I’ve seen certain people go quiet in these days leading up to the one year anniversary of Maria, and sometimes, I want to join them. But for me, that would mean not using the only thing I have, which is my voice, and would be a cowardly way to deal with the frustration of none of y’all getting it and the pain of this tragedy and the trauma it caused in Puerto Rico and to so many of us outside the archipelago.
I hope that if you do the trite social media memorial, you guys take a moment to think about what words you use, what images you use and what rhetoric you back.
We are your ~fellow citizens~ by literal colonial imposition. Start there.
This country invaded Puerto Rico. Like, there were BOMBS involved.
We have tried for 120 years to find a way out of this situation **which cannot be resolved by voting or with a goddamn petition** and in our recent history, the response to any kind of organized independence movement(s), were massacres (for example the Ponce Massacre), repressive acts (La Ley De Mordaza, the literal fbi binders filled with information about any and all people involved with the independence movement, ROSELLĂ“ BRINGING PESQUERA BACK in 2016 AFTER THE ANTI PROMESA PROTESTS STARTED HEATING UP - I can go on) and more while this country simultaneously experimented on us (radiation poisoning, sterilization and birth control experiments), bombed Vieques, contaminated our land all while slowly erasing our identity and therefor us, as a people and as a *country*.
Maria brought our colonial plight to light a little but y’all continue not to see the forest for the trees bc y’all are generally so used to American exceptionalism, that you don’t question why we are a territory to begin with.
And more insulting, you think that statehood or not having an opinion because “Puerto Ricans should decide what they want” is the way to right 120 years of wrongs.
Let me tell you something: the former is some Stockholm syndrome shit and the latter is spineless.
Colonialism is something you object to or support. If you object to it, it SHOULD be because you believe that the colonized nation deserves to be free; not because you think the colony needs to work with the colonizer and figure out a fair way to coexist. And further, this country hasn’t cared any of the times Puerto Ricans have voted for statehood, so if your position is to defer to what Puerto Ricans “want,” the point is MOOT, you idiots. (And the last two votes were problematic- the last vote was boycotted bc the US literally made them change the plebiscite and the one before was suspect bc of the thousands of BLANK ballots that were turned in)
I repeat for the 3838272th time: with regard to Puerto Rico, politically, there are no good guys within the ~establishment~ (I am rolling my eyes at myself). None. The only good guys are the actual resistance and none are affiliated with any political party. Groups like Jornada: Se acabaron las Promesas and people who put their bodies on the line to protest our status. People who don’t play politics. People who have the heart and courage to speak truth and who most of y’all couldn’t understand anyway because this all goes down in SPANISH.
Ive been saying the same thing over and over and it is exhausting but if you care about justice, frame your conversation(s) and memorials in an anti-colonialist context. Speak up and advocate for our independence.
The thousands that have died as a result of this neo-colonial experiment go beyond the lives that Maria claimed and when y’all share dismissive political cartoons that don’t shine a light on colonialism or actual history and make trompito jokes instead of highlighting the fact that we are a colony that deserves freedom, and that everything that has happened is LITERALLY a direct result of colonialism, I want to screamcry. But it’s funny bc there are A++ political cartoons that come from Puerto Rico but most ppl wouldn’t get it because they reference events and people that y’all don’t know and also, IN SPANISH.
The truth is that there is no way this country can be fair to us because that is not how colonialism works.
đź—ŁThe đź—Łtruth đź—Łis đź—Łthat đź—Łthere đź—Łis đź—Łno đź—Łway đź—Łthis đź—Łcountry đź—Łcan đź—Łbe đź—Łfair đź—Łto đź—Łus đź—Łbecause đź—Łthat đź—Łis đź—Łnot đź—Łhow đź—Łcolonialism đź—Łworks.
Get acquainted with that idea and go from there. The colonizer takes advantage and the colony is screwed until they can be free. And no matter how unrealistic independence may be, it is ethically the only correct thing to believe in. In an abusive relationship, you’d never advocate for the abuser to be better to the person they’re abusing, so why do y’all do that with us?
Instead of taking another stupid shot at trompito (who was just as shitty to us as every other president), why don’t you lift up and support the people who took it upon themselves to help their communities? People like my hero Lin Betsy Benitez or groups like Taller Salud? And if you must talk about him and the US, please please frame your commentary within an anti-colonialist perspective. Do it for the thousands who have died because they believed in our independence and do it for the thousands who died as a result of colonial negligence.
