Reaction to "A Small Place" by Jamaica Kincaid

As I read Jamaica Kincaid’s “A Small Place”, I had a better understanding of the identity elements Roberts explains. In these first chapters Kincaid exposes how “ugly” tourists that visit her island do not understand the realities of living in it and exposes how the supremacy of the England culture affected her own. 

 

Puerto Rico is a well-visited island as well, but I don’t think we treat tourists badly or think of them as “ugly”. There are some tourists that are interested in Puerto Rico’s background and our reality. As well as there are tourists who just come for the wonderful beaches, parties and to have a great time without the even slightest care of our reality. The real problems we Puerto Ricans have in political, economical and social matters are entirely ours and I don’t think outsiders should mind or be part of them. I as a tourist wouldn’t be so in to the reality of the place I’m visiting either, and does that really make a tourist “ugly”? I don’t think so. Now, if you go to a place and disrespect it's traditions, cultures and people, now that really makes you the bad person, a real ugly tourist if I may say.

This also reminded me of how the American culture affected ours. All the capitalism, big markets, fast foods, and English-speaking changed our identity. We have let them come into our “home” and let them do what they want with it. Though all the changes, we still have our Puerto Rican festivities, traditions, foods, and morals. This is because we will never be all-American; we do not look entirely like them, as we are mixtures of different ethnicities. We will never talk, think or act like them as a whole because in the end, we are Puerto Ricans and we have our own identity.