles. Any kind of publicity is good publicity 😎. At the end of the day, she made around $51,000 USD from our School while the upset individuals gained ashes and hatred in their hearts. I guess some people forgot why this book was chosen for the common read , as well as why the author came to talk about the book and her beliefs. I do appreciate that Cupet was able to come and talk about her book.