I read this article from Issue 11 of The Kartika Review called “Home is Where the Wart Is” written by Donna Miscolta. She begins with describing her childhood growing up; she paints a picture of what her home was. Then she goes into describing various well known areas of the community where she grew up, a little place known as National City. We all have our own unique variations of what we call the community, mine is “Nasty City.” The author goes into describing various parts of the city, well known parks, community centers, the education, language, and cultures you would find there, and also gives the A.K.As of each spot. What the author essentially does is compare what she used to call home, a place where she felt safe, regardless of what crime was going on around her, and how what she saw as such a great place, others see as being crime filled and essentially “ghetto.” She does a good job of pointing out how people are so easy to talk down on where people come from just because of what they hear form others, never experiencing living there themselves.
I have experienced this from some friends of mine. I grew up in Chula Vista, born and raised; within the past few years people have began to look down on the area because of how close to the border we are, but I have lived in the heart of Chula Vista for 23 years and have never been victim to any type of crime. They say bad things and make rude comments regarding the city, not realizing that Chula Vista is where I’m from, it’s who I am and it made me who I am. Which lead me to think…. One man’s home could very well be another man’s ghetto. Or woman.
I have experienced this from some friends of mine. I grew up in Chula Vista, born and raised; within the past few years people have began to look down on the area because of how close to the border we are, but I have lived in the heart of Chula Vista for 23 years and have never been victim to any type of crime. They say bad things and make rude comments regarding the city, not realizing that Chula Vista is where I’m from, it’s who I am and it made me who I am. Which lead me to think…. One man’s home could very well be another man’s ghetto. Or woman.
I am a resident of Chula Vista as well. Not as long as you, but it's been "home" for the last five years. Although, I don't currently reside west of I805, I did a few years ago. And I can relate to the author's take on who the actual nay sayers are... the residence themselves. Yeah, I admit, I refer to it as Chulajuana once in a while. But I live here. It's like the N-word. Only African Americans can use it and get away with it.
ReplyDeleteI feel identified when you states "One man's home is Another Man's ghetto". I lived in Barcelona, Spain for almost ten years and I was living in a problematic area of Barcelona called Raval. People generalize that "Raval is the same as Bronx in New York". I did not live in this area not that much, but I spent a lot of time in it. By this, I am telling that even though people see this as a ghetto, for me is what they called "home, sweet home".
ReplyDeleteI like the way Miscolta "messed" with a form we are familiar with, i.e, dictionaries and encycolopedias. She broke up here text like wikepedia entries. Doing so gave the piece a kind of "official" feeling or vibe, but the content flipped what we normally expect from a formal dictionary - she gave her subjective experience of what should have been an objective piece. This falls in line with her project, i.e., the point that how we experience home is very different than others might expect.
ReplyDelete