Reciprocal
Teaching:
Eddie Miranda Looks at New York
My family and I came to New York from Puerto Rico. Here it is more exciting. You can have a better life here. But I don't know if we'll stay.
Life here is different. The climate of Puerto Rico is better. It much warmer there. We can do a lot outdoors. The weather here is hard. Some of my friends went back because of the New York weather. It is too cold.
The culture of New York is totally different. We live in a big building. We are always with people from different nationalities. We share our life with different people. I do not like this.
Language is one of the biggest problems. Because of language, it is hard to get a job. In order to survive, we must work. So we have to take any kind of job. This hurts our status.
Also, many people treat us like foreigners. We have a right to live here and work here. People do not know this. They ask to see our green cards. They ask for work permits. We often get mad at how we are treated.
We lived in a small place in Puerto Rico. Everyone knew my parents. So we had to be quiet. We had to do things right. Here it is different. Nobody knows who you are. People say, "Do what you want. Who cares?" So people sometimes act crazy here. InPuerto Rico, we act better and I prefer this.
In spite of everything, many of us like it here. Most of us are happy to be in New York.