Nuyorican Culture
Are you from La Isla or El Barrio? There are clear disparities between Puerto Ricans from the island and Puerto Ricans from New York. Starting in New York City in the 1960s, a new breed of Puerto Ricans were forming. The movement is an Americanized take on classic Puerto Rican culture. Distinctions are found typically in the language and music.
Puerto Rican vernacular is identified by its wide use of Spanglish and abbreviated terms, in essence, the slang. Many fail to realize that Spanglish is becoming an American dialect, made popular by metropolitan Puerto Ricans. I was raised with my mom saying “Sorry nena, e’toy bisi” or “Wow ‘vite’ eso?!” For dinner, we would have habichuelas guisao or un asopao de camarones.This is normal-- this is what home feels like. Puerto Ricans butcher many words and often get teased for it by other Hispanics or Latinos. Self-proclaimed Insurgent Prieta, Dorothy Bell Ferrer, shared an experience she had saying, “‘I’m nice but I have a razor situated under my tongue’...It was sharpened and ready to verbally slash the white American student who told me that she could not understand Puerto Ricans because it was like the “ghetto version of Spanish.” I didn’t slash her. Instead, I told her that Puerto Ricans speak perfectly Puerto Rican”. Nuyorican colloquialisms are based in the city, and reach millions of homes.
Do Puerto Ricans Speak The “Ghetto Version” of Spanish?
The music of the Nuyorican culture is iconic, starting in 1960s New York. Big band salsa music in NYC was made popular by La Fania All-Stars; Hector Lavoe, Ruben Blades, and Willie Colon were key players. Songs like El Raton, Son Cuero y Boogaloo, and Por Eso Yo Toco La Salsa. Hector Lavoe’s salsa music is a staple in Puerto Rican households-- one of his most famous songs is Aguanile, an anthem for Santeria, a practice many Caribbeans took part in. This was the ‘60s and ‘70s however, these singers merely set the stage for what is an everlasting piece of Nuyorican Culture: Freestyle music. The mid-to-late ‘80s NYC was a petri dish of music and new styles, genres, and ideas were cultivating. Places like the Bronx or Spanish Harlem raised musicians like George Lamond, the Cover Girls, and TKA. The music had obvious Latin influence, but this is what New York club music was.
1.) “Can You Feel the Beat”
Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam
2.) “Bad of the Heart”
George Lamond
3.)“Show Me”
The Cover Girls
4.)“Fantasy Girl”
Johnny O.
5.) “Change on Me”
Cynthia
6.) “Clave Rocks”
Amaretto
7.) “Maria”
TKA
8.) “Take Me in Your Arms”
Lil Suzy
9.) “Forever Amor”
D’zure
10.) “Take It While It’s Hot”
Sweet Sensation
11.) “The Glamorous Life”
Sheila E. ( Prince’s protegee from California, but had family from NY giving her strong ties to the Freestyle scene)
