Posts Tagged ‘Puerto Rico’
Getting Drunk off Fake Puerto Rican Pride
8:37 am By Maegan La Mala · Culture|Justice|Puerto Rico · 29 Comments
1 Jun 2011I will confess that it has been years since I have attended the Puerto Rican Parade here in NYC. When I used to go, in the late 90′s and into the early part of the 2000s, it was to protest, collect petitions, and hand out flyers. But as a Puerto Rican woman, the NYC/National Puerto Rican Day Parade, with all it’s floats, musical artists and waving of our red white & blue, has never felt like an entirely safe space. Throw into the mix growing corporate sponsorship that disrespects and reflects some of the worse stereotypes of our communities and the parade’s focus on the cultural while ignoring the intersections of the political and you have an event whose value is suspect.
The latest advertising/sponsorship campaign, coming via Coors Light, an official sponsor, first encountered by me in the subway over the weekend, invites to “EmBoricuate” – a play on the words Boricua, (rooted in the Taino name for the island Boriquen) and Emborrachar , to get drunk. Because apparently nothing says being Puerto Rican like getting drunk, drunk to the point of forgetting.
Wait could Coors be onto something? Read more…
Puerto Rico is Talking Gas : Green Way or Death’s Way?
8:00 am By Maegan La Mala · Environment|New York City|Puerto Rico · 5 Comments
25 May 2011I have seen alot more coverage of the struggle against the dam in Aysen, Chile than I have about another potentially environmentally devastating project in the Latin America that is the U.S., Puerto Rico.
Via Verde or Via de la Muerte, depending on who you ask, is a gas pipeline being pushed by the government of Luis Fortuño in Puerto Rico. The Gasoducto project would run through delicate ecosystems as well as through sacred Indigenous Taino areas. On May 1st, thousands marched in Puerto Rico to protest the way the project is being pushed through without transparency or input from the people of Puerto Rico.
Here is Congressman Luis Gutierrez speaking on the issue:
FBI Crackdown in Puerto Rico Post Nationalist Arrest a Reminder of Colonial Power
9:10 am By Maegan La Mala · Puerto Rico · 2 Comments
24 May 2011Following the arrest earlier this month of nationalist Norberto Gonzalez Claudio for his alleged involvement in the 1983 Wells Fargo robbery of $7.2 million, Puerto Rican independence activists on the island are saying that the FBI is conducting a new wave of intimidation. Manifesting as searches in Cayay, where Gonzalez Claudio was taken into custody after living “underground” for 25 years, the FBI has been entering the homes in the area, often without showing search warrants.
According to RNV/ La Radio del Sur, the FBI prevented those returning from work from entering their homes and took items from homes as evidence including computer hard drives. The Puerto Rican liberation organization, EPB-Macheteros affirmed in a communiqué that the FBI had created a battalion of 22 intelligence agents in order to follow independence supporters and social activists.
Read more…
Today in Puerto Rican History
9:54 am By Maegan La Mala · history|Puerto Rico · 3 Comments
12 May 2011With so much focus on Obama’s recent immigration speech and it’s potential impact (or not) on the Latino vote, some Puerto Rican events have fallen off the radar. I think it’s important to draw attention to them remembering that during Obama’s original Presidential run, he courted Ricans hard.
113 years ago today the bombardment of San Juan, Puerto Rico happened, as part of the Spanish-American War, where the United States engaged in imperial battles to gain control over Caribbean nations. A few months later, on July 25th, US troops would invade Guanica and never leave.
I think it’s important to recognize how Puerto Rico was taken as a spoil of war especially in the context of the recent arrest of 65-year-old Norberto Gonzalez Claudio in Puerto Rico. Gonzalez Claudio, had been living underground ever since the 1983 armoured truck robbery of about $7 million in Connecticut that was attributed to the Macheteros, a pro-independence guerilla organization. You will read
Gonzalez-Claudio called a terrorist in many of the mainstream newspapers with no acknowledgement of the current colonial status of the island.
In other Puerto Rican history – 34 years ago today I was born.
Puerto Rico’s Delegate Pedro Pierluisi’s Big Mouth Matched by his Big Spending
10:14 am By Maegan La Mala · Politics|Puerto Rico|U.S. House of Representatives · Comments Off
23 Mar 2011Last month, Puerto Rican Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi made the news for his criticisms against fellow Puerto Rican, Congressman Luis Gutierrez, and the Congressman’s comments about the situation on the ground in Puerto Rico. A Sunlight Foundation report shows that the Resident Commissioner’s mouth is matched by his spending habits.
