Imagine being part of a subculture that you didn’t know was a subculture. A sunny afternoon through a computer screen via zoom was my first time interacting with Destiny. We agreed to conduct this interview for English class. I wrote my questions a few days before so by the time we joined the break-out rooms in zoom I started right away with my questions. She was calm and really prepared for the interview. She answered really completely and detailedly. As I was asking and getting to know more about her family subculture we realized that we have some things in common, since I also decided to talk about my family as a subculture. Destiny is a student at The City College of New york. She was born in the Bronx but her family is from Puerto Rico. Destiny grew up with a single mother of 4 children. Destiny depended on her grandmother a lot when she was younger but now she mostly depends on herself.

Destiny’s family have this nice kind of ritual where somebody from her family has to buy breakfast for the whole family. This ritual is every morning, they take turns. They’re really close. They have a movie night and they go driving together talking and listening to music. Destiny’s role in the family is as a mediator, she is the calm one; she gets them together and resolves whatever conflict is going on. Her family goes on vacation every year and this is an annual event. Her family is a strong support for her. But, there’s a balance between knowing who she can talk to depending on her problems. She counts on her little sister for any problems but when it comes to economic problems her mom is the perfect person to talk to. Everybody has their own way to help. The most important part for her family is the holidays because since some people have moved out of New York they all come together and catch up on each other.

Destiny’s family is considered Nuyorican. Nuyorican are Puerto rican living in New York city. Which basically means that her subculture belongs to another subculture. Destiny is inspired by the amount of art and passion her people have created. Hip hop and Reggeaton are huge seeds they have nourished. They have tremendous spoken word artists. The Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Big Pun, Fat Joe, their artist from her island Puerto Rico, Bad Bunny, Dalex, Daddy Yankee. The island itself is filled with color and culture and graffiti. She is very inspired by art. Destiny doesn’t have any role models because she wants to create her own lane. Her subculture also has a

lot of history, the Nuyorican community is plagued by much poverty and instability. Living in New York as a latina woman Destiny believes that there are many rules applied to women specially latina women. But rules don’t mean much to her anymore, she says that no matter what you do you are always going to make someone mad.

This interview drives me to some findings. First we all belong to a subculture or a group of people that share the same interest and we may never realize that we are a small organization. We even have these rituals or routines but we don’t see them as actual cultures. I also realize how these subcultures are a plus to our lives and our mental health. They provide security, stability and balance in daily people’

Reflection

I intended in this essay to educate people about a subculture that they already are part of but they didn’t realize that they were part of already. And also to show the different ways that this subculture and insiders deal with their traditions. The Purpose it’s to show all the special parts of this subculture and also to inspire people to love and appreciate their families. I think the readers in this case are students. The process for this essay was kind of hard since we had to conduct these interviews via zoom, and not being able to be in the classroom or getting to know and interact with the other classmates makes everything more difficult. My plan was first I read my partner’s assignment based on the subculture that she belongs to and I started making my questions days ahead from the interview. We conducted the interview via zoom and we shared our phone numbers just in case we may have more questions or doubts. One decision that I faced one day was, the second day of the interview my partner didn’t show up to the online class and I decided to stay during class and wait for her but she didn’t make it to the class so we finished the

interview on our own time after class, this did not affect the process though. As I worked on this essay I learned about myself that I’m the person I’m today because of my family, because all this love and respect I give it’s because I have received from my family and I’m just passing it through. I feel good about this assignment. It was nice to realize how small groups of people can cause a good impact on others. The part that I liked the most was getting to know somebody else’s subculture and getting to know some of their routines and rituals. My attitude towards the subject hasn’t changed at all. I would like to improve the partner review because since we were paired with the person we interviewed they may not have questions or want to know more details because they already know everything about that subculture.

My comments from my partner were not really comments because since she was the person I interviewed she may not have doubts or want to know more deeply about the subculture because she already is an insider. The reading and class activities guided me and guided my ideas during this process. The process of doing this assignment helped achieve the following course learning outcomes, to acknowledge your and others’ range of linguistic differences as resources, and draw on those resources to develop rhetorical sensibility. Enhance strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment. Also develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes