Comments on: Predicando en Calzoncillos

By: Garretot

Garretot — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 22:08:22 +0000

Hola, ЎUf, me gustу! Tan clara y positiva. Garretot

By: Matt

Matt — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:39:11 +0000

Thank you to both Dr. Cruz and Ms. Stanchich!

When i get a chance to come up for air, i will add some of these books to my growing pile of reading about American Colonies and Reservations. The United States republic has so many nations within it that are simply glossed over and ignored. For example, did you know that the Navajo/ Dine people have a nation/ reservation the size of west Virginia? The US is incredible and has so much potential for future growth if we can just learn that free and diverse people are much more productive, creative and happy!

Also, to touch on the anti-Spanish argument, it makes no sense to be against it, as the US is the third largest spanish speaking country in the world. Even from a purely capitalist standpoint, if you speak spanish and make spanish-speakers feel welcome, your consumer/ production base would explode. See, now i’m getting all worked up. Have a great rest of your break. I’m going to go to dinner.

Thanks again!
Matt

By: Sam Cruz

Sam Cruz — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 22:18:07 +0000

Dear Matt,
Thank you for your comments. I think Ms. Stanchich offered several important works from which you can make a selection to begin research into this very important topic, including the moral and ethical political imperatives for our country. As to the issue of Statehood, it is truly difficult to discuss any options when the people really have no say in choosing between statehood, independence or the current Associated Free State/Commonwealth status. The status of Puerto Rico is in the “hands” of congress. Secondly, I doubt that it would be acceptable to congress if the Puerto Rican people chose statehood. There are several reasons for this, including the following two: The population of Puerto Rico is larger than at least 23 of the 50 states. Consequently, if Puerto Rico became a state it would have a larger number of representatives in congress than at least these 23 states. This does not account for the Latin@ representation which already exists on the mainland. This combination can become the largest voting bloc in the U.S. congress. In addition, I doubt that congress would accept a state in which the primary language would not be English, but Spanish. The majority of Puerto Ricans of all political persuasions are united in their view that that language is non-negotiable.

By: Maritza Stanchich

Maritza Stanchich — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:04:36 +0000

p.s. I should probably add that the book causing the biggest stir on the question of sovereignty in Puerto Rico now is:
Soveranias exitosas: seis modelos para el desarrollo economico de
Puerto Rico por Ángel Collado Schwarz
Not sure yet if it’s available in English.

By: Maritza Stanchich

Maritza Stanchich — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:34:55 +0000

I find these responses refreshing, and they prompt me to recall my own history of how I came to be obsessed with the question of U.S. colonialism in Puerto Rico, and, since moving to Puerto Rico in 1992, acutely aware of my position as a first-generation American (who looks and sounds stereotypically American) living and working in a U.S. colony.
One of the things I continue to find so eye-opening is the candid admission here by Professor Knitter. For example, I could not vote in the Obama presidential election, arguably the most important of my lifetime, because I am a resident of Puerto Rico. Nearly everyone I tell this to outside Puerto Rico reacts incredulously, offering examples of friends who have lived abroad for many years who voted absentee, but believe me when I say I looked into it. The fact is quite simple: Living and working in Puerto Rico disenfranchised me of my right to vote in U.S. presidential elections, even though the results of such elections affect Puerto Rico. (A situation often compared to that of Washington, D.C.)
Yet I so clearly recall a time when I was as incredulous as the next person in learning about Puerto Rico as a U.S. Territory. As a new American, this brought into relief my own education and formation, and how it vacated any knowledge whatsoever of U.S. colonialism (the histories of Hawai’i and the Philippines also converge with Puerto Rico’s in this).
The literature on this is vast, and the political positions of authors often at extreme odds.
A starting point for me has been the history of U.S. repression of the Independence movement in Puerto Rico (though I have to admit that I don’t foresee a majority vote on the island for Independence in the near future).
Though I am not personally an Albizu-ista today, the story of the Nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos is nothing short of remarkable. He did nearly as much time in US federal prisons as Nelson Mandela did under Apartheid. The Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College here has recently digitalized the FBI files on Puerto Ricans obtained by Rep. José Serrano:
The FBI files on Puerto Ricans:
http://www.pr-secretfiles.net/

Here are some titles dealing with questions of Puerto Rican sovereignty in English. I could also offer Spanish ones.

None of the Above: Puerto Ricans in a Global Era, ed. Frances Negrón-Muntaner
Colonial Subjects: Puerto Ricans in a Global Perspective by Ramón Grosfoguel
The Puerto Rican Movement: Voices from the Diaspora by Andrés Torres (on the U.S.-based Puerto Rican independence groups)
The Four-Storyed Building by José Luis González (trans. Gerald Guinness) (a Marxist historical perspective)
Two Lychings on Cerro Maravilla by Manuel Suarez (about the 1978 political killings of independentistas and their cover-up).

In terms of jurisprudence:
Puerto Rico: The Trials of the Oldest Colony in the World by José Trías Monge (a former chief justice and architect of the current Free Associated State status who later denounced it)
Foreign in a Domestic Sense: Puerto Rico, American Expansion, and the Constitution, eds. Christina Duffy Burnett and Burke Marshall.
The Supreme Court and Puerto Rico: The Doctrine of Separate and Unequal, by Juan Torruella.
Puerto Rico: Equality and Freedom at Issue, by Juan Manuel García-Passalacqua (though he has more recent titles, just not sure if in English).

A more simple, basic, undergraduate-level summary can be found in
Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America, by Juan González (of today’s Democracy Now).

Thanks Sam Cruz, for so clearly bringing your grandmother’s collective wisdom to bear on these urgent and crucial questions. To my mind, U.S. politicians have been preaching freedom and democracy sin calzoncillos for a very long time.
Maritza Stanchich

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:13:32 +0000

Dr. Cruz,

As I do not know too much about efforts for Puerto Rican sovereignty, what books would you recommend for me?

Also, I’m curious to hear your opinion on Puerto Rico being admitted to statehood versus a continued existence as a territory. Obviously, you believe sovereignty to be the ultimate goal, but I just wondered if you have any sympathy to admitting Puerto Rico as a state, therefore holding the US more accountable to it’s welfare.

Best,
Matt Ricci

By: Paul Knitter

Paul Knitter — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:36:00 +0000

Sam, thanks for alerting me — and I imagine many other Americans — to the fact that on this issue of Puerto Rico, our emperor/president has no clothes — or, at least, he’s only in calconcillos. But in this case, not only he, but most Americans, think he is wearing clothes. Why is not more being said and written about this?