According to the analysis, Pierluisi spent more than $2.1 million to run his congressional offices in Washington and Puerto Rico. Most of it — $1.2 million — went to personnel costs. He spent about $174,000 on printing and about $60,000 on travel, according to the reports on the Sunlight Foundation’s database.
Alot of this was explained by the travel that Pierluisi has to do between Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. and the large number of mailings to constituents. Pero the anti-colonialist in me wonders if all of this is worth the expense, especially given how Pierluisi has no vote in Congress. I also wonder how that money could be better used say to help with the decolonization process of the island or with the economic crisis there.
NYC Today : Emergency Rally & Protest Against Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuño
7:12 am By Maegan La Mala · New York City|Puerto Rico · 4 Comments
23 Mar 2011While students and others in Puerto Rico are being assaulted in Puerto Rico over $800 and really much more, Puerto Rico’s Gov. thought a feast in NYC would be a great idea. Except the large Rican population here has other plans.
This came in my various inboxes and via Facebook:
Time Wednesday, March 23 · 4:30pm – 7:00pm
——————————————————————
Location THE NEW YORK ATHLETIC CLUB
180 CENTRAL PARK SOUTH (59th St. & 7th Ave. – R train to 57th St)
——————————————————————Long before Wisconsin’s right-wing republican governor, Scott Walker,
there was Luis Fortuño, the right-wing, conservative, republican
governor of the U.S. colony of Puerto Rico where over 50% of its 4
million people live below the poverty line.
Under his reign of terror, Fortuño and his party-controlled
legislature and courts have/are:• Systematically eliminated collective bargaining rights for workers
• Fired up to 30,000 public sector workers
• Privatized or attempted to privatize numerous public agencies and
services
• Attempted to privatize public education including the University
of Puerto Rico and have outlawed the independent teacher’s union
• Imposed a financial hardship on thousands of students struggling
to gain a higher education
• Militarized public college campuses and have used police and shock
troops to violently end peaceful demonstrations while also sexually
assaulting female students
• Been condemned by the ACLU and amnesty international for
repeatedly violating the human, civil and constitutional rights of
thousands of workers, students and journalists and their supporters
• Privatized huge swaths of valuable and ecologically sensitive
public lands and sold them off to private developers
• In the wake of the Japanese nuclear disaster, are attempting to
build an expensive, unnecessary, and extremely hazardous gas pipeline
through the heart of the island which will destroy thousands of acres
of sensitive woodland and imperil the lives of untold numbers of
residents along the pipelineGov. Fortuño has the complete and unequivocal support of the tea
party, the conservative PAC (where he spoke recently) and the racist
John Birch society (where he also spoke). The Wall Street Journal in
an op-ed headlined “Puerto Rico’s governor channels Ronald Reagan:
Move Over, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. You’ve got a tax-cutting,
pro-growth competitor who may be even bolder than you. His name is
Luis Fortuño and he is the governor of Puerto Rico, a place that, if
you can believe it, is in worse shape than the garden state.”Let’s show Fortuño that we all condemn his administration’s attack on
the good people of Puerto Rico and we stand in solidarity with those
fighting for justice in all its forms!
Looking at Report by Obama’s Task Force on Puerto Rico (Part 1)
10:16 am By Maegan La Mala · Politics|Puerto Rico · 5 Comments
17 Mar 2011Yesterday the President’s Task Force on Puerto Rico’s Status report was released. It is a 122-page report that starts with a 7-point series of recommendations on how to move forward from Puerto Rico’s colonial status. It also includes a look at the island’s economic and social issues.
In this first of a multi-part look, I am going to focus on the 7 points regarding Puerto Rico’s status.
Briefly, the 7 recommendations are as follows :
1: The Task Force recommends that all relevant parties—the President, Congress, and the leadership and people of Puerto Rico—work to ensure that Puerto Ricans are able to express their will about status options and have that will acted upon by the end of 2012 or soon thereafter .
2: The Task Force recommends that the permissible status options include Statehood, Independence, Free Association, and Commonwealth.
3: Although the Task Force supports any fair method for determining the will of the people of Puerto Rico, it has a marginal preference for a system involving two plebiscites.
4: If a plebiscite is chosen, only residents of Puerto Rico should be eligible to vote.
