Speaking Boricua

Stepping Out

noreply@blogger.com (Speaking Boricua) — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 16:36:00 +0000

Hello everyone,

This is probably obvious to everyone here, but I've chosen to abandon the blog. It was too much time to keep up with it. That said, I also feel good about what has been accomplished here. I think it's fair to say that this serves as a fairly decent resource where there aren't too many.

If you do have questions that haven't been addressed on here, feel free to shoot me at e-mail at speakingboricua@gmail.com . I don't check it much but I will reply eventually.

Thanks for all the fun on here! I'll leave you with a photo:

Hasta luego!

El GPS Boricua

noreply@blogger.com (Speaking Boricua) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:50:00 +0000

A friend (you know who you are!) posted this video and I thought it was just too funny to not post. If you've ever been driving in Puerto Rico you'll know exactly what this is talking about. It is in Spanish though.

Sotomayor!! Sotomayor!!

noreply@blogger.com (Speaking Boricua) — Fri, 29 May 2009 22:17:00 +0000

Gosh, guys, it's been forever! I'm sorry! I had the craziest semester ever, I really did, but hopefully now I'll have a chance to post a couple things in here every once in a while (I don't want to be overly ambitious). Also I'm planning my next trip to the island so posting will get more and more frequent as I get more and more excited--I haven't been in nearly a year and the wait is already unbearable!

Anyways, I'm sure we've all heard quite a bit now on Sotomayor, some of it disturbing, and some really inspiring. I don't feel a need to link to most of it but I did find it cute that it caused Slate to put up an essay titled "Why are we in Puerto Rico?" I don't think I entirely agree with some of his history "facts", but it's pretty interesting that Sotomayor apparently supported secession, at least back in her undergrad days. I doubt though that anyone will hold that against her now, unlike some of her rulings.

We'll see how that turns out soon enough, I suppose.

Good luck with that

noreply@blogger.com (Speaking Boricua) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 12:59:00 +0000

Leave Elvis Crespo Alone!

noreply@blogger.com (Speaking Boricua) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 03:44:00 +0000

As I'm sure you've heard, the famous merengue-singer Elvis Crespo is in trouble for masturbating on a plane. That said, I must call attention to this fabulous video a la Chris Crocker in response to all the publicity he's gotten. It is hilarious--and for those of you who need it, there are English subtitles!

Callá' but doing okay - alcohol, Johnny Depp, and homocide

noreply@blogger.com (Speaking Boricua) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 02:14:00 +0000

As you've noticed and as I keep referencing, I've been real busy. I kind of went in over my head this semester and I guess it's showing. Anyways, I've missed a whole lot. Aníbal going free, for example. I haven't touched the Elvis Crespo masturbating scandal because... well... it squicks me out.

But I'm taking a moment to share a couple things. First off, Johnny Depp is in Puerto Rico, meeting fans while filming The Rum Diaries. I've read the book and I'm really interested in seeing how Puerto Rico is represented in the movie, especially considering the time that's passed. I'm not a big Johnny Depp fan (and occasionally feel like I'm the only person in the world who feels that way) but... I don't know. I'm an optimist but I don't trust celebrities, so...

Anyways, more seriously, Gil the Jenius has calculated that Puerto Rico's murder rate, if taken from the U.S. rate which encompasses the island, would be the 7th highest in the world. Yikes! It seems a little high still... I don't know. Definitely a must read.

30,000 to be unemployed

noreply@blogger.com (Speaking Boricua) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 01:26:00 +0000

I know I have been quiet for a little while, but I've been getting a lot of comments, some of them quite heated. Keep it up guys--a lot of you have really interesting perspectives.

Anyways, as I'm sure everyone is aware (at least by now), Governor Fortuño has announced that 30,000 government jobs will be cut to deal with the financial crisis. I have mixed feelings. On one hand, the government really needed to be downsized anyways. On the other hand, it's incredibly irresponsible of the government to throw all these employees out in the cold, especially considering there's no way most of them will be able to find jobs on the island at the moment (the unemployment rate is ridiculous). Impending disaster anyone?

Nación nómada - Nomad Nation

noreply@blogger.com (Speaking Boricua) — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 20:06:00 +0000

El Nuevo Día has got an interesting article up at the moment about Puerto Rican migration. Today's level could potentially overcome that of the 40's and 50's--which wouldn't surprise me one bit. With the economy of the moment hitting Puerto Rico even harder than it is the U.S., I'm sure we could easy reach unprecedented levels of migration soon. This migration wave is very different though, as the article points out. Skilled, educated workers are unable to find jobs on the island and are accepting offers on the mainland instead. Worth reading.

