El Sol Latino | April 2017 | 13.6

April 2017

Volume 13 No. 6

Un Periódico Diferente / A Different Kind of Newspaper

United States’

Colonialism in

Puerto Rico

Un Periódico Diferente / A Different Kind of Newspaper

Un Periódico Diferente / A Different Kind of Newspaper

Un Periódico Diferente / A Different Kind of Newspaper

Small sample of books and a documentary about Puerto Rico’s colonial status

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Editorial/Editorial

Note from the Editor In April of 1993, the School of Education at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in conjunction with the Mauricio Gastón Institute at UMass-Boston, organized a conference about Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans entitled Symposium on Puerto Rican Migration and Education. Seven years later, in 2000, the Center for Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies of UMass-Amherst hosted the 4th International Conference of the Puerto Rican Studies Association.

These events assembled a great number of Puerto Rican educators, scholars, community organizers, and political activists both from the island as well as from the mainland. The key theme of both conferences was the precarious economic and financial crisis in Puerto Rico, its causes, consequences, and future implications.

Ironically, twenty-four years after that first conference, and seventeen years after the second conference, we gather again to discuss the same topic: the colonial status of Puerto Rico and its current economic and financial crisis.

We have decided to reprint the narrative of the Call for Papers of the conference to be held this Spring at UMassAmherst on April 13 and 14 since it very eloquently summarizes the dire situation that Puerto Rico is currently facing.

Puerto Rico: Savage Neoliberalism, Colonialism and Financial Despotism The Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies-CLALCS at the University of MassachusettsAmherst and the Puerto Rican Studies Working GroupRSWG, are organizing a two-day regional event titled Puerto Rico: Savage Neoliberalism, Colonialism and Financial Despotism. Our main goal is to reunitea group of academics, community activists, and governmental workers, to analyze the current crisis in Puerto Rico, place it in an historical context, discuss it causes and implications, as well as talk about possible strategies and alternatives to face it.

This past June the United States Congress approved the establishment of a Fiscal Oversight Board to take control over all budgetary decisions by the government of Puerto Rico. The Board, known in Spanish as “Junta de Control Fiscal,” consists of seven persons, all appointed by President Obama acting on recommendations by both the Republican and Democratic congressional leadership. President Obama appointed all members, three of whom are Puerto Ricans. The governor of Puerto Rico is an exofficio member of the Board with voice but no vote.

unsustainable pattern of public indebtedness, which led the Federal government to take over. This is a situation in which imperialism, colonialism, and neoliberalism coalesce in a society that has been fraying for a long time and is now moving toward a humanitarian crisis. Per the Congressional logic, supported by local elites, the solution does not lie in democracy but in a suspension of democratic practices as well as in the imposition of the well-known recipe of privatization and higher taxes that ravaged Latin American economies in the 1980s as it is now ravaging the Greek economy.

The triad mentioned above of imperialism, colonialism, and neoliberalism will design public policies that, likely, will deepen the deterioration of the social fabric and create conditions for a radical reformulation of the present colonial relationshipwith the United States government. Given this situation that, arguably, will be worsened with new conservative administrations in the island and the United States, Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans find ourselves in an historical crossroads, situation that urgently requires critical investigation and analysis.

contents

2 Editorial / Editorial Puerto Rico: Savage Neoliberalism, Colonialism and Financial Despotism 3 Portada / Front Page Are Puerto Ricans really American citizens?

4 Why Puerto Ricans Did Not Receive U.S. Citizenship So They Could Fight in WWI 6 De mal en peor para Puerto Rico 7 No end in sight to Puerto Rican migration Tinta Caliente / Hot Ink 9 ¿Qué Pasa en...?

11 Opinión / Opinion Distopía: Puerto Rico 2024, sátira de un futuro imposible 12 Election Year 13 Libros / Books En el país que amamos: mi familia dividida Media/ Media Un jíbaro en USA: un podcast de la diáspora 14 Música/ Music Juan Flores’s Salsa: A Never Ending Conversation 15 Science & Society / Ciencia & Sociedad ‘The importance of science in our society

All of this can be expressed in a different way: Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States confronting an

Foto del Mes/Photo of the Month Founded in 2004 n Volume 13, No. 6 n April 2017 Editor Manuel Frau Ramos manuelfrau@gmail.com 413-320-3826 Assistant Editor Ingrid Estrany-Frau Managing Editor Diosdado López

Art Director Tennessee Media Design Business Address El Sol Latino P.O Box 572 Amherst, MA 01004-0572

Welcoming Iris Morales to Western Massachusetts Friends at a reception in honor of Iris Morales at the home of Jonathan Lash, President of Hampshire College, and his wife Ellie. Left- to right - Andrew Fletcher, Manuel Frau-Ramos, Jim Lascault, Wilson Valentín, Jonathan Lash, Alvilda Sophia Anaya-Alegría, Ellie Lash, and Chris Tinson. Seated - Magdalena Gómez, Iris Morales (author of the book Through the Eyes of Rebel Women: The Young Lords, 1969-1976), María Salgado-Cartagena, and Jennifer Guglielmo.

Editorial Policy El Sol Latino acepta colaboraciones tanto en español como en inglés.

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El Sol Latino welcomes submissions in either English or Spanish.

We consider and review all submissions but reserve the right to not publish them. We reserve the right to edit texts and make corrections for reasons of space and/or style. Submissions may be sent to our postal address or via electronic mail to: info@elsollatino.net.

El Sol Latino is published monthly by Coquí Media Group.

El Sol Latino es publicado mensualmente por Coquí Media Group, P.O Box 572, Amherst, MA 01004-0572.

El Sol Latino April 2017

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Are Puerto Ricans really American citizens? by CHARLES R. VENATOR-SANTIAGO This article was originally published on The Conversation | March 2, 2017

and unequal territory.

In a recent poll, 41 percent of respondents said they did not believe that Puerto Ricans were U.S. citizens, and 15 percent were not sure. Only 43 percent answered that Puerto Ricans were U.S. citizens. Today, being born in Puerto Rico is tantamount to being born in the United States. But it wasn’t always that way, and a lot of ambiguity still remains.

