8 Comments on “U.S. Congress and Financial Control Board must learn the HISTORY of Puerto Rico”

1. Pingback: Puerto Rico gets a Financial Control Board | WAR AGAINST ALL PUERTO RICANS

2. 1Weaver…

   Actually, I write because I KNOW and I KNOW because I have experienced and observed all that I write about. And while I KNOW that my tone is hardly Babaloo with maracas or to a Macarena beat or that of pounding drums on a Hollow-Wood depiction of “La Tino” human sacrifices on a styrofoam temple somewhere in Latino-Ville, I take this tone because I have found that to follow the American generic “La Tino” pseudo-political party line of politically-over-corrected cultural-compromising, ethnic-obliteration or washing away Puerto Rico-specific cultural idio-synchracies and denying the VALID unique aspects of our culture that I don’t believe should be homogenized into the current fallacy of “La Tino” clap-trap nonsense, is something that I will NEVER accept or do.

   As I mentioned, I was born in Puerto Rico and have lived most of my life on the US Mainland and have also spent YEARS in Europe and the Middle East and it is ONLY when I have returned to the US that I am slapped in the fact by what I consider the passive acquiescence of “my people” regardless of their current zip-code to accept Uncle Sam’s historic exploitation and idiocy. I call it “La Mente del Culonizado”.

   BUT…I do understand how this has happened and it doesn’t make me love my people or my homelands (both of them) any less. If anything it makes me even angrier that the faux-leadership of the Island has sunk to the level that it is in today. It is really no different than the “leadership” that has evolved on the mainland…that of those who have the financial resources to buy elections, corrupt the “leaders” and dictate or agree with pernicious policy decisions that enrich them and cripple the rest of the population.

   I think of it as a manifestation of the “Stockholm Syndrome”, where the hostage (after enough time) begins to accept his chains, hand-cuffs and blinders without questioning them and even sympathizes with the captors and eventually becomes a very willing captive and even participant in the capture.

   Puerto Rico didn’t get to where it is today over a weekend…it has been over a century in the making, but I still harbor “hope” that its situation will begin to take an upward financial, political and even emotional cosmic trajectory, but I am not overly hopeful just yet, so you won’t see me waving any “banderitas” any time soon.

   To be more specific, I would urge the Island’s leadership to take our plight to the United Nations NOT the United States. The US put us in this situation and is not going to ever acknowledge that “inconvenient” fact and it’s like having a tumor in your head. You can deny it and wear a pretty hat, but it doesn’t cure the tumor.

   I have written to MANY of our “celebrities”, their “fan” clubs, their FaceBook pages, their websites and NOT ONE response from any of these MILLIONAIRE “celebrities” can be bothered to respond. And my plea has been a very simple one…”join each other and post a FULL PAGE AD in the NYTimes explaining the current situation in Puerto Rico and its history” (and I even volunteered to WRITE it for them!)

   And the silence has been deafening. Among these “celebrities”…J-Low, Marc-Anthony, Ricky Martin, Rita Moreno, Benicio del Toro, Javier Grillo-Marxuach (Hollywood producer) the Serralles Family (Don Q rum).

   Why do they not respond? Because their lives are not touched by the current fiscal cancer that is killing the Island. Their bank accounts have elevated them to a status that transcends the plight of the other 4 MILLION residents of the Island and the OTHER 4 MILLION that live off the Island in the US, Europe and other far-flung places. Meanwhile, these “celebrities” walk the red carpets, drive their Maseratis, dine at 5-Star restaurants and go on about their VAPID lives talking nonsense about their “celebrity” and receive awards and NOT one peep from them regarding the Island’s situation.

   I’m sure I’ve written here a quote from my grandfather in San Sebastian (where I was born) and with whom I spent my earliest years with…

   “Cuando el hombre pierde la verguenza no hay NADIE que se la devuelva”…

   I think he had our current “celebrities” in mind.

   So you see, I am hopeful, but it will take the Island’s “leadership” to do what is a century overdue…petition the world and the world “court-of-opinion” for remedy. It will not come otherwise and we have the deplorable status quo as proof.

   And as “abuelo” used to say, when he would remind us that he was always aware of all that was happening around him and that NO ONE would pull the wool over his eyes…”y ni un pelo de bobo tengo”.

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3. @Greg Medina: i *absolutely* agree with 95% of what you say…but hypothetically speaking, if with all of your knowledge and experience, you should find yourself forced to live and work on the island itself: how would you proceed, cope, strategise?
   its all very good to present this point of view, of course. but shall we conclude that you stand firmly in the ‘hopeless camp’?

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4. They should learn the history and stop shedding those crocodile tears while their consuming their prey.

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5. When you historically have a desregard for a people you only want to use for your indifferent purposes, this sort of dereliction is to be expected.

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6. Nelson you have to send them the Book ” War Against All Puerto Rican ” so they can learn something about US.

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7. Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
   Almost no one in the US knows, or cares about, the history of Puerto Rico … “Of the 535 Senators and Congresspersons in Washington D.C., less than five of them know much about Puerto Rico … and none of those five are in senior positions of power.”
   The legislators may claim to but if they do, they are too busy and “enthralled” by the monies that will be coming into their pockets when this crazy “Financial Control Board”/PROMESA carp goes through!! Arrgghh ….

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8. Any intelligent organism on the face of the earth agrees with you.
   BUT…that is exactly the problem.