Word of the Week: El Difícil, and Puerto Rico does not speak English

noreply@blogger.com (Speaking Boricua) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 01:32:00 +0000

Sometimes it seems near impossible to find people who won't speak to you in English on the island: one tiny whiff of gringo-ness and you may find yourself having to explain in your native tongue* that no, you don't know their second cousin living in the state adjacent to yours. But the truth is that plenty of people of don't speak English well on the island. I was particularly interested in this article which claims that an entire 137 potential jury members couldn't serve in the jury for the famous Aníbal case (still ongoing, of course) because their English wasn't at an appropriate level.

They make some interesting points in the article, mostly because they start drifting into politics in a way they normally avoid. Honestly it reads more like something I'd write than something produced by El Nuevo Día based on the positions they take, surprisingly.

La mayoría de los que saben inglés en el país pertenecen a la clase media y alta, mientras que la inmensa mayoría del país es de la clase pobre, subrayó el antropólogo Jorge Duany.
“La distribución de las destrezas lingüísticas en inglés está mal distribuida, la mayoría de las personas que lo hablan vienen de escuelas privadas, donde se enseña inglés como único idioma. Esto crea un discrimen por razón de clase, porque sólo la clase media y alta pueden pagar por el colegio donde enseñan en inglés”, expresó Duany.
Las razones que explican el escaso dominio del inglés en la Isla incluyen las deficiencias en la enseñanza pública; la poca migración de estadounidenses hacia la Isla, distinto de Texas y Hawai, donde el inglés no es la lengua original; y que en la vida cotidiana en Puerto Rico no hace falta inglés, dijo Duany. Además, en Puerto Rico ha habido una resistencia lingüística, porque en la primera mitad del siglo XX se trató de imponer el inglés como idioma de enseñanza.
“El español se ha visto como un símbolo de la identidad puertorriqueña”, dijo Duany.
The majority of those who speak English in Puerto Rico belong to the upper and middle classes, while the country is mostly comprised of the lower class, emphasized the anthropologist Jorge Duany.
"The distribution of linguistic skills isn't even; the majority of people who speak [English] come from private schools, where English is taught as the only language [as in all the classes are taught in English]. This creates class discrimination, because only upper and middle classes can pay for schools that teach in English," Duany expressed.
The reasons for scarcity of the command of English on the island include deficiencies in public education; the lack of American migration to the island, unlike Texas and Hawaii, where English is also not the original language; and that English isn't necessary for daily life in Puerto Rico, said Duany. Additionally, there has been a linguistic resistance in Puerto Rico because in the first half of the 20th century the U.S. attempted to impose English as the language of all education on the island.
"Spanish has been seen as a symbol of Puerto Rican identity," said Duany.

Along with this point the scholar Jorge Duany makes (shoddily translated by yours truly--although to be fair some of the writing wasn't too great), I'd like to point out something in the title--"el difícil".

El difícil (literally "the difficult one") is a Puerto Rican term coined to describe English. I think the term is very telling, especially in this context: while no other countries have similar nicknames for English (as far as I know; fill me in if you know anything), Puerto Rico, due to its uneasy and persistent relationship with English, has nicknamed it in a way that reflects its position as an obstacle, rather than a method of ascension (professionally, socially, politically, or otherwise)--while it can be used that way, more often than not it isn't.

Anyways... I'm not really sure where I'm going with this and it's getting a little longer than I'd like, so I'll cut it off here. Comments, criticisms, and the like are, as always, welcome.

* This occasionally happens to Puerto Ricans as well if they happen to seem like gringos for whatever reason, despite having lived their whole lives on the island. So don't take it too hard if it happens to you.

Pretty much the most ridiculous thing I've seen all day

noreply@blogger.com (Speaking Boricua) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 01:23:00 +0000

This one really takes the cake: Mayagüez politicians are suggesting funding a search for sunken treasure in order to pay for the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games. Now I understand the importance of hosting this, but the chances of them pulling this off are slim. I mean, come on now!