The Foraker Act at the heart of the Downes case had also imposed Puerto Rican citizenship on persons born in Puerto Rico. People who were born in Spain and residing in Puerto Rico were allowed to retain their Spanish citizenship, acquire Puerto Rican citizenship or U.S. citizenship.

Island-born were barred from retaining their Spanish citizenship, the citizenship that they acquired while Puerto Rico was a province of Spain, and from acquiring a U.S. citizenship.

Contrary to what many people believe, the Jones Act, which Congress passed 100 years ago, was neither the first nor last citizenship statute for Puerto Ricans. Since 1898, Congress has debated 101 bills related to citizenship in Puerto Rico and enacted 11 overlapping citizenship laws. Over time, these bills have conferred three different types of citizenship to persons born in Puerto Rico.

I’m part of an ongoing collaborative project that seeks to document and clarify the laws around citizenship for Puerto Ricans. For the first time, we’re making available to the public all citizenship legislation that has been debated between 1898 and today in a web-based archive.

These archives show that U.S. law still describes Puerto Rico as an unincorporated territory that can be selectively treated as a foreign country in a constitutional sense.

This contradiction is at the heart of a range of discriminatory laws and policies used to govern Puerto Rico and the more than 3.5 million U.S. citizens living on the island.

The state of Puerto Rico Debates over the citizenship status of persons born in Puerto Rico are usually centered around the territorial status of Puerto Rico.

The United States annexed Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War of 1898.

Between 1898 and 1901, U.S. academics, lawmakers and other government officials began to invent a new tradition of territorial expansionism. It enabled them to strategically annex territories throughout the world like Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Mariana Islands, for military and economic purposes without binding Congress to grant them statehood. To support this effort, they also created interpretations of the Constitution that would allow them to govern Puerto Rico and the other territories annexed during the Spanish-American War. As the Supreme Court first established in Downes v. Bidwell (1901), territories annexed after 1898, those mostly inhabited by nonwhite populations or so-called “alien races,” would be ruled as “unincorporated territories,” or territories that were not meant to become states.

First, it recognizes a difference between incorporated territories – those meant to become states – and unincorporated territories.

But there was a big problem. At the time, persons seeking to naturalize and become U.S. citizens were required to first renounce their allegiance to a sovereign state. For Puerto Rican citizens, this meant renouncing their allegiance to the U.S. in order to acquire U.S. citizenship. This contradiction effectively barred Puerto Ricans from acquiring U.S. citizenship.

In 1906, Congress added a section in the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization Act that waived the requirement to renounce an allegiance to a sovereign state. As my research shows, in 1906 Puerto Ricans began to naturalize in U.S. district courts throughout the mainland.

The Jones Act of 1917 included a collective citizenship provision. It enabled people living in Puerto Rico to choose between keeping their Puerto Rican or other citizenship, or acquiring a U.S. citizenship. Because the Jones Act did not change Puerto Rico’s territorial status, persons subsequently born on the island were considered U.S. citizens by way of “jus sanguinis” (blood right), a derivative form of U.S. citizenship. In other words, persons born in Puerto Rico were born outside of the United States but still considered U.S. citizens.

It wasn’t until 1940 that Congress enacted legislation conferring birthright, or “jus soli,” (right of soil) citizenship on persons born in Puerto Rico. Whereas persons born in Puerto Rico prior to 1940 could only acquire a naturalized citizenship if their parents were U.S. citizens, anyone born in Puerto Rico after 1940 acquired a U.S. citizenship as a direct result of being born on Puerto Rican soil. This legislation both amended and replaced the Jones Act. The Nationality Act of 1940 established that Puerto Rico was a part of the United States for citizenship purposes. Since Jan. 13, 1941, birth in Puerto Rico amounts to birth in the United States for citizenship purposes.

Second, Congress is granted absolute power to enact legislation extending or withholding constitutional provisions. In other words, only fundamental constitutional rights are guaranteed in unincorporated territories, not the full application of civil rights.

However, the prevailing consensus among scholars, lawmakers and policymakers is that Puerto Ricans are not entitled to a constitutional citizenship status. While Puerto Ricans are officially U.S. citizens, the territory remains unincorporated. This contradiction has enabled the governance of Puerto Rico as a separate and unequal territory that belongs to, but is not a part of, the United States.

Third, unincorporated territories can be selectively governed as foreign locations in a constitutional sense. That means that so long as Congress is not violating the fundamental constitutional rights of Puerto Ricans, Congress can choose to treat Puerto Rico as a foreign country for legal purposes.

On June 11, Puerto Ricans will vote in a nonbinding status plebiscite deciding whether Puerto Rico should become a state or a sovereign country. If a majority votes for statehood, the question is whether Congress will grant 3.5 million U.S. citizens the ability to live in the 51st state.

The prevailing consensus to this day is in line with White’s interpretation – that the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment does not extend to Puerto Rico. Since the Downes ruling, for 116 years, Congress has governed Puerto Rico as a separate

* Charles R. Venator-Santiago, (Ph.D., Political Science, UMass-Amherst) is an associate professor with a joint appointment to the Department of Political Science and El Instituto, University of Connecticut.

Desde Puerto Rico para el mundo— "la primera y única emisora de tv con licencia para la historia"

Cita del Mes/Quote of the Month

Blacks and Hispanics will be “fighting each other” before they overtake the white population in the United States.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) during an interview with WHO newsradio 1040 Monday (MARCH 13, 2017).

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Portada / Front Page

El Sol Latino April 2017

Why Puerto Ricans Did Not Receive U.S. Citizenship So They Could Fight in WWI

by HARRY FRANQUI-RIVERA Reprinted with permission from Centro Voices - Center for Puerto Rican Studies

fought for their right to fight, to prove they were men and thus deserving of full political rights and self-government.

Q: Are you saying people wanted to go to war?

A: Yes. This was WWI, not Vietnam. War was considered a legitimate form of diplomacy and a glorious act where men proved their worth. Combat was seen as an almost universal rite of passage. And this was a war fought to “End all wars” according to Allied propaganda. It doesn’t get more gallant than that.

Q: But Puerto Ricans were included in the draft…

A: Yes and no. Initially, Puerto Rico, Alaska and Hawaii—as territories—were excluded from the draft. But only because the Wilson administration was still considering what changes would be necessary to implement them in the territories. And by the way, almost immediately the newly elected Puerto Rican legislature asked Congress to extend the draft to the island, which was seconded by the press as an act of patriotism.

