Newly arrived from Cuba, Angelica, Dora, Marina, and Damaris attempted to negotiate new surroundings and immigrant identities, building a sense of home for themselves and their families. Data from qualitative interviews, classroom observations, and focus group conversations revealed hopes that by acquiring English language skills, they would improve their quality of life in their new country. Struggles included personal factors situated in their pasts in Cuba and their new surrounds in the Miami Cuban exile enclave, contexts that were further complicated by uncertain expectations of new lives in Miami and the overwhelming task of learning a new language at a local adult education center.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
Papers presented at the conference organized by the European Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies held in 2005 in Sliema, Malta., 412 p., Includes Jogamaya Bayer's "Crossing the borders in Monica Ali's Brick lane and V.S. Naipaul's Half a life," Gen'ichiro Itakura's "Jewishness, goyishness, and blackness : Zadie Smith's The autograph man," and Lourdes López-Ropero's "The pleasures of slave food : the politics of creolization in Austin Clarke's Pigtails 'n breadfruit."
At a recent conference in Martinique, entitled "36 hours for the Caribbean", that focused on better means of cooperation between French West Indian departments and their independent neighbors, Martiniquan lawyer Alain Manville spoke about "Law, judicial practices and human traffic in the Caribbean." "France wishes to maintain her Caribbean departments in a state of indifference towards their natural environment," said Mr. Manville. "For Nearly 10 years one has witnessed a complicity between the Prefecture of Martinique and the French embassy of St. Lucia to deny visas to nationals from St. Lucia and Dominica and when these visas are accorded, the time taken is exorbitant and stay periods are reduced to a minimum," says Mr. Manville.
Joseph-Vilain,Mélanie (Editor), Misrahi-Barak,Judith (Editor), and Turcotte,Gerry (Author)
Format:
Book, Edited
Publication Date:
2009
Published:
Montpellier: Presses universitaires de la Méditerranée
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
Essays from an international conference held at Paul-Valéry University, Montpellier III, in November 2007, organised by the Cerpac (Centre d'étude et de recherches sur les pays du Commonwealth/Research Centre on the Commonwealth)., 481 p., Includes Anthony Carrigan's "Haunted places, development, and opposition in Kamau Brathwaite's The Namsetoura papers," Maurizio Calbi's "Writing with ghosts : Shakespearean spectrality in Derek Walcott's A branch of the Blue Nile," Martine Hennard Dutheil de la Rochère's "Rattling Perrault's dry bones : Nalo Hopkinson's literary voodoo in Skin folk,"
Prudence Layne's "Reincarnating Legba : Caribbean writers at the crossroads,"
Timothy Weiss' "The living and the dead : translational identities in Wilson Harris's The tree of the sun," and Kerry-Jane Wallart's "The ghost in Wilson Harris's The Guyana quartet : matter that matters."
Evaluates the extent to which the relationship between black immigrants' individual-level socioeconomic status characteristics and suburban outcomes conforms to the tenets of the spatial assimilation model. Results reveal that black immigrants' suburban outcomes vary depending upon the racial/ethnic background and nativity status of the reference group. While both black Caribbean and African immigrants are less likely to reside in the suburbs than native-born white households, they are more likely to do so than native-born black Americans, even when controlling for differences in income, education, and homeownership.
Kachru,Braj B. (Editor), Kachru,Yamuna (Editor), and Nelson,Cecil L. (Editor)
Format:
Book, Edited
Publication Date:
2009
Published:
Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
811 p., A collection of articles focusing on selected critical dimensions and case studies of the theoretical, ideological, applied and pedagogical issues related to English as it is spoken around the world. Includes Michael Aceto's "Caribbean Englishes."
"As a West Indian student, I rather prided myself not only on my spoken English - as all West Indians, at least of my generation do - but also on my French accent, which was often commended. It so happened that at a French summer school in Nice in 1947, I translated `il ne pleuvait plus' orally as `the rain had held up' and was given a clear negative finger signal by my tutor. The next speaker said `it had stopped raining' and was told to continue. I was stung, but rather annoyed (with myself) when my English buddies, after class, sided with the tutor. My problem was that I had used standard Guianese (and East Caribbean) idiom, which was not standard English. The difference lay in Caribbean English usage. That was the beginning." "I can only marvel at the number of times I came near to believing the views of others - that the work would never be finished, "Dr.Allsopp said. "It is therefore in a spirit of great thanks to God and cautious optimism that I offer this dictionary to all Caribbeans." One finds words such as "touched" (soft or spoiling in parts); "force- ripe" (precocious, usually a child); "dead house" (the house where a deceased person lived); and "deal" (to practise witchcraft of the kind that involves trading living souls or dealing with the devil).
