In 1969, Rita Moreno and Alan Arkin starred in a movie named Popi.
Popi was a strange title. A building superintendent in El Barrio has two kids who always call him “papi.” But the writers, director, producer, and movie studio all mis-spelled papi…hence the title Popi.
The plot of the film was even stranger.
As a poor Puerto Rican super, “Popi” is desperate to give his children a better life: so he buys them a tiny rowboat, throws them in the ocean near Miami beach, and tells them to say they’re Cuban…because in America, according to Popi, Cuban orphans are treated like royalty, while Puerto Ricans are treated like dirt.
Nearly fifty years later, there is a sad truth to this. President Obama’s legacy will include the opening of Cuba, and the sinking of Puerto Rico into the Caribbean Sea.
Washington, DC is all set to adopt Cuba and disown Puerto Rico…with a Financial Control Board that is nothing but a collection agency for vulture funds and private equity firms.
Money and resources will soon flow into Cuba. Money and people will soon flow out of Puerto Rico, in record numbers.
In other words, a silly movie named Popi is alive and well in Washington, Wall Street, and the hearts of middle America.
After all these years – over a century – they still don’t understand us.
For a history of the War Against All Puerto Ricans, read the book…
Si prefiere ver la página web en español por favor visite: http://www.guerracontratodoslospuertorriquenos.com
Treating the like royalty is hardly the case. It’s more like white man guilt! JFK promised air support in the Bay of Pigs conflict–then he found out about the Soviet missiles pointing at the US. JFK made the right decision for the American people he swore to protect. But he should have informed the freedom fighters, the ones trying to overthrow Castro, that no support would be coming!!! Many Cubans died that day, cursing JFK and the Americans with their dying breath. So, anything our government does to help the Cuban exiles is motivated by white man’s guilt, not humanitarianism. If you love your country, stay there and fight to change and make it better. We exist as a country because our colonies fought the British empire for independence! People died for our right to exist. Today many immigrants would rather flee here, because it’s easier to do that.
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Para los gustos, los colores. I didn’t find the movie silly then and find it even more relevant now. Somebody had the cojones in 1969 to point out the hipocrisy of US policy. It’s one of my favorite, and most poignant, satirical movies.
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Maybe just maybe…. Sad as it is, Cubans work with one another as a unit, much like Irish, Italians, Jews, Asians and other groups of migrants to the USA did and succeeded, even in recent decades many South Americans have as well. We Puerto Ricans had some advantages they did not, we party, go to parades and bitch together but there is no sense of loyalty or unity towards one another much less other Latin Americans and as the REFRAN says…. “Together we rise, divided we fall”.
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Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
Presudent Obama’s legacy: “the opening up Cuba & the sinking of Puerto Rico.”!! Sad …
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A f***ed up reality
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