We just crossed that threshold, the centenary of the Jones-Shafroth Act, which among many other things, extended U.S. citizenship to the people of Porto Rico on March 2, 1917. A century later we still hear the tired opinion that it happened just so Puerto Ricans could be drafted into the U.S. military to be used as cannon fodder.

Nothing is further from the truth.

Let us look at facts and chronology.

March 2, 1917–Puerto Ricans became U.S citizens.

April 6, 1917–The U.S declares war on the German Empire and its allies.

May 18, 1917–Congress passed the Selective Service Act of 1917 calling for all males between the ages of 18 and 32 to fill out registration cards.

Case done. Nothing to see here, move on. That was the big American plan.

Step 1–Force U.S. citizenship on Puerto Ricans.

Step 2–Send them to France to win a victory for the Empire.

That seems to be the logic of people who can’t be convinced—regardless of how much evidence is presented to them, that the last thing the U.S. political establishment and the military wanted was Puerto Ricans in the military.

Q: Didn’t the Chamber of Delegates oppose U.S. citizenship?

A: That is another misconception. The Chamber of Delegates opposed a citizenship bill in 1914 but only because it did not include universal male suffrage. And, Luis Muñoz Rivera opposed citizenship because Q: Were Puerto Ricans made US citizens to deter a German attack on Puerto Rico?

A: No. Puerto Rico was a U.S. possession due to the Treaty of Paris of 1899 and recognized as such under international law. So, a German attack on Puerto Rico would’ve been an Act of War even if Puerto Rico was only populated by two goats and a chicken.

Q: I have heard that it was all about economic interests, do you agree?

A: Sure but let’s put that into context. There is global competition for colonies and markets. What you can’t control directly you control economically and politically. The U.S. had been challenging British financial control of Latin America and the Caribbean since at least the 1880s—and by 1914 the U.S. is on its way to be the absolute hegemonic power in the hemisphere. But the Germans come into play.

They want to penetrate those Latin American markets.

I have talked and written about this issue in academic forums and venues. But the truth is that no scholar who has taken the time to consider this matter believes that mobilizing the Puerto Ricans had anything to do with extending citizenship. Why? Because there is zero evidence supporting that opinion (because that is what it is— just an opinion) and there is a mountain of evidence proving the contrary.

So, I’m not writing for scholars, and as such, I will drop all the academic jargon and instead have a friendly Q and A session.

Q: Why extending citizenship to Puerto Ricans in 1917, just before declaring war on Germany if not to get more soldiers?

A: One has nothing to do with the other. To think so, one must believe that U.S. politicians and military leaders thought the Puerto Ricans to be some kind of secret weapon or super soldiers when in fact the opposite was true.

Q: What do you mean?

A: Well, elected officials, politicians and military leaders considered that the vast majority of Puerto Ricans were too inferior (racially and culture wise) to ever become soldiers.

Q: But they did mobilize the Puerto Ricans.

A: True. But they did not want to. Puerto Ricans, just like African American did,

Image of Bill

Portada / Front Page

El Sol Latino April 2017

Progressive Moves To the Left and a Bit to the West…

I find this argument a bit reductionist in the sense that WWI occurred precisely because fin de siecle imperialism, marked by a scramble to secure colonies- for economic reasons, prestige and military advantages, inevitably puts five empires at war in the summer of 1914.

Q: What have other Scholars said about this?

A: Why, I’m glad you asked. Edgardo Meléndez argues that citizenship for the Puerto Ricans in 1917 was not only “about the narrow strategic interests generated by the war or the military recruitment of Puerto Ricans” but that “cementing Puerto Rican loyalty”, a sense of a “matter of justice”, “rewarding the Puerto Ricans’ loyalty”, “doing the right thing” “supporting U.S. permanence in Puerto Rico” and making the island “a bridge the Latin race and the improvement of U.S. relations with Latin America” have much to do with it. (316-318, 323-24)1 I agree with him—in fact, I have been arguing the same for a while now. But, I would add that the military factor is not a tangential issue—but perhaps the most important of them all because of the geostrategic concerns the war created and President Wilson’s grandiose attempt to end the war with a diplomatic solution.

Q: Ok, now I’m interested. Why you think that?

A: Don’t get me wrong—there were many reasons for extending citizenship and a degree of self-government to the Puerto Ricans but they can all be tied to diplomacy, war preparedness, and what we call nowadays “National Security”.

1. The fear of a growingly discontent population in Puerto Rico influenced the passing of the Jones Act. The U.S. War Department considered that stability in the island was essential to secure U.S. hegemony in the Circum-Caribbean. Because of Puerto Rico’s strategic position as a gate to the Panama Canal [key to U.S. naval dominance of the Western Atlantic and Eastern Pacific] military planners could not conceive of the island under a flag that was not the Stars and Stripes. This is pure geo-strategy.

Military planners feared that a discontent population may side with an invasion force so they supported citizenship for the Puerto Ricans, since at least 1909, believing it would be well-received and make the island population loyal to the U.S. We need to remember one thing. The German Navy, since the early 1900s had changed its war games and planning. Now the enemy was the U.S (instead of the British Empire) and the Caribbean was the stage where the confrontation would take place. These plans and exercises were not a secret and the U.S. had a counter plan; defeating the German Navy in the waters near Vieques and Culebra. But just in case, U.S. military planners wanted to make sure that they could count on a friendly Puerto Rican population not to aid the invaders. The irony—the U.S. military wanted to prevent what happened to Spain in 1898 happening to them in case of a German invasion of the island.

2. The Woodrow Wilson administration also believed that it would gain diplomatic clout from granting citizenship and some measures of self-government to the Puerto Ricans.

The Jones Act went along with President Woodrow Wilson’s New Diplomacy. Wilson tried to end the war without the U.S. having to be involved in it militarily. Part of his approach to diplomacy included the dismantling of old empires and giving voice and an opportunity to self-determination to the many “nationalities” living within these empires. Because of this, when Wilson addressed Congress on December 7, 1915—he urged them to pass the Jones Act because the whole world was watching and they needed to show they were serious about Wilson’s New Diplomacy, selfdetermination and freedom. Wilson tied the passing of the Jones Act to national security and defense preparedness.

