"Puertorriqueños" and Puerto Ricans
I was born, raised, and reared for the first 23 years of my life (more than half my life, though I'm not telling you how old I am) in Puerto Rico before moving to New York. I've always noticed how, for Islanders like me, the concept of Island and Mainland Puerto Ricans to be a single community has been met with some degree of skepticism. Not because of a belief that Islanders are better than Mainlanders or vice-versa, but because our experience is fundamentally different.
I was born as a member of the majority group on the Island. My culture and heritage were right in line with what "mainstream" was considered to be. That alone puts me in a very different mindset than being born here in the U.S., as a minority, where you may speak one language at home and another outside of your home, and where you're reminded, directly or indirectly, how different you are from the "mainstream." It's no surprise, then, when Islanders and Mainlanders have a different perspective on some issues that affect them equally.
Case in point, from today's El Diario/La Prensa: El congresista José Serrano (D-NY) expresó ayer su preocupación por lo que esté pasando en el Buró Federal de Investigaciones luego que el director de esa agencia, Robert Mueller, dijera que “no sabía” sobre las citaciones a tres independentistas boricuas de Nueva York para una supuesta pesquisa sobre los Macheteros. Which translates to "Congressman Jose Serrano expressed yesterday his concern regarding the FBI's conduct after Rober Mueller, FBI's Director, stated he "was unaware" of the summons issued to three New York pro-independence boricuas for an alleged investigation on the 'Macheteros.'"
This is not new stuff. As early as December 27 I commented here that I thougth it was odd that the island papers didn't comment much about it. Even today, their news reporting is worth noting.
For example, El Nuevo Dia: El congresista demócrata, José Serrano, telefoneó al jefe del Negociado Federal de Investigaciones (FBI), Robert Mueller, para dejarle saber el malestar que ha dejado en la comunidad boricua neoyorquina la citación ante un gran jurado federal de tres jóvenes independentistas. While the substance of it is not terribly different, what it says is that the FBI's actions have been offensive to New York's boricua community.
The other major newspaper, El Vocero, doesn't even carry this story - at least not online.
I'm inclined to believe that Islanders don't believe that this is of their concern. Particularly when El Diario/La Prensa notes that there will be protests today and tomorrow in San Juan, Nueva York, Chicago, Cleveland, Filadelfia, Orlando, Los Ángeles and San Francisco, but El Nuevo Dia is unclear when it notes that "[d]iversos grupos han organizado protestas en San Juan y Nueva York en apoyo a los tres jóvenes citados." Which translates to "various groups have organized protests in San Juan and New York in support of the three summoned young men." Note that there are no dates to those protests and it is even unclear whether these are upcoming or past events.
Perhaps, this will call into question the myth of the "Puerto Rican Nation."
I was born as a member of the majority group on the Island. My culture and heritage were right in line with what "mainstream" was considered to be. That alone puts me in a very different mindset than being born here in the U.S., as a minority, where you may speak one language at home and another outside of your home, and where you're reminded, directly or indirectly, how different you are from the "mainstream." It's no surprise, then, when Islanders and Mainlanders have a different perspective on some issues that affect them equally.
Case in point, from today's El Diario/La Prensa: El congresista José Serrano (D-NY) expresó ayer su preocupación por lo que esté pasando en el Buró Federal de Investigaciones luego que el director de esa agencia, Robert Mueller, dijera que “no sabía” sobre las citaciones a tres independentistas boricuas de Nueva York para una supuesta pesquisa sobre los Macheteros. Which translates to "Congressman Jose Serrano expressed yesterday his concern regarding the FBI's conduct after Rober Mueller, FBI's Director, stated he "was unaware" of the summons issued to three New York pro-independence boricuas for an alleged investigation on the 'Macheteros.'"
This is not new stuff. As early as December 27 I commented here that I thougth it was odd that the island papers didn't comment much about it. Even today, their news reporting is worth noting.
For example, El Nuevo Dia: El congresista demócrata, José Serrano, telefoneó al jefe del Negociado Federal de Investigaciones (FBI), Robert Mueller, para dejarle saber el malestar que ha dejado en la comunidad boricua neoyorquina la citación ante un gran jurado federal de tres jóvenes independentistas. While the substance of it is not terribly different, what it says is that the FBI's actions have been offensive to New York's boricua community.
The other major newspaper, El Vocero, doesn't even carry this story - at least not online.
I'm inclined to believe that Islanders don't believe that this is of their concern. Particularly when El Diario/La Prensa notes that there will be protests today and tomorrow in San Juan, Nueva York, Chicago, Cleveland, Filadelfia, Orlando, Los Ángeles and San Francisco, but El Nuevo Dia is unclear when it notes that "[d]iversos grupos han organizado protestas en San Juan y Nueva York en apoyo a los tres jóvenes citados." Which translates to "various groups have organized protests in San Juan and New York in support of the three summoned young men." Note that there are no dates to those protests and it is even unclear whether these are upcoming or past events.
Perhaps, this will call into question the myth of the "Puerto Rican Nation."
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: "Puertorriqueños" and Puerto Ricans .
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.latinopundit.com/~latinopu/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/275
1 Comments
Leave a comment
About this Entry
This is interesting. When I didn't know any better, I used to think all Latinos shared a common heritage: we were brown, spoke spanish, were a minority in the US. However, learning more about my Spanish heritage, as well as others, I learned much more about our differences and how much better one group is better than the other, how much different we are than the same, how much we (secretly) hate one another, than or commonalities...isn't that grand?
No surprise here that islanders and mainlanders see themselves differente.