No, this “descarga” is not about a "conjunto de salsa” -the musical genre- named Los Mestizos nor is about the type of Puerto Rican salsas mestizas (fusion cuisine) called mojos: "de ajo" with, of course, mucho ajo over tostones: “isleño" with lots of onions and culantro over mero; “ajilimójili" made with tiny ajíes dulces, perejil and cilantro on top of almojábanas. It is about ignorance dressed-up as political or pedagogical discourses, and how concepts develop and expand their uses and meanings; people facing their environments, including “salsas”, “y aquí vamos y seguimos”.
Por cierto, this "descarga a lo conjunto de salsa” follows its own "ritmo, sin olvidar la clave", and a certain type of narrative style which evolved from the same sources that serve as the roots of "los cientos de años de soledad, los cuentos de aparecidos, sin estar solos, el mestizaje lingüístico, cultural, conceptual. And, once you finish reading this, raise both arms real quick, circle them over your heads and shake your hands, "un despojo y no de ropa", or dance to a smooth, jazzy Charlie Palmieri salsa song while feeling the beauty of multiculturalism; "si se atreven".
My ex colleague and boss, Carmen (Aspira 1969-70), went as a child to Panamá and for the first time she became consciously aware of the intricacies of words, concepts, contexts, meanings. She did not have to read Zentella or Piaget to get the idea that language is determined by many factors that transcend norms and protocols. During breakfast, the waiter at the hotel asked her what kind of juice she wanted. She said “jugo de china” and the waiter answered smiling, playing with the child, that the “jugos" in the restaurant were all from Panamá. I am sure that -like many middle class parents do in Puerto Rico- they explained to her what the word is for “chinas" in other places: “naranjas”. She might have remembered that one of the “canciones de juegos de ronda” said,“naranja dulce, limón partido, dame un abrazo que yo te pido”. Had she been in a CCNY classroom with the notorious Argentinean professor, who’s was known for her pleasure in embarrassing publicly NY Puerto Rican students accent -the same story told to me by many students I met at the College that is there there-, she would have dropped from the class, “quizás no”. Carmen was/is a very clear about differences and standards and would have dismissed the internationally renown professor as another idiot in the “academia”.
Por cierto, this "descarga a lo conjunto de salsa” follows its own "ritmo, sin olvidar la clave", and a certain type of narrative style which evolved from the same sources that serve as the roots of "los cientos de años de soledad, los cuentos de aparecidos, sin estar solos, el mestizaje lingüístico, cultural, conceptual. And, once you finish reading this, raise both arms real quick, circle them over your heads and shake your hands, "un despojo y no de ropa", or dance to a smooth, jazzy Charlie Palmieri salsa song while feeling the beauty of multiculturalism; "si se atreven".
My ex colleague and boss, Carmen (Aspira 1969-70), went as a child to Panamá and for the first time she became consciously aware of the intricacies of words, concepts, contexts, meanings. She did not have to read Zentella or Piaget to get the idea that language is determined by many factors that transcend norms and protocols. During breakfast, the waiter at the hotel asked her what kind of juice she wanted. She said “jugo de china” and the waiter answered smiling, playing with the child, that the “jugos" in the restaurant were all from Panamá. I am sure that -like many middle class parents do in Puerto Rico- they explained to her what the word is for “chinas" in other places: “naranjas”. She might have remembered that one of the “canciones de juegos de ronda” said,“naranja dulce, limón partido, dame un abrazo que yo te pido”. Had she been in a CCNY classroom with the notorious Argentinean professor, who’s was known for her pleasure in embarrassing publicly NY Puerto Rican students accent -the same story told to me by many students I met at the College that is there there-, she would have dropped from the class, “quizás no”. Carmen was/is a very clear about differences and standards and would have dismissed the internationally renown professor as another idiot in the “academia”.
More on Argentineans' linguistic conceptualizations: “Si el 'posho' está vivo es 'posho'. Si está muerto se dice 'pollo'", answered the Argentinean child who was learning how to pronounce the {ll} sound in an elementary rural school. The researcher, Emilia Ferreiro, wanted to find out how did the young student resolve the difference between the child’s pronunciation and the standard version being taught by a very strict teacher, who was using pictures to teach how to “pronounce” the particular sound. The “pollo” on the picture was dead. The ones at home, "vivitos y coleando”, were “poshos”. The reason for the rigidity is based on the incorrect idea that there is a cause-effect relationship between pronunciation and learning to read. Y los mudos!?
“La paso llamando” said the Peruvian teacher to the Dominican mother. This particular Andean expression was of no importance to the teacher, who would force the students in a bilingual classroom in Washington Heights to pronounce each of the sounds when talking to her, once more, so they could learn to read. Y los mudos? The teacher had been recommended as a mentor to the College’s student-teachers by a militaristic school director who also believed in such poorly founded hypothesis. Otro sordo?
Chilean educators were surprised that when comparing reading comprehension test results, their secondary school students’ scores were lower than those of similar students in other Latin American countries. Once they studied the items and reading passages used to test the students, they found out that the test developers had used material written by authors from other countries. To verify the reliability of the tests and the abilities of the students, they decided to develop items and used passages written by Chilean authors. Eureka! The students performances improved when using narrative styles, syntactic structures that were closer to the Spanish used and spoken by Chilean students.
In Crítica de la razón pura Kant (1784) provided quite a few examples that can serve to demonstrate that perception and language are not determined solely by the “reality” being faced by the observer, yet over two hundred years later teachers and professors treat their students as if they were robots, machines, like following Merkel's statement: “multiculturalism does not work”.
Conceptualizations are not limited to sounds or words but also to narrative styles, and other language structures, as well as contexts and purposes, history, economics and “pendejos en la academia”. More “descargas” on these topics can be found in previous entries on this blog.
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