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continued from previous page granting citizenship to the Puerto Ricans. They came to the conclusion that even though the status would be well received by the Puerto Ricans, collective citizenship was a premature step since the majority of Puerto Ricans, they argued, were illiterate and unprepared for full political rights.

• Projects to grant U.S. citizenship to the Puerto Ricans were presented before Congress in 1912 and 1913.

• President William Howard Taft, (and later President Woodrow Wilson) the Bureau of Insular Affair (a branch of the War Department entrusted with administering the island) and most of Congress supported these projects.

• Taft’s appointee as governor of Puerto Rico, George Colton (1909-1913), also endorsed taking this step thinking it would improve the United States’ image in Latin America.

• Colton’s successor, Arthur Yager (1913-21) was even more vociferous regarding this matter.

See “Comments on the Jones Act and the Grant of U.S. Citizenship to Puerto Ricans” by Edgardo Meléndez for more antecedents to the 1917 bill. (317-18) These projects, as well as the support for granting American citizenship to the Puerto Ricans shown by Taft, Wilson, the BIA (if reluctantly), Congress, and opinion-making groups in the mainland, responded to both local and international considerations like I just discussed above.

The outbreak of World War I accelerated the passing of the Jones Act but not because the U.S. needed more soldiers for a war in which they were not yet involved, especially when at the time “dark races”, including Puerto Ricans, were neither trusted nor wanted in the military—much less as combat troops.

Q: Hmm, I still believe that they just extended citizenship to the Puerto Ricans to have more soldiers.

A: Ok. What about this?

The War Department sought to limit the role of the Puerto Rican soldier and made no serious effort to send the Puerto Rican Division (94th Infantry) to Europe.

Frank McIntire, Chief of the Bureau of Insular Affairs, (a branch of the war Department in charge of administering Puerto Rico) wrote a memorandum to Governor Yager regarding where to train the Puerto Rican recruits and insisting that training them in the U.S. would: “...make them better men on returning to Porto Rico, physically and otherwise, this, even though they should not go abroad at all for service” (McIntire to Yager, November 24, 1917).

So, the military was not inclined, at all, to send the Puerto Ricans into combat, not even after President Wilson, heeding to pressure from Puerto Rican leaders, had ordered the War Department to create a Puerto Rican Division.

And there is one detail I left out in case I could not convince you. This is what the Registration Act of 1917 established with regard to who should register: Section 53. Persons Subject to Registration “All persons who, on June 5, 1917, had attained the age of 21 and had not attained the age of 31 are subject to registration except… …Aliens who have not declared their intention to become citizens of the United States and who have entered the United States for the first time since June 5, 1917, are not subject to registration…”

Citizenship for the people of Puerto Rico (and the degree of participatory government that came with the Jones Act) would serve to prove that Puerto Rico was not a colony giving credence to Wilson’s diplomacy and the moral ground to call for the dismantling of the old empires.

In effect, all “American nationals” and citizens had to register- including Puerto Ricans because under the provisions of the Foraker Act of 1900 Puerto Ricans had become “American Nationals.” The Puerto Ricans did not need to be citizens to be subjected to the draft law.

3. At any rate, U.S. Citizenship for the Puerto Ricans was long in the making.

Wilson was not the first U.S. president to support citizenship for the Puerto Ricansneither was Yager (the one to run the island during WWI) the first appointed governor to champion US citizenship for the Puerto Ricans. For some of them it was simply the right thing to do.

Finally, over 70% of Puerto Rican volunteers and men called up were rejected because they were simply not wanted as soldiers.

• President Theodore Roosevelt consistently proposed granting American citizenship to Puerto Ricans, but did not find much support in Congress.

* Harry Franqui-Rivera, a former Centro researcher, is a Professor of History at Bloomfield College. His forthcoming book Soldiers of the Nation: Military Service and Modern Puerto Rico- 1898-1952 will be published by Nebraska Press University.

• As early as 1909, officials from the War Department studied the possibility of

I hope this put this issue to rest so we can focus on the intricacies of colonialism.

1Pagán, Historia de los Partidos Políticos Puertorriqueños, 172.

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El Sol Latino April 2017

No end in sight to Puerto Rican migration by MANUEL FRAU RAMOS During the last months, several investigations or reports have been published that analyze and describe the present demographic situation of Puerto Rico within the framework of the prolonged economic crisis that crosses the island.

88,173 will leave the island. The study projects that by 2025, about 109,240 Puerto ricans will migrate.

Other outstanding findings of the study are: • Migrants tend to be poor and poorly educated.

Between 2005 and 2014, 55% of those who left for the United States were either enrolled in high school or were no longer studying but did not have a fourth year diploma.

The first report, Migrant Profile 2015, published by the Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico (IEPR in Spanish), looks at migratory movement during the year 2015. This report highlights that each of the indicators used to measure migration of Puerto Ricans to the United States by the year 2015 reached new historical records.

Mario Marazzi, Executive Director of IEPR, pointed out during a presentation to the Puerto Rico Health & Insurance Conference that these data seem to indicate that the current wave of migration could be larger than that between 1945 and 1960, known as the Great Exodus. On that occasion an estimated 500,000 Puerto Ricans migrated to the United States and the island lost 22% of its population over a 15-year period. Since the beginning of this wave of migration, which began in 2005, more than 500,000 Puerto Ricans have settled in the United States.

The reason for this migration phenomenon is the current economic crisis in Puerto Rico. “The migratory wave does not show signs of waning,” said Marazzi.

On the other hand, the Office of the Demographic Registry announced that for the first time in Puerto Rico, in 2016 fewer births were registered and the median age of the Puerto Rican population surpassed that of the mainland residents.

Another study by two researchers from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Puerto Rico (PUCPR) adds more information about the current wave of migration.

Professors Elsie Ruiz and Ilia Rosario indicated in their study “The impact of migration in Puerto Rico” that the current wave of migration will not stop and that the island will continue to depopulate at alarming rates until 2025.

The study indicates that while in the year 2000, 57,471 people migrated, by 2015 the number increased to 89,000 people. The projections are that this year, 2017.

