Gitana India

Female

Chicago, IL

United States

Profile Information:

About Me:

Female first, Latina second. Interests in latin american culture, identity, ethnicity. Born in Ponce, PR. Generations of my family, both on mother and father's lineages, came from Ponce. My mother's family owned a cafetal in the hills in Rio Chiquito province/barrio. My father's family were from Portuguez.

Occupation:

health researcher

Education:

UIC-Latin American Studies, BA

Research Interests:

My father firmly believed he was from the indigenious Taino Indians and his features depicted his Indian heritage without question. For me, I believe I am taina but with African blood. My mother firmly believed she was of the Spainish lineage. Quite a mix of cultural heritage. My quest has always led to search how we as Puerto Ricans, identify ourselves as individuals when the PR populations identifies themselves in so many different nomenclatures: Boricua, Puerto Rican, Taino/a, Afro-Puerto Rican, Latino/a, Hispanic. For me there is a definite distincion between between "latino/a" and being Hispanic. It molds itself in the origins of each of these--related to Latin America as a group, or ancestorally orignated from Spain and the conquitadores.

My father came to the U.S. mainland as a contract worker. We hear of the Braceros from Mexico, but the exodus out of Puerto Rico by the islanders due to Operation Bootstrap is a movement to be reckoned with. Many islanders were lost, displaced, confused and isolated in the mainland-- from the "belly of the beast" into "the concrete jungle".

Notwithstanding, the conquest of Borinquen by Spaniards demanded the erasure of our cultural traditions, writings, religious beliefs, etc. In order to have inner pride, grounded resistance and social and political unity, I believe we must first learn from whence we came and who we were in an in-depth and historical perspective. History is not linear, it is circular.

Publications:

African Americans and Breast and Cervical Cancer (a qualitative study, Latinas and Breast and Cervical Cancer

Affiliation:

UIC

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