​Jeysla Rosario-Santos
Balancing Identities
Introduction
Have you ever felt a calling that you belong somewhere else?
This was the case with Jeysla Rosario Santos’s family in 2010. Rosario Santos, class of 2023 at Miami University, is studying Vocal Performance and is the director of the Miami University Gospel Singers. Rosario Santos’s family background is based in Puerto Rico, where she was born in 2002, and raised until the age of 8. At that time, her parents felt a calling to pastor in the United States and essentially “...took a leap of faith in moving.” She, her father, mother, and brother then moved to Hamilton, Ohio.
Early Awareness of Cultural Differences
Since Rosario Santos’s childhood was firmly rooted in Puerto Rico, even though she left at a young age, she was still able to identify many differences between the two countries’ educational systems. Rosario Santos explains that the order in which learning material is presented is different between the U.S. and Puerto Rico. For example, she was prepared to be taught multiplication in the 4th grade in Puerto Rico, but her class in the U.S. had already learned it in the 3rd grade. Because of this difference, she had to heavily rely on her parents to teach certain material in order to keep up with her peers, which caused extra stress to her school life as well as her family life.
Not only did she recognize differences in the education system, but also in life in general. Rosario Santos missed being able to be outside for any daily activity (like playing in the streets, walking to school, etc.), the warm, sunny weather, and the closeness of the Puerto Rican community. She loved being able to celebrate holidays with those in her country and the overall ability to celebrate her culture (on national holidays, of being a proud Boricua.
She loved the ability to celebrate her culture with those in her country through cooking, community parties, national holiday traditions, etc.
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Transitioning to the United States
Once coming to the U.S., Rosario Santos continued to keep up with her country through news, family friends, and other outlets. It is a daily routine for her family to watch the Puerto Rican news in order to be aware of what is going on in their country of origin. Her family would openly discuss many of the conflicts that Puerto Rico endured during her childhood, especially when their family in Puerto Rico would update them on the crime rates in their country at the time.
However, Rosario Santos explains that because of her family’s move to the United States, she felt that they had no say in what was going on in Puerto Rico.
“...when governor elections happened, we would watch and keep up with them. My parents would have their opinions (as a child, I obviously didn’t have much) but at the end of the day, since what they thought didn’t affect what was actually happening, it just stayed as that: voiced thoughts.”
Although watching the news to stay posted on what was going on in their country may seem strange to some, it is common with the people she surrounds herself with. Rosario Santos emphasizes that since she is surrounded by lots of Latinx individuals in her community, she does not find many differences between her family and the other families she is close to. She says the only difference she sees between her family’s keen awareness of their background versus Latinx individuals who grew up without giving their background credit is that
Photo provided by Jeysla Rosario Santos.
Photo provided by Jeysla Rosario Santos.
Photo provided by Jeysla Rosario Santos.
those people were “...mostly raised in a primarily American culture.”
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“I’d say some of the differences are the language, food, and family dynamic.”
She notices this difference because her family continues to involve their own Puerto Rican culture into their everyday lives such as speaking Spanish within the household or cooking typical meals that can be found in PR.
Rosario Santos feels as though this groundedness with her cultural background is what keeps her connected to her country. She continues to keep in touch with family and friends in Puerto Rico through Facebook and anytime her family gets the opportunity to go back to visit, they take it. Just last year they visited her father’s side of the family for Christmas and reconnected with many of their family members.
“I feel like I am still pretty connected to Puerto Rico, or at least as much as I can be while being across the sea from it.”
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Identity in the U.S.
Although she feels a connection to her culture, she used to struggle with her identity at times during her childhood. She feels that being an Afro-Latina would set her apart sometimes from the rest of her community in elementary/middle school. Rather than instantly assuming she was a Latina, many of her classmates would just see her as African American. However, when she would go from pronouncing her name in an English accent to actually speaking Spanish in front of her peers, they would consider her to “not be Black.”
“I think that my childhood years were more affected by me being an Afro-Latina. More the Afro part than the Latina. Even though I was raised in an environment where I was surrounded by other Latinx individuals growing up [in the] church, I was the only young Black girl, so that impacted my childhood/teenage years more than being Latina.”
Once arriving at college, Rosario Santos made it her mission to make it known that she, as well as other Afro-Latinx people, are just as Black as they are Latin American. She emphasizes that now people take the time to learn more about her culture, pronounce her name correctly, and really consider her background as Boricua.
“I think this was just me reaffirming my identity in a new social institution rather than the social institution impacting my identity.”
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At Miami University, she feels represented by the student groups in which she is involved in. She claims that there are excellent organizations such as UNIDOS for her to connect with Latinx individuals and recognizes that the Black community at Miami is growing. However, she hopes to see more of a representation and recognition of the Afro-Latinx population, as she does not see many organizations mixing both cultures.
Jeysla Rosario Santos is a proud Boricua and has kindly provided our team with beautiful photos from her visits to her home in Puerto Rico.
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However, when she would go from pronouncing her name in an English accent to actually speaking Spanish in front of her peers, they would consider her to “not be Black.”