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• More and more women are migrating independently and not as dependents of families or with their partners. Between 1998 and 2012, 56% of migrants were women.

• Puerto Ricans’ preferred state of residence is Florida, followed by Pennsylvania, New York and Texas, respectively.

• Less than 25% of migrants are professionals. Among the professional class has increased the exodus mostly of teachers, doctors, nurses and engineers.

• Although the number of migrants to the United States has increased, the flow of money to the United States has decreased. Remittances have been reduced from $413.6 million in the year 2000, to $341.6 million in 2015.

• There has been a significant reduction in student enrollment in both public and private schools. Between 2001 and 2015, the number of students in public schools dropped from 603,314 to 379,818. In private schools, the student population fell from 210,844 to 142,235, during the same period.

Finally, the latest report published at the end of March of this year by the U.S. Census Bureau about the Puerto Rican population estimates confirms the findings of the aforementioned studies. The statistical report highlights that Puerto Rico lost, during 2010 and 2016, 5% of its residents.

During the same 6-year period, all 78 municipalities of the island, except the town of Gurabo, lost population. The municipalities of Lares, Guánica, Peñuelas, Fajardo, Mayagüez, Yauco, Ponce, Ceiba and San Juan experienced a reduction in their population, between 12% and 13%. The number of residents in the municipality of Gurabo increased 3.7% between 2010 and 2016.

Portada / Front Page

El Sol Latino April 2017

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De mal en peor para Puerto Rico por JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ y MARTIN GUZMAN • Traducido por Ingrid Estrany-Frau y Manuel Frau Ramos This article was originally published in English on Project Syndicate | February 28, 2017 SAN JUAN – La larga y prolongada recesión de Puerto Rico ha llevado a una severa crisis de la deuda. Y la combinación de una contracción económica y obligaciones masivas está teniendo consecuencias nefastas para la isla.

A través de todo este commonwealth de los Estados Unidos se están perdiendo los empleos del sector privado. El empleo total en Puerto Rico ha bajado de 1.25 millones en el último trimestre del año fiscal 2007 a menos de un millón una década más tarde. Sin empleo, un gran número de puertorriqueños (quienes son ciudadanos norteamericanos) han emigrado. Pero, a pesar de esta fuga, la tasa de desempleo es ahora de 12.4%. Sin posibilidad de conseguir empleo, la tasa de participación laboral ha bajado al 40%, dos tercios del nivel en Estados Unidos continental. Cerca del 60% de los niños puertorriqueños viven en la pobreza.

El nivel de la deuda del commonwealth es claramente insostenible, y su economía solamente podrá recuperarse si consigue un nuevo comienzo. Pero, a diferencia de las municipalidades en Estados Unidos, Puerto Rico no está protegido por los códigos de quiebra de Estados Unidos. Es de amplio conocimiento que los procesos descentralizados de negociación para re-estructurar la deuda muchas veces llevan a desenlaces desastrosos, con el alivio obtenido siendo insuficiente para restaurar su habilidad para cumplir con sus obligaciones de la deuda.

Consciente de esta realidad, Puerto Rico promulgó su propia ley de bancarrota, pero la Corte Suprema de Estados Unidos la revocó porque la isla es de facto una colonia americana, y el código federal de bancarrota permite solamente al Congreso de Estados Unidos a promulgar legislación de bancarrota sobre su territorio.

Eventualmente, el Congreso tomó acción y promulgó PROMESA, una ley aparentemente diseñada para facilitar la re-estructuración de la deuda y la recuperación económica. Reflejando el punto de vista colonialista tradicional de que no se puede confiar en una colonia para que haga decisiones independientes, la Junta de Supervisión Fiscal (Financial Oversight and Management Board) bipartita fue creada para hacer decisiones fiscales por Puerto Rico.

Pero PROMESA está trayendo más problemas que soluciones. Recientemente, la Junta – aparentemente careciendo de cualquier comprensión de aspectos económicos básicos y de responsabilidad democrática para proveer cotejos en contra de su incompetencia – publicó sus demandas para el próximo año fiscal. La Junta de hecho predijo que sus propuestas convertirían la recesión de Puerto Rico en una depresión de una magnitud pocas veces vista en ningún sitio – una reducción de 16.2% en el Producto Nacional Bruto (PNB) en el próximo año fiscal (y una baja adicional en el año subsiguiente), que es comparable a la experiencia de países que están en medio de una guerra civil, o como el caso de Venezuela que está en crisis.

Esto se debe a que el plan de la Junta le da prioridad a los acreedores de la isla.

Arbitrariamente define un mínimo que se les debe pagar a corto plazo y fuerza al gobierno a hacer todo lo posible para lograr esa meta, aún si esto significa devastar la economía local. En efecto, el plan lo único que garantiza es una catástrofe social y económica, debido a cortes sustanciales en los gastos en las pensiones, educación y salud.

Sorprendentemente, el plan de la Junta es incompleto en cuanto a su obligación central: la elaboración de un plan para re-estructurar la deuda. Esto es miope, porque deprimir la economía aún más fomentará un espiral de la deuda. Los que pagan impuestos en los Estados Unidos van a perder también: van a pagar por los costos que conlleva una emigración más alta. A largo plazo, aún los acreedores van a perder.

El propuesto curso de acción no solamente es injusto, pero también ineficiente y a la larga contra-producente.

Aquellos que abogan por hacer parte de los pagos atrasados de la deuda, ahora alegan que esto demostraría que Puerto Rico está dispuesto a pagar, lo que a su vez inspiraría confianza de parte de los acreedores e inversionistas. Pero el problema de Puerto Rico es la falta de capacidad para pagar, no la falta de disposición. La única manera que el commonwealth pueda estimular confianza es restaurando su crecimiento económico.

El plan no incluye demandas sensibles por pago para mejorar la colección de impuestos y la eficiencia de los gastos del gobierno. Pero, aunque necesarias, estas medidas no resolverán la crisis.

La Junta está confundiendo eficiencia con austeridad. Y mientras sería bueno si uno mágicamente pudiera traer aumentos en la productividad, los problemas reales de la isla requieren no tanto de la reforma por el lado de la oferta como por aumentos en la demanda. Puerto Rico está en un régimen de restricciones por el lado de la demanda,

demostrado por la sub-utilización significativa de sus factores de producción. El plan de la Junta exacerba marcadamente este problema, sin demostrar ninguna conciencia de que esto esté ocurriendo.