5: The President and Congress should commit to preserving U S citizenship for Puerto Rican residents who are U S citizens at the time of any transition to Independence, if the people of Puerto Rico choose a status option that results in Puerto Rico’s Independence.
6: The President and Congress should ensure that Puerto Rico controls its own cultural and linguistic identity.7: If efforts on the Island do not provide a clear result in the short term, the President should support, and Congress should enact, self-executing legislation that specifies in advance for the people of Puerto Rico a set of acceptable status options that the United States is politically committed to fulfilling.
Now allow me to break this all down a little
Read more…
ACLU Asks US DOJ to Intervene in UPR Struggle
12:01 pm By Maegan La Mala · Education|Puerto Rico · 2 Comments
11 Mar 2011Today being World Solidarity Day with the students of the UPR (find an event near you aqui), it seems fitting to report on the American Civil Liberty Union request that the U.S. Department of Justice intervene.
Yesterday the ACLU sent a letter asking for intervention in serious human rights and civil liberties abuses reported to be occurring against the people of Puerto Rico at the hands of the territory’s government. The ACLU asked that DOJ conclude its ongoing investigation of allegations of serious incidents of police violence and the suppression of free expression – including numerous reports of violent attacks against peaceful protesters and racially motivated police abuse – and take action to end these egregious practices.
Petition for Oscar Lopez Rivera
8:07 am By Maegan La Mala · Puerto Rico · Comments Off
9 Mar 2011
People of conscience throughout the world were outraged by news that the U.S. Parole Commission refused to parole Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar López Rivera after close to 30 years in prison for his support of Puerto Rican independence. Thousands of people, including members of U.S. Congress, religious leaders, artists, scholars, and community members support his immediate release.
The Parole Commission’s inhumane decision, issued on February 18, ignored both the specifics of Oscar’s case and the broad-based international humanitarian support for his immediate release. The Commission, basing its unjust decision on falsehoods and inaccuracies, ruled that Oscar must remain in prison another 15 years or until the duration of his sentence, whichever comes first.
Though this represents a significant setback, the National Boricua Human Rights Network (NBHRN) has no doubt the campaign for Oscar’s freedom will be victorious. The Puerto Rican people and their allies have succeeded in winning the release of three generations of political prisoners, an unparalleled accomplishment. This campaign will be no different.
After consulting with Oscar and the campaign for his release, his attorney will ask the Parole Commission to reconsider its wrongheaded ruling. Activists and leaders from the U.S., Puerto Rico and abroad have started to aggressively plan and launch the next phase of the campaign.
There are many ways to contribute to this campaign:
You can sign the ProLibertad Freedom Campaign’s NEW online parole petition based on the NBHRN letter:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/olrnewparole/
AND SIGN/FAX/MAIL THE NBHRN LETTER (Opens as a PDF).
Thursday in NYC : UPR No Se Vende! University of Puerto Rico Student Activists Panel
8:12 am By Maegan La Mala · Education|Linking Latinos|Lo Que Hay|New York City|Puerto Rico · Comments Off
7 Mar 2011
STUDENTS SEEKING CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL EQUITY FROM THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO AND GOVERMENT, WILL DISCUSS THE ISSUES THAT HAVE CAUSED MASSIVE DEMONSTRATIONS SEEKING SOCIAL JUSTICE THAT HAVE CLOSED THE UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO. THE REPRESSIVE STRATEGIES BY THE UNIVERSITY AND GOVERNMENT WILL ALSO BE ADDRESSED.
DATE: Thursday, March 10, 2011
TIME: 7:00PM – 9:00PM
WHERE: New York University
Silver Building, Room 703, 33 Washington Place, NYC
NOTE: PHOTO I.D. REQUIRED – ADMISSION FREE TO THE PUBLIC
LIMITED SPACE CALL TO RESERVE SEATING
(CCCADI) 212-307-7420 EXT 3000
email : Tisch.arpo@nyu.edu RSVP by March 7
Student Leaders Include:
ARTURO OTLAHU RIOS, GIOVANNI ROBERTO CAEZ, LOURDES SANTIAGO NEGRON & PEDRO MANUEL LUGO.
AN EVENT OF THE CARIBBEAN CULTURAL CENTER AFRICAN DIASPORA INSTITUTE IN COLLABORATION WITH NYU TISCH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT OF ART AND PUBLIC POLICY AND MICA (MARYLAND INSTITUTE AND COLLEGE OF FINE ART)
A University Without Walls Project
Hola!
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