A triumphant return and disheartening news

noreply@blogger.com (Speaking Boricua) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 03:45:00 +0000

Well, I'm back. Perhaps reluctantly... I was in Ecuador all this time and had a great time. It was impressive how many times I got questioned about the accent ("Where are you from, exactly?" or better yet, "How come you look like a complete gringa but you have this crazy accent? What's that about?"). I must admit though that the fruit is significantly better in Puerto Rico, even if it was good in Ecuador; I noticed a huge difference with papaya and mango especially.

I'm updating for a more somber reason, however. I was shocked to see Puerto Rico make the front page of the news the other day; I was even more shocked to find out why. As most people probably know, a 6-person plane coming from the Dominican Republic crashed into the ocean near Quebradillas. Of course as soon as the victims' names were revealed, showing (I believe) all of them to be Puerto Rican, the news disappeared. I'm not really sure this is a coincidence. Anyways, they've just decided to suspend the search today, since it has been so far fruitless. Many sympathies to the families of the victims for their losses.

First, however, one more thing...

noreply@blogger.com (Speaking Boricua) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 23:28:00 +0000

I forgot I was going to link to this article which showed up on the front page of the Washington Post about a new bilingual production of West Side Story. Unfortunately I won't be able to see it anytime soon to comment on the quality of the show, but undoubtedly it is a great move to make for everyone involved.

Also, Obama has sent an interesting letter to Fortuño (who just officially became governor) which El Nuevo Dia has generously (or not) posted online here. Interesting...

A (very temporary) hiatus

noreply@blogger.com (Speaking Boricua) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 23:17:00 +0000

Just warning all readers that I will be out of the country for about a month and thus won't be updating (most likely).

Happy new year to everyone and happy Three Kings Day! (January 6, remember?) See you soon!

Christmas isn't over!

noreply@blogger.com (Speaking Boricua) — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 23:52:00 +0000

Just a reminder that you guys all have Three Kings day+ ahead of you... so don't put away your güiro!

Navidad season

noreply@blogger.com (Speaking Boricua) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:08:00 +0000

Last year about this time I wrote a whole lot about the Christmas season in Puerto Rico, which I recommend you read. Anyways, today's Yenny comic is about aguinaldos and the ridiculousness of the lyrics... in both English and Spanish.

Puerto Rican cinema and the youth

noreply@blogger.com (Speaking Boricua) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 05:08:00 +0000

I'm not sure if it's appropriate to refer to people my age as "youth". I suppose it's okay.

Anyways, El Nuevo Día has an interesting article about Puerto Rican students who are getting involved in cinema and what implications that may have for the national industry. I'm a big fan of their revitalization efforts so I was happy to hear about that.

Spanish food in San Juan

noreply@blogger.com (Speaking Boricua) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:57:00 +0000

The Washington Post had an article this weekend about Spanish food in San Juan. Glance it over perhaps? It's a little too much octopus for my taste I think...

Julia de Burgos - Íntima

noreply@blogger.com (Speaking Boricua) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 18:06:00 +0000

This is one of my favorite poems by Julia de Burgos; I think the reason behind that statement should be clear. If you need a translation, there's one here. I personally don't want to risk the copyright violation (the translation is from Song of the Simple Truth: Obra poética completa/the complete poems of Julia de Burgos by Jack Agüeros).

Íntima
Se recogió la vida para verme pasar.
Me fui perdiendo átomo por átomo de mi carne
y fui resbalándome poco a poco al alma.

Peregrina en mí misma, me anduve un largo instante.
Me prolongué en el rumbo de aquel camino errante
que se abría en mi interior,
y me llegué hasta mí, íntima.

Conmigo cabalgando seguí por la sombra del tiempo
y me hice paisaje lejos de mi visión.

Me conocí mensaje lejos de la palabra.
Me sentí vida al reverso de una superficie de colores y formas.
Y me vi claridad ahuyentando la sombra vaciada en la tierra desde el hombre.

--------

Ha sonado un reloj la hora escogida de todos.
¿La hora? Cualquiera. Todas en una misma.
Las cosas circundantes reconquistan color y forma.
Los hombres se mueven ajenos a sí mismos
para agarrar ese minuto índice
que los conduce por varias direcciones estáticas.

Siempre la misma carne apretándose muda a lo ya hecho.
Me busco. Estoy aún en el paisaje lejos de mi visión.
Sigo siendo mensaje lejos de la palabra.

La forma que se aleja y que fue mía un instante
me ha dejado íntima.
Y me veo claridad ahuyentando la sombra vaciada en la tierra desde el hombre.