En un régimen de restricciones por el lado de la demanda, las medidas recientes para aumentar la flexibilidad del mercado laboral – y así facilitar la reducción de los salarios a los empleados – no resultarían en un crecimiento más rápido. Por el contrario, los salarios más bajos llevarían a gastar menos, agravando la depresión y aumentando aún más la probabilidad de inmigración a Estados Unidos, donde los salarios son substancialmente más altos.

Un compromiso para restaurar el crecimiento económico debe ser el centro de cualquier propuesta de re-estructuración – o de cualquier plan fiscal viable – para Puerto Rico. Ese compromiso debe empezar con un write-off substancial de la deuda, además de una moratoria a corto plazo de todos los pagos de la deuda. Pero esto no será suficiente; aún si Puerto Rico no hace pagos de la deuda a corto plazo, su déficit primario implica que va a tener que tomar pasos que desalienten la actividad económica.

Es por esto que el plan de re-estructuración debe incluir un tercer elemento: una clausula proveyendo para una modificación de las políticas financieras existentes lo cual, haciendo que la nueva deuda pague la vieja deuda, le permitiría a Puerto Rico conseguir un nuevo crédito ahora, cuando más lo necesita. Esto crearía el espacio que las autoridades necesitan para implementar políticas macroeconómicas que conducen a la recuperación.

La Junta de PROMESA estaba supuesta a trazar un camino para la recuperación; su plan hace que una recuperación sea una virtual imposibilidad. Si se adopta el plan de la Junta, la gente de Puerto Rico va a experimentar un sufrimiento incalculable. ¿Y con qué fin? La crisis no será resuelta. Por el contrario, la situación de la deuda se convertirá aún mas insostenible. * Joseph E. Stiglitz, recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2001 and the John Bates Clark Medal in 1979, is University Professor at Columbia University, Co-Chair of the High-Level Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress at the OECD, and Chief Economist of the Roosevelt Institute. A former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank and chair of the US president’s Council of Economic Advisers under Bill Clinton, in 2000 he founded the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, a think tank on international development based at Columbia University. His most recent book is The Euro: How a Common Currency Threatens the Future of Europe. * Martin Guzman, a research associate at Columbia University Business School and an associate professor at the University of Buenos Aires, is a co-chair of the Columbia Initiative for Policy Dialogue Taskforce on Debt Restructuring and Sovereign Bankruptcy and a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). © Project Syndicate.

En Springfield… todo parece indicar que el número de Latinxs que participarán en las elecciones de finales de este

TEANY-FRAU LGRIIDEN CA año en la ciudad TR ES por IN aparentemente será considerablemente alto. De acuerdo a la información de la Comisión de Elecciones, 15 residentes buscaron los papeles oficiales de nominación el primer día que estaban disponibles, tanto para el Comité Escolar como para el Concilio de la ciudad. De estos 15, 5 son Latinxs - Adam Gómez, Marilyn Félix, Víctor Dávila, Ernesto Cruz y Giselle Vizcarrondo.

OT TINTA H INK

In Springfield ... everything seems to indicate that the number of Latinxs that will participate in this year’s city elections apparently will be high.

According to the information from the Election Commissions office, 15 residents took out nomination papers the first day they were available both for positions in the School Committee as well as in the City Council. Of these 15, 5 are Latinxs – Adam Gómez, Marilyn Félix, Víctor Dávila, Ernesto Cruz, and Giselle Vizcarrondo.

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Media / Media

El Sol Latino April 2017

Un jíbaro en USA: un podcast de la diáspora

se están preparando para lanzar la segunda temporada. Conversamos con uno de los fundadores, Roberto Rosa, para aprender más sobre el proyecto.

por NÉSTOR DAVID PASTOR Reimpreso con permiso de Centro Voices - Center for Puerto Rican Studies

Centro Voices (CV): ¿De qué se trata el podcast?

Un jíbaro en USA es un podcast en español lanzado en junio de 2016. La serie se centra en entrevistas con los recién llegados de la isla, discutiendo su experiencia en unirse a la diáspora. A continuación se presenta la entrievista con uno de los fundadores, Roberto Rosa.

Un jíbaro en USA is a Spanish-language podcast launched in June of 2016. The series focuses on interviews with new arrivals from the island, discussing their experience in joining the diaspora. Below is a Q&A with one of the founders, Roberto Rosa.

Cuando se estrenó el primer episodio de “Un jíbaro en USA” a finales de julio el año pasado, el proyecto de Juanky García y Roberto Rosa ya tenía el propósito de relatar la historia de personas que recién han cruzado el charco, así que se convirtió en el podcast oficial de la diáspora. Mientras las historias te traen a distintas partes de los Estados Unidos, las voces proceden de la isla. Dieciocho episodios después, Rosa y García han construido una plataforma digital que es decididamente boricua, aprovechando un medio que ha experimentado un boom enorme en los últimos años. Actualmente, Néstor David Pastor y Roberto Rosa

Roberto Rosa (RR): Básicamente con nuestro podcast lo que hacemos es buscar boricuas en la diáspora que se hayan mudado de la isla por alguna razón u otra pero que sigan orgullosos de sus raíces y que se encuentren representando de manera positiva en los Estados Unidos. No tiene que ser una persona famosa o que haga cosas grandiosas, pero sí tratamos de que esa persona lleve la bandera en alto donde sea que se encuentre.

CV: ¿Cómo se escucha la diáspora a través del podcast?

RR: Nuestro formato es uno bastante informal. No intentamos disfrazar ni nuestro acento ni la manera en que nos expresamos. Todo lo que queremos es tener una conversación entre “panas” con ese/a entrevistado/a, y entendemos que esa es la manera más fácil de que esa persona se abra hacia lo que buscamos. Intentamos que la persona sea lo más sincera posible y que nos cuente todo cómo realmente lo siente, sin tapujos o sin que se sienta cohibido de hablar lo que siente de corazón.

Tenemos momentos jocosos y otros un poco más serios, pues de eso se trata la vida al final del día.

CV: ¿Cómo es el formato de un episodio?

