The Latino vote is one of the most talked about target groups in this presidential election season. Everyone wants us to register, wants us to vote, but what is often forgotten is that Latino means many things, coming from many places. Puerto Ricans (yes there she goes again) have their own issues that demand attention along with other Latino groups, and one Rican organization is demanding that John McCain and Barack Obama respond to the specific interests of the Rican community.

The National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights, a social justice organization, has written a letter inviting the candidates to collaborate with the NCPRR to develop a means for communication with the Puerto Rican community.

“We are willing to work with the candidates to creatively set up a discussion that will allow our community to understand the candidates’ positions. Our children are also dying in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we should know what the future will bring from these candidates.” said Vazquez-Hernandez, a professor of history at Miami Dade College, who is a Vietnam Era veteran and a lifetime member of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV).

Full disclosure : The NCPRR was the formative entity in terms of my political upbringing.

Read the entire letter after the jump.

August 30, 2008

Senator John McCain

c/o John McCain 2008

P.O. Box 16118

Arlington, VA 22215

Senator Barack Obama

c/o Obama for America

P.O. Box 8102

Chicago, IL 60680

Dear Senators McCain and Obama:

On behalf of the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights (NCPRR) and the millions of Puerto Ricans who reside in the United States, we write to raise certain questions with each of you on issues of vital importance within our community. The NCPRR is an organization founded in the early 1980’s to work for the improvement and protection of civil rights for the Puerto Rican community across the United States.

For over three decades, the NCPRR has focused on issues of racial equality,

Environmental justice and economic parity, all toward improving social and political rights for Puerto Ricans. After losing our National Coordinator and founding member, Richie Perez, four years ago, our organization has taken time to reflect on our mission, and we are now reorganizing and restructuring our efforts to fulfill Richie’s dream for our community to be respected, self-reliant and vibrant. In response to our initial outreach, we have heard positive responses from groups and individuals representing thousands of Puerto Ricans, including

leaders in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Florida, New Jersey, Arizona, Wisconsin, Illinois, California, Hawaii, and of course, Puerto Rico.

We ask to communicate with each of you because our community’s interests should be squarely before your campaigns, and your perspectives are needed to help Puerto Ricans make decision in the debate over the Presidency of the United States and its implications for our country. Because our vote will make a difference in this election, Puerto Ricans should understand which candidate will best benefit their interests, and help this Nation emerge from the domestic, international and economic crises imperiling us all.

Today, over 1800 Puerto Ricans serve and die in the military conflicts in Iraq and

Afghanistan, joining more than 200,000 Puerto Ricans who have served the US beginning with World War I. We are suffering the mortgage debacle and housing crisis, and we feel the erosion of our domestic infrastructure. Just as critically, Puerto Ricans bear the burden of the unresolved status of Puerto Rico, as we live within a cruel colonial dichotomy that keeps our people separated spiritually, emotionally and politically. Your campaigns for the Presidency stand to benefit from a dialogue with our constituency, where you can learn of our needs, respond to our reality, and share your vision and promise for change.

These are the questions we pose to each of you:

1) How does your campaign propose to ensure that the Puerto Rican community on both the mainland United States and Puerto Rico is embraced and respected as equals within the

United States?

2) What are your proposals to ensure that Puerto Ricans will have economic opportunities both on the mainland United States and Puerto Rico, including after any final determination of the status of Puerto Rico?

3) What is your position on pending legislation concerning the status of Puerto Rico, and what alternatives or differences would your Presidency make in this debate?

The Puerto Rican community, the victim of over 500 years of successions of colonial rule, has struggled to unite and set a course that will define our people in terms of respect, dignity and prosperity. Despite the evidence of our condition, Puerto Ricans continue to lack equal voting rights, adequate economic opportunities or equal protection of the law. It is inconceivable that individual rights and justice for Puerto Ricans depends on whether we reside in Puerto Rico or the mainland United States. Repeatedly ignored by America’s political establishment, sometimes through unbridled racism, this dichotomy has been devastating to the self-image and self-respect of Puerto Ricans, despite our enormous contributions and sacrifice to this country.

Each of your campaigns has spoken on behalf of change, and each has professed a commitment to respond to the needs of the American people. We therefore ask you to make good on your word by responding to our community, in advance of the November election. We are open to working with your campaigns to creatively make your responses known to the larger Puerto Rican community, and to facilitate an opportunity for dialogue with other Puerto Rican organizations and community leaders throughout the country. Our ultimate goal is to work on a continual basis with the next President and each of your political parties to secure the ends outlined in this letter, and we therefore anticipate your affirmative response. We will share this correspondence broadly to ensure that this request is known well beyond our organization and our friends, and post it on our website, found at www.ncprr.us

.

To respond to this request, please contact me by return mail, by phone at (305) 926-0904 or via e-mail at veteran712004@yahoo.com. Thank you for your attention to our invitation, and on behalf of our organization and the Puerto Rican community, I look forward to your prompt response.

Very truly yours,

Victor Vazquez (Florida),

President

NCPRR

CC’s:

Congressman Jose Serrano (New York)

Congressman Luis Gutierrez (Illinois)

Congresswoman Nydia Velásquez (New York)

John Lozada (Massachusetts), Vice President, NCPRR

NCPRR membership

Broader Puerto Rican, Latino and U.S. communities