And some somber news...

noreply@blogger.com (Speaking Boricua) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:47:00 +0000

To follow that last upbeat post, apparently there has been a plane accident in El Yunque, killing the pilot and two (American) passengers. Q.E.P.D.

A hilarious video on Puerto Rico

noreply@blogger.com (Speaking Boricua) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:26:00 +0000

When I need something funny, I usually look for "Spanish projects" on Youtube, with the results usually being quite satisfying. I chanced upon this video today and thought everyone might like a laugh. I'm coming up on finals so I can say I definitely needed it. Enjoy!!

... huh?!

noreply@blogger.com (Speaking Boricua) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:03:00 +0000

Aníbal has got 15 of the 24 charges against him dropped. Really? How...?

I'm just going to keep looking at the pictures of girls trying to win a Taíno beauty pageant instead (along with another article by Damien Cave--seems he's in Puerto Rico for now, seeing as this is the second article by him in the last couple of days about the island).

Luis Fortuño, Obama, and the problems of Puerto Rico today

noreply@blogger.com (Speaking Boricua) — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 15:57:00 +0000

Damien Cave has written an interesting article about Fortuño's victory in the New York Times, but I thought I'd argue a few points, particularly since there wasn't anywhere to comment on the article as far as I could see.

First off, I thought the opening was very telling:

Republicans in Washington cheered when Luis G. Fortuño, one of their own, was elected governor of Puerto Rico on Nov. 4. But here on the island, where American affiliations are often worn and dropped like accessories, he now describes his victory as Obamaesque.

But then begin the understatements:

Mr. Fortuño emphasized in an interview that “cambio,” or “change,” had been his slogan since 2006. And like President-elect Barack Obama, Mr. Fortuño said the economy would be Job 1 for his administration, managed with a youthful nonpartisan approach.

Not only that, but there were blatant accusations that Fortuño had stolen a great deal of his campaign from Obama, in particular his website layout, which looked admittedly very much like Obama's. And Puerto Ricans were hearing as much about "change" as we were. From a distance they could have been the same campaign.

The recession now emerging in places like Florida and Ohio has been a fact of life in Puerto Rico for three years. Unemployment has climbed to nearly 12 percent. Taxes have gone up, purchasing power has declined, and the island’s roughly four million residents are unlikely to be patient with their new leader.

Very true and yet doesn't nearly begin to describe the problem. The unemployment rate? That's the official number--it is in reality significantly higher and has been for a long time. Taxes have gone up in the sense that the IVU/sales tax didn't exist until a couple years ago. Certainly purchasing power has declined--and it was already terrible enough. Something this quotation and really the rest of the article ignores is that, even more than all these factors, Puerto Rico's economy is dramatically affected by the American economy, and anything felt in the States is felt at least twice as strong on the island. It's hard, then, for us to find all the causes of the current problem on the island itself, and harder still to expect a politician to be able to solve the problem without the U.S. improving its own economy... no matter what Luis Fortuño thinks.

However, I would still encourage him to try to do as much as possible, of course. No sense in giving up.

Another problem the article correctly points out:

The structural challenges are immense. Government here plays an outsize role, employing 20 percent to 30 percent of workers on the island, and it is on the verge of bankruptcy. The current administration said this week that it would end the year with a $2 billion budget deficit. One official suggested it was struggling to make payroll, and some institutions — like the Center for Puerto Rican Studies — already report that they have not received government money they are owed.

Luis Fortuño, however, has come up with a solution that I (and others) fear is not really going to solve anything:

Specifically, he said he would institute a hiring freeze that would, with attrition, lead to a 3 percent to 5 percent cut in government staffing annually and save $1.5 billion in four years. He has also turned to the private sector for cabinet-level posts, and called on wealthy business owners to invest more on the island.

Yes, you'll get rid of some employees, but then where do they go? Which is a bigger problem, the government being too large of an employer or unemployment? While yes, I agree that something must be done, is now really the time? These people are not going to be able to find a job as even more companies and their factories leave the island. It's not mentioned in the article if Fortuño has some way of magically attracting businesses, but it'd be really irresponsible to just ignore the people who won't get a job or will lose a job.

Despite laying out all the problems, there's still optimism expressed by the interviewees. I find it kind of hard to believe. After all the cynicism in this last election... well, we'll see, I suppose. What other choice do we have?