RR: En nuestros episodios pedimos que el/la entrevistado/a haga una breve descripción de su vida antes de mudarse a Estados Unidos, sus anécdotas en el camino y por último le pedimos que le brinde un consejo o recomendación a los que vienen de camino. La idea es crear un poco de empatía entre los que estamos acá y los que se encuentran en la isla. También queremos que los que se encuentran acá no se sientan solos, y que vean en nosotros un recurso para sentirse identificados en lo que es la vida en la diáspora.

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¿Qué Pasa en...?

El Sol Latino April 2017

Holyoke

9

Holyoke Public Library: April 2017 Events One-on-One Tech Tutoring

Wistariahurst Museum: April 2017 Events Women’s Experiences Creative Writing Workshop

Tuesday - April 25, 2017 • 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm Do you like to read? Do you want to write your own poetry? Short stories? Short scenes? Your own memoir? Do you want to strengthen your skills in the English language while also having the opportunity to write about what matters to you?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then join us for a Creative Writing Course focused on Women’s Experiences at Wistariahurst. Drop-ins will be welcome throughout the course which runs from January to June, but pre-registering is encouraged!

Facilitated by: Angela Sweeney M. Ed., a former Holyoke High School English and Creative Writing teacher as well as Drama Club advisor who now teaches English and Film at Western New England University.

Any Questions? Please contact Cheryl O’Connell at Wistariahurst / Phone: 413-322-5660 x. 5166 / Email: oconnellc@holyoke.org

Latinas con pluma: A Staged Reading in Celebration of Latina Writer

Friday - April 28, 2017 *• 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Latinas con pluma is a staged reading of poetry, prose, and drama by Latina writers. Selections include excerpts from When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago, poetry by Magdalena Gomez, and plays by Dolores Prida to name only a few.

The readers are students from Holyoke Community College and the community.

Free and open to all. Please RSVP as seating is limited Contact Information: Wistariahurst Museum - 238 Cabot Street - Holyoke, MA 01040 Phone: (413) 322-5660 • info@wistariahurst.or •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Holyoke Health Center

Taller de Relajamiento y Reducción del Estrés ¡Gratis! En Español

Martes 11 de abril • 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm ¿Se siente estresado, ansioso, deprimido o desenfocado? Asista a nuestros talleres de relajación y usted aprenderá a: • Identificar las señales de advertencia de estrés • Estrategias para relajarse y manejar el estrés • Identificar metas individuales y hacer un plan • Vivir una vida más productiva, saludable y feliz Holyoke Health Center - 230 Maple Street, Holyoke 3er piso # D323 - (Salón de conferencia) Inscríbete llamando a Olga al 413-420-6251 o Gri al 413-420-6252 Espacio limitado. Habrá desayuno y rifas. No habrá cuidado de niños.

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Tuesday - April 11, 2017 • 11:30 am - 1:30 pm Wednesday - April 12, 2017 • 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm Thursday - April 13, 2017 • 11:30 am - 1:30 pm Wednesday - April 19, 2017 • 3:45 pm - 4:45 pm One–on-One Tech Tutoring allows you to register for a one-hour one-on-one session of any of our workshops. Appointments should be scheduled 24 hours in advance.

Workshops and One-on-One Tech Tutoring are offered in English and Spanish.

A valid library card is required to participate. Space is limited appointments should be scheduled 24 hours in advance. To register or schedule an appointment, call 413-420-8118, or write to grivera@holyokelibrary.org. Please contact us if more information is needed.

Tutorías uno a uno de tecnología

Durante los días de Tutorías uno a uno de tecnología, usted podrá registrarse para recibir una hora de sesión individualizada de cualquiera de nuestros talleres. Las citas para las tutorías deben programarse con 24 horas de antelación.

Los talleres y las tutorías de tecnología se ofrecen en inglés y español. Se necesita una tarjeta de la biblioteca válida para participar. Espacios limitados deben programarse con 24 horas de antelación. Para registrarse en los talleres o sacar una citas, llame al 413-420-8118, o escriba a grivera@holyokelibrary.org.

Contact – Gretchen Rivera 413-420-8118 / grivera@holyokelibrary.org

Teen Photography Series

Wednesday – April 12, 2017 • 4:30 pm - 4:45 pm / Teen Room Wednesday - April 26, 2017 • 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm / Teen Room Calling all aspiring photographers! HCC Photography professor Frank Ward will be offering an ongoing photography workshop at the library. Students will not only learn camera basics, but they will have the opportunity to photograph the Holyoke community and publicly display their photos.

Contact - Rachel 413-420-8101 / rdowd@holyokelibrary.org

Learn in Motion!

Wednesday – April 19, 2017 • 3:45 pm - 4:45 pm / Community Room COME PLAY! LEARN IN MOTION is a preschool age sports group that nurtures, challenges, and engages your child in a fun and secure environment. We believe physical activity plays the most important role in your child’s academic success. Our classroom is the field.

Contact - Jason Lefebvre 413-420-8105 / jlefebvre@holyokelibrary.org •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Holyoke Senior Center Ms. Senior Latina 2017

Jueves, 20 de abril a las 3:30 pm / Thursday, April 20 at 3:30 pm Acompáñanos a celebrar el próximo certamen para escoger a la Ms. Senior Latina del 2017. El evento se llevará a cabo en el Holyoke Senior Center en la 291 Pine Street, Holyoke.

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10

¿Qué Pasa en...?

El Sol Latino April 2017

Holyoke Grupo Folclórico de Guatemala en Holyoke

Hartford Hartford Public Library: April 2017 Events

Una pequeña delegación del popular grupo folclórico de Guatemala, Convite de Año Nuevo, desfiló este año en la Parada del Día de San Patricio en Holyoke. Varios componentes del grupo disfrazados de personajes clásicos y modernos de programas de televisión y películas participaron en el desfile. La compañía folclórica, Convite de Año Nuevo, tiene uno largo historial artístico de más de siete décadas. La participación del grupo fue posible a las gestiones del Festival de la Familia Hispana. Inc. con la ayuda de comité organizador de la Parada del Día de San Patricio de Holyoke.

