NATIONALITY HAS TO MEAN SOMETHING ELSE FOR US PUERTO RICANS, IT DOES FOR ME!

It has to. It cannot be relegated to superficial pride. We cannot afford it.

Because we are a Nation in every sense of the word, yet we are not a sovereign state.

We are a people under the thumb of an empire, whose military presence still has a foothold on our land. The physical, emotional, and environmental remnants and damage are visible in Culebra and Vieques.

 A nation whose Diaspora continues to exponentially grow because of the unbearable conditions native Boricuas are subjected to and expected to live under. 

No food sustainability, and no local agriculture industry that could feed the archipelago.  Making us fully dependent on imports.

 A nation with an almost exclusively service economy, with an educational system in near collapse, a healthcare system in crisis. A government in financial ruin with an oversight board driving austerity measures against common Puerto Ricans to fill the pockets of vulture capitalist firms.

 There’s so much more we need to know, so much more we need awareness and education on.  That is the reason for this post.  A call to all of us to think, to dig, to read, to get involved. 

 To dig deeper into what it means to be Puerto Rican. And to have that at the forefront everywhere we go.

 To question how we show up in spaces with this knowledge. Making sure that at the center of our journey, we remember those who came before us, sat, and had these conversations, and witnessed the brutality of colonialism firsthand.

 We are living through a period in history where Puerto Ricans are being displaced and stripped of all they know and love on the island in a quiet but violent way. We are part of this history, what will we tell our grandchildren about our role in it?