Re: Re: Referendum or Restitution?

noreply@blogger.com (Speaking Boricua) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:40:00 +0000

So the never-ending status question has been raised again, this time with the can of worms by Gil the Jenius and then the can of snakes from DONDEQUIERA. In this second post a series of questions are posed and in my usual fashion I've decided to respond. Not in order of the questions, of course, but in the order they fall in naturally. If we're going to stick with metaphors, let's call this the can of anacondas, shall we?

The first thing that caught my eye was the question of why Puerto Rico doesn't carry the same grudge for Spain that it has for the U.S. This is pretty simple to explain; when has anybody ever not wanted what they can't have? And yet during Spanish colonization there was plenty of animosity towards the Spanish--perhaps not as much as in most Latin American countries, for a few reasons: one, the size of the country--the population was very small and very spread out, with most small towns nearly unreachable--two, Puerto Rico was a bastion for the last Spanish empire supporters of Latin America, as many of the former politicians, military leaders, and richer families supporting Spain fled to the island, where they continued to have positions of power, and three, Spanish rule and the system of hegemony accompanying it maintained the careful racial and political system of the time. Puerto Rican hacendados were desperately clinging to the power they had, especially in light of the revolution in Haiti, which frightened the rest of the Caribbean, and el Grito de Lares, which greatly depended on the effort of many slaves. But there was still plenty of discontent, some of which was concentrated into the efforts of Cuba, some of which waited for the new autonomous government which came into existence in 1898, a couple of months before the U.S. invasion. It's important to note that the autonomy that the Spanish government bestowed upon Puerto Rico actually granted a few more rights than the current setup does, in particular real government representation in las Cortes de Cádiz as opposed to the voteless Resident Commissioner in Congress.

However, to continue to link Puerto Rico with Spain and Latin America in many ways is unfair. While the similarities and shared cultural aspects are countless, Puerto Rico has gone down a very different political path, one that involved many abrupt changes, slow cultural shifts, and everything in between. In this sense we can't link all of Puerto Rico's problems to its Latin heritage. In this same manner the status and other issues mentioned in the blog post above aren't the cause of crime. I'd say that, among these contributing factors, the biggest one is poverty.

... which brings us to my main point. Although the U.S. has not necessarily done the damage that, say, Russia has done to Georgia (in the previous post's example), even in regards to Vieques, it also has not done it justice, especially concerning the poverty of the island. Most people at this moment will point to the great economic changes that have taken place in the island, especially in the last 50 years. Believe me when I say these changes are superficial. For one, both the U.S. and Puerto Rican political efforts have sought temporary fixes for permanent problems. But the biggest cause I see of poverty is the importation of U.S. products. This culture of dependency thing that a lot of people rail about is much more serious than we think. After all, Puerto Rico gets over 90% of its imports from the U.S., which is a huge amount considering that nearly everything that is consumed in Puerto Rico is imported. In comparison, how much does the U.S. import from Puerto Rico? While technically the island exports more than it imports, nearly all of it is pharmaceuticals--which means the money is still going to the American companies who own the factories on the island, rather than the Puerto Ricans working in them. This great disbalance would help to explain why the Puerto Rican economy is nearly stagnant and unable to catch up to the American one.

It also helps explain why the U.S. continues its hold on Puerto Rico. While the U.S. has very little to lose from the independence of Puerto Rico in the traditional colonial sense, it has everything to gain from keeping it. A great percentage of the money spent in Puerto Rico is returning directly to American corporations, who in turn pay taxes on it to the U.S. government, who in turn pays only a tiny percent of Medicaid and other social services in comparison to how much it should be paying based on the poverty level. Because all the money is literally flowing out of Puerto Rico, the government is crippled with a lack of funds and (even if it were in theory capable of such a move) couldn't begin to create a system to replace or supplement U.S. aid.

Skeptics (including myself) now are rightly bringing up a couple of questions: one, can the Puerto Rican government actually be effective and not corrupt, and two, why does the Puerto Rican people not act against such a cycle? The first one doesn't have a clear answer; I'd honestly love to promise that such a government is possible, but politicians are politicians so it's only fair to be cynical. Therefore we should try to find a solution acknowledging the inevitable problems, or perhaps in spite of them. The second question, on the other hand, is much more difficult to answer. In fact, it is one Puerto Rico and many of its political movements have been grappling with since the times of Luis Muñoz Marín and the development of today's Commonwealth--how to engage and awaken a fiercely loyal and admittedly stubborn voting public? Unfortunately, most see this as near impossible feat, understandably. It seems that the only thing that would provoke a sudden change in opinion would be a dramatic and traumatic event, not necessarily Russia-Georgia scaled but perhaps another Vieques.

