Crossing ch2 “Home is where the music is” by Victor Hernandez Cruz.

Discussion Questions:
When Puerto Ricans immigrated to New York, how did they transform it? Why?
When Puerto Ricans immigrated to New York, they transformed it by showing people their culture such as music and ways of dressing. These things happened because many people migrated to New York and every group had their own culture, their own ways of living.
Why did so many Puerto Ricans immigrate to New York when the Cruz Family did? Why do you think his family’s plan to return to Puerto Rico never materialized?
Many Puerto Ricans immigrated to New York when Cruz family did because everyone knew each other they moved to New York to find little Puerto Rico and many other cultures. In my opinion the family’s plan to return to Puerto Rico never materialized because in a way they were already use to the life style that they were living on, also most of the people that lived in their little town on Puerto Rico are living with them in New York.
How and why is the role of language emphasized through out the essay? According to Cruz, what is significance of living between two languages?
The role of language emphasized through out the essay by giving the reader a touch of the Spanish culture, the author does this because there are some words in Spanish that don’t have a translation in English and even if it did it wouldn’t express what the author wants to express.
What inspire Cruz to paint the fire escape gold? What is significance of this final image? In what capacity does it represent the author’s state of mind and sense of belonging?
What inspire Cruz to paint the fire escape gold is that he sees and observes the mixture of people, the rhythm. Cruz said that they looked like tribes. The author shows and represents a state of mind by him showing us and giving us details of how he observes the people, and letting the reader know that they always find a way to have fun.
Cruz uses a lot of rich imagery and metaphors in the essay. Select a few vivid metaphors and discuss their effects on the overall impression of the essay.
Cruz does use a lot of metaphor and imagery on this passage, one example of a metaphor is when he writes that “It was an opportunity for the writers to get a bird’s eye view of the island politics and culture of their extension in the Diaspora”, another example is on page 66 “In the mornings when I was sent out to the bread for the coffee, I could sense the lingering sense of gardenia perfume through out the hallway”, also “by morning it was dry and the drums had turn to strings”. These metaphors that have just been mentioned give the passage a form of animation, Cruz wants to keep the reader entertain; it also lets us know by the way he interprets all these sentences the way he felt at the time.