"Why don't you like me?"

So I got assigned chapter 8 "Helping" from the book "Down on the island" by Jim Cooper (yay!) (...) on my english class. This chapter is very interesting for me because good ol' Jimbo was in "shock" when he saw his college students cheating on the departamental tests, they were not only cheating, they were helping each other cheat in the exam. Yes my fellow boricuas, the gringo was shocked because we help our friends get through the hardships of life (even college ones). Off topic, if he was in shock on an english test he ought to hang around Ciencias Naturales when exams are given, cheating is taken to a whole new level there, trust me. On topic, Mr. Cooper points out something very interesting, that in the continental states students are encouraged to be the best in their own right, not to help their friends during exams and stuff because they are in a constant competition with themselves, their classmates, other schools, other states, other countries, hell, even with poor E.T.'s home planet.

To me this explains a lot about american culture, their desire to be the best and shine on their own right, after all they are a country "started" by revolution and what they have done and accomplished has been all them. In contrast, this also explains a lot about puerto rican culture, we want the best for our friends and family because we are a country built on suffering and slavery, we help the ones we care about, it's natural. He accentuated that relatives of the students he failed went to practically beg for some extra credit work, he said no. This drove me bananas, i mean, dude if they can't pass your class what makes you think they're going to pass that course with another professor or even graduate? Well the answer was simple, he gave the students the grade they earned, not the one they deserved. That is a very cool and awesome philosophy, but considering the state in which puerto rican education was at that time one simply cannot be a hard ass with students. I'm not saying he should pass all of them but he should at least try different methods of teaching before failing them.

He also said that students would often question him on grades when they got bad grades claiming he "did not like him/her". He didn't understand this, let me explain this to all of the non-boricuas, as we are very good with the ones we love, we are very very very (you get the picture) bad with the ones we hate, which might make us think that if you fail us it's because you don't like us. We are very hospitable people, i mean we take southern hospitality to a whole new level, he says it in his book, that if we invite you to a party we prefer a yes and a no-show rather than a no, it's just the way we are. We are also known to lie from time to time to cover ourselves or for a friend. "Why don't you like me?" represents who we are as a culture. We can go to great lengths for those who we love, helping them cheat, asking for extra credit for them, making their essays, you name it. I just want everybody to know that we don't do it for bad reasons, we do it with all the kindness in our heart, contrary to what news reports say, we puerto ricans are good people and we prove it to the ones we care about on any level necessary.


May the force be with you,
Gabriel Rosa