The play Quarter Rican dealt with the topic of identity and explored the different ways one can embrace identity even when it feels like something you’re struggling to hold onto. Throughout the play, we follow Danny who is half Puerto Rican, as he struggles to find a way to raise his son, who is a quarter Puerto Rican, in a way that will help him stay connected to his culture’s roots. While Danny is concerned that both he and his son are not “Puerto Rican enough,” in part because of how people perceive them due to their physical appearances (they are mixed and are more white passing,) the play reassures both Danny and us (the audience) that identity is not about how people perceive you, but about how you perceive yourself and about how much of your culture you choose to embrace and keep with you.

Upon reflection I think there are multiple ways to embrace and claim identity. Staying connected to your culture when living somewhere else that has totally different traditions, practices, and people can be a challenge as the play acknowledges, however finding spaces or people with whom you can connect to and bond over similar cultural experiences with, is often a good place to start. For example, one of the items on the “Puerto Rican toolkit” was having Puerto Rican Neighbors. I think that having the play set in NYC/ NJ was a great setting to choose because NYC is known as the melting pot of cultures, which paves the way for anyone to explore cultures that are unfamiliar to them or to feel connected to their own even if they are far away from home. Pride is also a big way to claim identity. The play concluded with pride being the last item in the took kit. I think having pride about your identity is such an important thing because pride is what unites people and keeps traditions and cultures alive for so long. Pride in our identities and our cultures, allows us to pass down traditions and share our experiences with excitement. It also allows us to think about our experience as something more than trauma, and instead allows us to think of them as a uniting force that was overcome by strength.