Trinidadians talk about their ideas about Latino culture and Latinos in UWI 

The University of the West Indies has always been a diverse place. As we discussed last week, the Latino minority on Campus and their lifestyles, we are going to discuss the perceptions that Trinidadian students have about Latinos and their culture.

The conversation took place between Brandon Francis and myself, a student of Bsc Psychology and minor Spanish and a student of BA Spanish/Communication respectively.

The both students showed wide knowledge about Latino culture, highlighting the stereotypes that many English speakers from the Caribbean and the UWI have about Latino culture. Brandon highlighted the richness of the friendships that he has formed on campus. He even said that he traveled to Colombia to visit his foreign friends from the year before.

I enjoyed discussing these topics with Brandon. My Colombian friend, Natalia, even joined the conversation on her way to class. As rising xenophobia between Trinidadians and Venezuelans begins to become a problem, it is great to see that many Trinidadians are knowledgeable about their Latino counterparts.

This Blog is written for Latino students in UWI and Trinidadians alike, to spread awareness about their different experiences and promote harmony. From the richness of the conversation and the importance of its topic to wider Trinidadian society, advertisers from charity organizations such as Living Water Community and business advertisers such as Guardian life have all been flocking to our site for spots.

I hope you enjoy this week's addition. Here's the conversation and last week's conversations for you to enjoy.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1pg1u00ecCtc2zfJcFyrrt7iSJhzNP5VI 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-uTQfMKyMZpSfj6BtJVf65Z-aFDegmEg

Opera house on Fire is the metaphor I think about when my mind wonders to my life. the grandeur of the opera house, its perfectly etched wooden pillars, the curtain on the stage woven in fine red silk shadows over the proletariat crowd that scurries to the front row seats where the singing becomes distorted by the noise of the orchestra. The women and men of upper and middle class with their long flurry dresses stitched together by the hands of the working class.

As the beautiful voluptuous women that in her years struggled to go singing classes, appears from back stage, face powdered, mole as black as night, sings. The crowd in all spheres of social life become silenced by the magnitude and power of her voice. The beauty and spectacularity of it is more melodious than that chirp of the morning blue jay. Her passion extends out from her. She is not herself she is someone else. She sees the smiles and laughs in the audience as they are bedazzled by her. She pivots her body from side to side in order for the audience to see her beauty. As she hits the perfect note derived from heaven and as she closes her eyes to create a great dramatic effect. Smoke appears. 

An idiot with a cheap pack of gas station cigarettes forgot to use the ashtray next to him and put out his bud on the pristine wooden floor carved by Michael Angelo himself. The opera house became a quick fuse. The poor men and women thrown the dice of poverty became quick victims that fueled the fire's ferocity. The upper class bourgeoisie burnt slower. Their dresses catching ablaze first, until the hair, body parts and accessories not theirs lit up like fireworks on Bastille day. 

But the opera woman, opens her eyes but doesn't flinch, doesn't scream she just remains still. She begins to sing louder her voice reaching from a beautiful baritone to a magnificent tenor. Her eyes reflected the fury of the fire, her stage presence transcended that of the heavens. She personified the screams of burning victims and as she finishes she throws herself from the stage into the burning audience smiling all the way to the end.

This is the reality I face everyday I wake up, everyday I have to support and bear things in this world that  I didn't deserve. Alcohol helps me bear it but it's never the answer to problems that do not originate from this human plane of existence. I think it comes from the energy and lives our parents lived as people. People call it Karma I just call it life.

How to get over the voices of people in your head who are probably dead castigating you and telling what you are and need to do? I rather not think about it because the constant solution I see is that opera woman in the opera house. Do I need to jump into the fire to feel peace and quiet? Must I take away the voices by burning myself? I'm not sure but I'm still trying to figure out. Well, hey onto the next bottle of alcohol for now...

Life is a factory. It's plain and simple. We all are born into this world naked and crying and it shows how helpless we are on those around us. Relationships are an important part of our existence and they defined who we are: both positive and negative. Someone once told me that they don't need anyone but God. I totally disagree. Though it is important in believing in some supreme being, saying that having a relationship with God and no one else would be like eating bread without cheese. If you don't understand my poorly thought analogy, I was trying to show that people and God are linked. They help us get through the tough times. but back to my point, Life is a factory and they make individuals for a properly functioning society. Without you or  I and other people, there would be no society or country to run this earth. We give this world meaning. I mean, if we weren't hear who would kill out innocent animals and pollute the air with wondeful chemicals? You catch my point right? We  have to construct our own understanding of what this world/life is. Without this concised version, we'd go insane. There's no number 1 or letters or gravity, there's nothing but us and the things around us. We just named and labeled things in order to understand life and it's mysteries. But as I would try to avoid a quantom physics explanation, if it is in fact quantom physics (failed physics in high school). We as a globalised society, mainly western culture, have taken death out of the equation of life. We have been bombarded with products to quench our appetite. We have been caught up in global affairs such as the stock market because we are afraid. We are afraid of what is out there when we die. We can't fathom that one day our bodies would rot and decay. We can't imagine that one day, our beautiful brains would become nothing but ash. Sadly we have to face this inevitable reality. My grandfather recently died. He was 68 years old and it was a total shock. It taught me that no matter how invincible a person may look they cry, laugh and die just like you and  I. Remember when I brought up relationships, well he believed in giving to others. Hardly anyone he helped offered to help pay for his funeral. This was a man who could have been the pope and no one but his family was there. He's in a better place now but it taught me that don't rely on anyone but yourself. No one is ever there for me when I need them but maybe that's because i am an ambivert. We as humans sometimes except to much from the people around us. You probably don't have the same heart that I do and vice versa. But because we are a globalised society doesn't that mean that we all should be the same? Doesn't society want to train us into being an industrialised mob who follows orders? Sadly we are not all the same. The world would have been a boring but a better place. But still boring.
I just wanted to write to show the apathy of life and the way it cares only about itself

Alone time. It is to me one of life's greatest moments where you can experience peace and reflect on things. It's where you can be yourself without being judged by others. People tend to criticize everything that is weird or peculiar in this world if its autism, rheumatism or whatever they have no rite to do so because most times they do even weirder things or have things just like you or me in private so please don't judge a book by its cover. And take some time for yourself once in a while.

Sorry i have no pictures today but what i am about to tell you is very important and doesn't need a photo. A few years ago, my aunt asked me a very personal question and i was very offended by it and was very disrespectful towards her. At first i thought she shouldn't have asked me that because it was none of her business but overtime i realized that she was just concerned about my well being. So what i have to say is, sometimes people will come at you and you may think of them as being annoying or disgusting but what you need to do is first access yourself before thinking of others that way. Probably it's not that person that needs to change, it might just be you that needs to be changed. Sorry if this post offends you. 0:)

                                 

Hope is one of the things you suppose to have when dealing with tiresome situations in your life. If you stop believing in yourself then ironically there is no hope but once you try and keep believing you will make it through the problem. In my class there is a guy who does not try because he said he doesn't want to fail and I felt so sorry for him because he had no hope. It is when we try and fail with hope in believing we will make it, is when we experience true success. So never give up even if your tired, try hard and do your best to accomplish what you want. :)

                                     
Stress is a killer and when you let it take control of your life it has devastating consequences on your life and your health. Don't let it in because once it is in you tend to let it stay for a long while without realising. So for tomorrow or today have some fun be relaxed and don't let the problems stress you out.