I.Términos importantes

La poesía:Un género literario en que no es necesario seguir la reglas gramaticales

La sintaxis:El estilo en que el poeta escoge una colocación deliberada de palabras. La sintaxis, por tanto, estudia en qué formas se combinan las palabras

El estilo:La sintaxis, las imágenes, la lengua (la lingüistica) y el vocabulario que escoge un autor

El cambio de códigos/Code-switching: un vocabulario que cambia entre dos lenguas.En “Latino Language,” Manuel Hernández de HispanicVista.com contesta la pregunta de por qué cambian de códigos los latinos: “First, some believe that when talking about a particular topic they feel more comfortable while using one of the two languages. Second, it is an easy way out at a given moment when one cannot find a phrase, word or statement. Finally, certain words, phrases, proverbs, expressions and feelings are better expressed in one language.”

Spanglish/Spanenglish: El cambio de códigos entre el inglés y el español.Algunos críticos dicen que no disminuye el mérito artístico de una obra, sino que la hace una comunicación más democrática.

La literatura Nuyorican/nuyoriqueña:Un género de prosa y poesía que típicamente explora la identidad cultural, el lenguaje y otros temas relacionados con los puertorriqueños que emigraron a Nueva York.Algunos temas importantes son:el sentimiento de alienación de los hispanos en Estados Unidos, dificultades con la lengua, el orgullo de la identidad, la celebración de code-switching como elemento de la identidad cultural del individuo, apreciar los problemas relacionados con el hecho de vivir en un mundo con dos culturas, y el dilema lingüístico que confrontan muchos hispanos en Nueva York y otras ciudades. 

La voz narrativa: El uso único de lenguaje que le deja que el lector tenga un sentido de quién es la persona que habla.

II.Sobre el autorTato Laviera es uno de los poetas “Nuyorican” más importantes y populares. Nació en Puerto Rico y se mudó a Nueva York cuando tenía 10 años en 1960. De: Aparicio, Frances R. “Tato Laviera b.1951,” The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 5th Ed. Vol. E. Ed. Paul Lauter: 

A second-generation Puerto Rican writer, a poet and playwright, he is deeply committed to the social and cultural development of Puerto Ricans in New York. …he has taught creative writing at Rutgers and other universities on the East Coast.His poetry and plays are linguistic and artistic celebrations of Puerto Rican culture, African Caribbean traditions, the fast rhythms of life in New York City, and of life in general…. His superior command of both languages and the playful yet serious value he imparts to Spanglish, distinguishes his writing from others of his generation….he documents, examines, and questions what it means to be Puerto Rican in the United States… since the major migrations of the 1940s and, moreover, offer a paradigm of what pluralistic America should really be all about. Laviera has been called a “chronicler of life in El Barrio” and rightly so. His poetic language is not influenced by the written, academic tradition of poetry, but instead it is informed by popular culture, by the oral tradition of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, and by the particular voices spoken and heard in El Barrio. Gossip, refrains, street language, idiomatic expressions, interjections, poetic declamation, and African Caribbean music such as salsa, rhumbas, mambos, sones and música jíbara, are but some of the raw material with which Laviera constructs his poems. Though published in a written format, Laviera’s poetry is mean to be sung and recited. A central tenet to Laviera’s work is his identification with the African American community in this country. On the one hand, he reinforces the unity and common roots of blacks and Puerto Ricans: “it is called Africa in all of us.” This tendency also reflects the new multi-ethnic constitution of America, which has supplanted the old myth of the melting pot. In this context Laviera’s poems are reaffirmations of his Puertoricanness and of his community as a new national identity that diverges from the insular Puerto Rican. He proposes a new ethnic identity that includes other minority groups in the country. New York City becomes the space where this convergence and cultural mestizaje takes place. While maintaining a denunciative stance through the use of irony and tongue-in-cheek humor, Laviera’s work flourishes with a contagious optimism, and his poems are true songs to the joy of living which Puerto Ricans profoundly feel despite the harsh circumstances in which they live.