« EUREKA!!!! | Main | association »
November 01, 2005
On Rhetoric
In discussing my career goals with CGB today, I was expressing the difficulties in acquiring theoretical readings in Latino/a Rhetoric. As we discussed the ways in which I might enrich my research, we ran straight into the million dollar question: what, indeed, is the definition of rhetoric? And, with a plethora of definitions before me, how do I determine which definition is appropriate for my research? Well, this is the question isn't it? As expected, that question begs another, and another. What does Latino/a Rhetoric look like? How can it be articulated in a way that fairly (because I am apprehensive about using the word "appropriately") depicts the people of the Caribbean-more than that-the island of my heart? Then of course, there is the dilemma of naming. In his essay titled "Memoria", Villanueva gives a brief history of Puerto Ricans and explains that since our discovery from other people we have been bearing the names that have been imposed on us, and not any of our own social construction. He asserts that we came from the lower Antilles and were named Arawak/Taino by the Caribs, only to be renamed once Columbus arrived and decided that the rich port that he had landed upon should be called just that. The acquiring of this information tells me that my academic journey lies not only in the acquisition of knowledge in rhetoric, but in history as well. The history that I hope will lead to me forge a way into a conversation that as of yet has not been undertaken. My other career goal is to create a journal that will be for all of us that are underrepresented in our field; those of us that want to be included in the scholarship we love; those of us that want to tell our stories, our pidgins, and the events that have always been in our memoria.
Posted by dvaldesd at November 1, 2005 06:51 PM