   On the US mainland, MOST Americans are NOT intelligent, informed or insightful about our history. And this should not shock anyone, given that most Americans don’t know what their OWN grandmothers’ maiden-names were. They get their knowledge of Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans from re-runs of “West Side Story”, “Fort Apache-The Bronx”, watching Sophia Vergara waddling in 12′ stiletto heels and Daisy Duke cut-off as she vacuums her house in a leopard-print bustier as a “real La Tina”…or from tattoos on J-Low’s ass or worse yet from loud-mouthed Nyoricans who think that Duh Bronx is the capitol of Puerto Rico and J-Low’s ass is the governor.

   I have lived most of my life on the US Mainland after leaving my Mallorcan-born grandfather’s farm in San Sebastian, Puerto Rico with my young parents to live in NYC when I was a little boy…and I am NEVER shocked when I hear comments such as:

   1…(on an Ivy League campus)…”So when did the ‘natives” stop wearing grass-skirts in Puerto Rico?”
   My response…”When Uncle Sam brought us Astro-Turf”

   2…”How come you have relatives buried in US National cemeteries, most illegals are not allowed?”
   My response…” ‘Cause we have been US citizens (albeit 3rd class ones) for a CENTURY and my family tree has lots of holes in it due to relatives who died in US uniforms in WW1, WW2, Korean War, Vietnam War, Iraqi War and every other US-initiated Middle Eastern oil-grab war and we have NEVER been in the US illegally since Uncle Same stole us from Spain in 1898 and forced US citizenship on us, without even asking us.”

   3…”How come so many Puerto Ricans don’t look ‘latino’?”
   My response…”Cause we don’t harbor the same ill-informed, ignorant, inane brown stereo-types about ourselves like you do about us and we KNOW that there is not one ‘Puerto Rican’ look or type, that you’ve learned in the States.”

   4…”How come you speak English so good?”
   My response…” ‘Cause, it is my 3rd language after Spanish and Mandarin” and I can speak it without pinching my crotch, high-5-ing and fist-bumping…I guess I must be a super genius”.

   5…(actually uttered by a black colleague who met my parents once IN their home) “You aren’t Puerto Rican, you’re family is all white people”.
   My response…” ‘I think you need to loosen your blonde hair-extensions. The circulation to your brain is being cut-off again.”.

   6…”Why don’t you have photos of J-Low in your living room?”
   My response…”For the same reason you don’t have photos of piles of garbage on yours.”

   7…”How did you ever get a job working for the Head-of-State of a Middle Eastern country?”
   My response…”Because I beat-out 5,000 applicants from around the world who didn’t have my professional credentials from the Ivy League to the Big 10 to Europe and I actually knew about the history of the country above the level of FaceBook posts and they couldn’t believe an “American” actually had the presence of mind to prepare for my 3-day video-conference interview/interrogation with actual answers that had nothing to do with generic “La Tino” clap-trap that they couldn’t have cared less about.”

   8…”How come you don’t march in the Puerto Rican Day Parade?”
   My response…”Because when I was a little boy living in the housing projects on the Lower East Side my family used to take me to the parade and I would see REAL Puerto Ricans from the 77 towns on the Island as they waved from convertible cars and my parents would explain to me that it was good to know about my homeland. But today it is a politically-prostituted, culturally-raped commercially-motivated con-job with Goya and Banco Popular supporting the absurd presentation of fake Tainos wearing suede loin-cloths despite the fact that there were never any mammals on the Island to make suede out of. And REAL Tainos were naked and NEVER wore Apache war-paint or did Hope Rain Dances. And even worse, today, there are even limbo-dancers “reppin” Puerto Rico even though NO ONE on the Island has EVER danced under bamboo poles or has jumped through hoops of fire with peacock feathers sticking out of their asses BECAUSE there NEVER any peacocks on the Island until they were imported for zoos and hotel lobbies.”

   9…”How come your kids speak English and Spanish and are learning Chinese?”
   My response…”Because it is important for them to be able to communicate with HUGE demographic sectors of the planet unlike American generic “La Tinos” who seldom speak Spanish above the level of Taco Bell drive-up window Spanglish and think that dining at Chi-Chi’s is a “La Tino” cultural immersion experience.

   10…”How is it, that you have 2 grand-uncles who graduated from engineering schools in the Ivy League in the 1920s?
   My response…Because in the late 1800s (when Puerto Rico was still part of Spanish Caribbean colonial network), a Puerto Rican engineer by the name Estevan Antonio Fuertes founded the school of Engineering at Cornell University and he would regularly bring to Cornell gifted, intelligent Island students who wanted to study Engineering with the intent to return to the Island to further advance the development of the Island’s network of roads, tunnels, bridges and water-front commercial import and export piers.

   http://coursewiki.astro.cornell.edu/Fuertes/EstevanFuertes
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estevan_Antonio_Fuertes
   http://coursewiki.astro.cornell.edu/Fuertes/FuertesHistory

   So you see, at this point, NOTHING shocks me any more about the abyss of ignorance about Puerto Rico that is epidemic in proportion on the US Mainland. In fact, in my travels around the planet, I have met people who have never left their own homelands and have never been to the Western Hemisphere who knew MORE about Puerto Rico than most American politicos who are actually passing judgment about our current fiscal state, because “Porto Rico” to them is somewhere between Pago Pago and Atlantis.

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