Julian Czerewin
In the article “ Where I’m From” Willie Perdomo describes a neighborhood where he use to live and where he was raised up. It is a short story, but full of details about how day-by-day life goes on. Author is trying to show a contrast between good and bed, struggle of good innocent people with crime and uncertainty of tomorrow.
The area of 110th Street and Lexington Avenue is the center of a Puerto Rican/American neighborhood where residents of that area meet and gather on some street corners. On these street corners they tell the stories from their past and present, drinking Bacardi, where an unforgettable aroma of fresh made coffee is present in the air every morning.
A place where rodents are a part of everybody’s life is used by the author’s mother as an expression for being poor and living in the poor neighborhood. The NYPD actions against innocent bystanders are a representation showing the authors disapproval to these acts. Also gang presence is visible in Willie Perdomo’s story. The author beautifully uses the comparison of Independence Day as a sign of freedom, prosperity and victory on one hand. On the other hand he uses it as disfigure where independent means to be free from law, which causes teenagers to become gang members harming, hurting and terrorizing their own neighborhoods. “I’m the God when I put the gun to your head. I’m the judge and you’re in my courtroom”, the writer tells us about hierarchy in the article. It is a double standard: to be a gang member and to be a first class citizen, having all the rights and privileges or to belong to the rest and have no rights or privileges.
Willie Perdomo is proud to be a Puerto Rican American but the same time he is ashamed to live in that particular neighborhood, as he doesn’t want his girlfriend to visit that area. He is addressing the readers with hope that place in which he grew will be one day very safe neighborhood still with aroma of fresh coffee and people gathering on the streets and Independence Day will be celebrated on July 4th.
