Puerto Rico is becoming very strange. The FBI collected DNA samples from radical dissidents and warned that “Islamic terrorists” may soon attack Borinquen. The island’s beaches were nearly “privatized” two weeks ago. The CDC will no longer monitor the water supply, and is planning to fumigate everyone with NALED.

Under these conditions, people need to be very careful how they “challenge” the system, or they might go to jail. For this reason we need an underground hero in Puerto Rico: someone like El Zorro, Robin Hood, Batman, Kilroy, or Guy Fawkes. The key is, in order to be effective…they must be ANONYMOUS.

THE OUTRAGE

Over the next few years, there will be much pain and outrage in Puerto Rico. Many people will lose their jobs, homes or pensions – and some will lose all three of them .

Others will be forced to work for $4.25 an hour, even as the rest of the U.S. moves toward a $15 minimum wage.

People who followed the rules, worked hard their whole life, and believed in the system, will now see that system tear into their livelihood, their savings, and their self-esteem.

In Section 104 (h), the PROMESA law prohibits all public employees from participating in a strike or lockout, and authorizes the Financial Control Board (FCB) to “promptly enforce” this…ie, to fire the employees and place them under arrest.

On that very same page, Section 104 (e) authorizes the FCB to “accept, use, and dispose of gifts, bequests, or devises of services or property, both real and personal.”

In other words, the FCB can ruin the lives of employees trying to protect their jobs, while receiving gifts of money, jewelry, and real estate, from the “public private partnerships” that are victimizing those same employees.

This is an open invitation to bribery, influence peddling and money laundering – and a blatant abuse of human rights – all in the name of “restoring the Puerto Rican economy.” 

THE RESPONSE

In order not to be branded a “terrorist” by the FBI, or a “disruptive employee” by the FCB, Puerto Ricans will have to be very careful…or they could lose their jobs, their income, and even their freedom.

For this reason, Puerto Rico should develop anonymous methods of “disruption” and anonymous heroes to carry it out.

There is a long precedent for this.

THE HISTORY

In 1554, El Lazarillo de Tormes was published anonymously in Spain and Belgium. The novel bitterly exposed the Spanish Inquisition, and became an international sensation.

http://www.donquijote.org/spanishlanguage/literature/library/lazarillo/

http://www.eldiario.es/zonacritica/Lazaro-Tormes-corrupcion-mentiras-oro_6_107499260.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarillo_de_Tormes

Between 1810 and 1850, up to 100 thousand U.S. slaves escaped via the Underground Railroad.

http://www.historynet.com/underground-railroad

The French Resistance waged a silent yet powerful struggle against Nazi occupation during WW II.

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/world-war-two/resistance-movements/the-french-resistance/

During that same war Australian, British and US soldiers invented Mr. Foo, Mr. Chad, and “Kilroy was here.” All three mythical figures sustained the soldiers’ morale.

http://www.openwriting.com/archives/2005/08/mr_chad_and_kil.php

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-kil1.htm

Santería and Capoeira evolved to preserve ancient belief systems, and to develop hidden methods of self-defense: both spiritual and physical.

https://books.google.com/books?id=hF_xjFL6_NEC&pg=RA1-PA305#v=onepage&q&f=false

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-30219941

COMMON SENSE AS A POLITICAL WEAPON

Over the next few years, an enormous amount of Orwellian propaganda will be dumped on Puerto Rico. Over the past month alone, the process has already accelerated:

• a Financial Control Board is called a PROMESA
• a $4.25 minimum wage will “strengthen the economy”
• NALED will “protect the public health”
• beaches are privatized to “preserve the environment”
• Islamic terrorists are preparing to attack Puerto Rico

Under this surrealistic propaganda barrage, it is no wonder that Magic Realism developed as a Latin American literary form!

And so, the time is perfect for the rise of a new Puerto Rican hero.

This hero will be an avatar, a public symbol…he/she will not be flesh & blood, so that they cannot be arrested.

He/She will be ANONYMOUS.

They will be all over the island, all at once…there’s a flat tire in a Monsanto plant; graffiti on a Marriott Hotel wall; the traffic stops on PR-5 and PR-22, the two highways which are owned by Goldman Sachs…

But every time the police arrive, they will only see:

             Don Pedro was here

             Lolita was here

             Urayoán was here

             Pitirre was here

             Juan Bobo was here

The FBI will arrest no one…because no one will be there to get arrested.

Only the message that was left behind.

Only the politics of common sense.

DE-CENTRALIZE THE REVOLUTION

A march through San Juan and a Campamento in the Capital are very fine things.

They help to create public awareness.

But with 3.5 million Puerto Ricans spread all over the island, you don’t need to disrupt your life…and take a whole day off…and congregate in one place…and become an easy target for police containment and arrest.

You can use your widely distributed numbers – all throughout the island – to create hundreds of little inconveniences, thousands of disruptions, every day, all over the island…

And each time, the same single message is left:

             Don Pedro was here

             Lolita was here

             Urayoán was here

             Pitirre was here

             Juan Bobo was here

You don’t have to attack La Fortaleza, storm the Bastille, or blow up Parliament like Guy Fawkes.

You just pick one message…

Disrupt the system all over the island, every day, in clever little ways…

Leave your message behind…

And that is how 3.5 million people can defeat the 1%, who are trying to own and control them.

You wear them out.

TOMORROW

Tomorrow I will present an example of the type of personality – the type of legend – that can wear them out.

I will call it: V for Vendetta in Puerto Rico (Part II).