That's not to say I wish that something would actually happen to Puerto Rico ('cause I don't) nor that I think we should be forcing people to believe in something they don't want. That's not fair. However, I think more awareness about history, politics, and economics would begin to tilt things in another direction, or at least allow people to make a more informed decision. Confidence would also make a big difference--Puerto Ricans should understand that there's no reason an independent Puerto Rico would reflect the image they carry of stereotypical Latin American corrupt governments and devastating poverty (which, by the way, are not uniform nor mandatory for all countries during all time periods) and that indeed Puerto Rico could reach a greater level of success should it so desire it. That it is to say, there is no inherent reason for Puerto Rico not to do well independently, just as nothing really is inherent at all. Naturally we could expect plenty of difficulties from every direction, and a well-designed process towards independence would anticipate and plan for as many as possible. But the obstacles alone, as scary as they may seem--and they are, because they represent the loss of security which Puerto Rico clings to through the continuation of the current status--, should not frighten anyone from making a decision that ultimately would be the best for the country. The options are these: either accept that a few sacrifices today will mean a changed country tomorrow, or Puerto Rico stays as it is and faces a future that contains few profound and necessary changes, thus condemning it to simply getting by rather than any chance at excelling... or, of course, statehood, which would bring more security but far less cultural freedom. All of these choices have sufficient reasons behind them, which I respect as someone who can't really be a part of the politics. But when people vote with fear, or rather because of it, as in they don't really want what they're voting for but fear what they really want (whether or not they realize this is the reason they vote as they do), there is a problem. I'm not talking the lesser-of-two-evils problem that many people face when at the polls, since usually the impact that decision will have on the person's life is many times minimal if they don't hold any of the issues that highly. Instead, I'm referring to the continuation of a system most people don't want to be a part of (hence that 50-some percent "none of the above" vote in the '98 plebiscite) and the denial of the great potential Puerto Rico has. Deny it as you may, there's no way to foresee what an independent Puerto Rico could accomplish or what it could fail at. But based on the Commonwealth's track record, consisting of dependency, poverty, and corruption, it's pretty easy to predict how Puerto Rico will continue to get by and nothing more, all while trapped deeper in the mire.

All that said, I'm not about to pick up the torch. Since I'm not exactly on the island, nor do I feel it fair for me as a non-Puerto Rican to have a say in Puerto Rican politics (useless blog posting does not count!), there's not really much I could or should do. If I've touched on a truth here or there, eventually it will be discovered and then perhaps change can come--or perhaps not. Knowledge doesn't imply change, or even the ability to change. The cynic (realist?) in me can't imagine anything changing anytime soon, except maybe the transition to statehood at some point. And honestly, it's not my place to admonish anyone should that happen.

That brings me to my other point, which is my coming out of types as a supporter of independence for the island. This is despite the fact that, again, I would never dare vote in the Puerto Rican elections because I don't believe in letting my vote cancel out someone's more legitimate vote, as well as that an independent Puerto Rico would make my relationships with the island and my friends there that much harder to maintain. Because of this admitting it to myself has been kind of difficult, but I'm reassured by the fact that it won't really affect anyone. So don't take it too seriously, especially in light of what I said above: that there are plenty of valid reasons for any position and I don't really oppose any of them. In fact, if any one status option is finally selected as a permanent answer, whoever leads the government has to account for all of their concerns or face huge problems.

I think that's about all I have to say for the moment. As always, I encourage friendly and not-overly-passionate debate (being overly enthusiastic on the internet is a waste of time, as far as I can tell) and any questions. I think I sufficiently addressed most of the questions in the original blog post referenced above but if anyone has any pressing desires for a direct answer to one or two let me know.

¡Feliz día de San Guivin!

noreply@blogger.com (Speaking Boricua) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:19:00 +0000

...Puerto Rico's favorite saint.

It's a little late but I hope everyone is enjoying their pavo... and whatever else may accompany it!!

Word of the Week: Charro

noreply@blogger.com (Speaking Boricua) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 17:22:00 +0000

Charro (or charrería) is a great word. It means lame, something of bad taste. Supposedly it comes from the Mexican "charro", one of those singers who gets all dressed up (and from a Puerto Rican perspective, very lame indeed)... which in turn supposedly comes from "charro" being a label for the people of Salamanca (in Spain). None of this being proven, but rather educated guesses.