Fighting on Two Fronts: The Puerto Rican Experience in WWI

Thursday, April 6, 5:30pm Center for Contemporary Culture Dr. Harry Franqui-Rivera of Bloomfield College, New Jersey will deliver a lecture focusing on the experience of Puerto Ricans in the United States military in the 20th century, addressing issues of nation building, national identities, citizenship, military institutions and imperial-colonial relations.

Local veterans from the Hartford area and surrounding communities are invited to attend, share their experiences and contribute to program topics.

Program will be bilingual (English & Spanish)

Luchando en dos frentes: la experiencia puertorriqueña en la Primera Guerra Mundial

Jueves, el 6 de abril, 5:30 Centro de Cultura Contemporánea El Dr. Harry Franqui-Rivera de Bloomfield College, Nueva Jersey, impartirá una conferencia sobre la experiencia de los puertorriqueños en el ejército de los Estados Unidos en el siglo XX, abordando temas de construcción de naciones, identidades nacionales, ciudadanía, instituciones militares y relaciones imperiales y coloniales.

Los veteranos locales del área de Hartford y las comunidades vecinas están invitados a asistir, compartir sus experiencias y contribuir a los temas del programa. El programa será bilingüe.

This program was made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities, in partnership with the Library of America For more information on all of our WWI & America programs: http://hhc.hplct.org/world-war-i-andamerica/

Images:-First Lieutenant Pedro Del Valle, the first Latino to reach the rank of Lieutenant General in the Marine Corps, commanded the Marine detachment on board the USS Texas (BB-35) in the North Atlantic during World War I. -Rafael (left) with brother Jesús Hernández, during WWI, c.1917. By Unknown - from Ayala, César J. Puerto Rico in the American Century: A History since 1898, The University of North Carolina Press, p. 196 (public domain) -Don Pedro Albizu Campos, infamous Puerto Rican nationalist, was honorably discharged from the Army in 1919, with the rank of First Lieutenant.

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Matricule a su niño/a en programas gratuitos de Pre-Escolar y Kindergarten. ¡Son bloques esenciales para el éxito!

TRES MANERAS PARA MATRICULARSE 1. Asista a un evento de matrícula en nuestras escuelas

Explore programas, conozca al personal y la escuela, y complete pasos de matrícula y evaluaciones (incluye programas Pre-K en nuestros edificios operados por Escuelas Públicas de Holyoke, Head Start y VOC).

Llame al 413-534-2000, ext. 1102 o 1103 para citas en estas fechas: 3 mayo (miércoles) 11 mayo (jueves) 17 mayo (miércoles) 18 mayo (jueves) 24 mayo (miércoles) 25 mayo (jueves) 30 mayo (jueves) 31 mayo (miércoles)

Metcalf School McMahon School Lawrence School EN White School Kelly School Donahue School Sullivan School Morgan School

8:30 am - 2:30 pm 4:00 pm -6:00 pm 8:30 am -2:30 pm 4:00 pm -6:00 pm 8:30 am -12:30 pm 8:30 am - 12:30 pm 8:30 am -11:30 am 7:30 am—5:00 pm

Niños deben tener 3 ó 4 años para 1-sept-2017 para matricularse en Pre-K. Espacios limitados en Pre-K. Los programas tienen diferentes requisitos de eligibilidad. Niños deben tener 5 años para 1-sept-2017 para matricularse en Kindergarten. Estudiantes serán asignados a la escuela de su zona de asistencia escolar.

2. Explore el Programa de Dos Idiomas en las Escuelas Metcalf o EN White El innovador Programa de Dos Idiomas ofrece educación bilingüe con oportunidades para aprender destrezas de lenguaje en inglés y español. La Escuela Metcalf ofrece el programa de PreK a 3er grado para estudiantes de toda la ciudad, mientras que EN White ofrece el programa para estudiantes en PreK y Kindergarten en su zona escolar. Llame a Amy Burke, Principal de la Escuela Metcalf, al 413-534-2104 para más información. Fecha límite para solicitar: 24-abril-2017.

3. Llame o visite el Centro de Matrícula de Estudiantes Busque una solicitud con la lista de documentos necesarios y programe una cita para matrícula: Calle Suffolk #57, Primer Piso, Holyoke | Lunes-Viernes 8am-4pm (413) 534-2000, ext. 1102, 1103 | www.hps.holyoke.ma.us

Opinión / Opinion

El Sol Latino April 2017

Distopía: Puerto Rico 2024, sátira de un futuro imposible por

11

ROBERTO ALEJANDRO RIVERA

Este artículo fue publicado originalmente en 80grados | 17 de febrero de 2017

Por fortuna, nada de esto afectó de manera considerable al comercio en Plaza Las Américas, Pero la intervención de la Junta fue clave para tal logro.

La Junta le exigió a sus empleados en el gobierno local que le quitaran los subsidios a la familia Fonalledas a menos que esta expandiera, de manera novel, sus ofrecimientos en Plaza. Poner la tienda Me Salvé frente a Banana Republic garantizó un flujo imparable de window shoppers. Y con Pepe Ganga frente a Hugo Boss, Plaza mostró que no habría discriminación contra gustos proletarios. Hubo, ciertamente, mucha extrañeza cuando también aparecieron carritos de hot dogs por los pasillos frente a Brooks Brothers, pero es que ya nadie podía pagar los precios de los comederos en la azotea.

El Plan Tennessee o la estadidad en las escalinatas

Crédito - Ramses Morales iIquierdo

¡Hoy, 12 de septiembre de 2024 y a ocho años en los que el túnel al final de la luz se hiciera, por momentos, más ancho y profundo que el de Maunabo, conviene repasar cómo las acciones de la Junta de Control Fiscal arrancaron a Puerto Rico del barranco enlodado por donde solo se iba, como en el infierno, hacia abajo.

La primicia de que ya estábamos en franca recuperación ocurrió en agosto del 2020 cuando el gobierno central pudo retornar a los mercados de capital con una emisión de bonos. Aunque tal emisión fue solo por dos mil pesos, reducidos a mil luego de pagar los cargos cobrados por los consultores financieros, y a un interés de trescientos cincuenta (350) por ciento; y cuyo único propósito era tener un efectivo en la bóveda de Hacienda, que no veía billetes desde agosto del 2017, cuando el gobierno concluyó que no quedaban pesetas ni pesos en ninguna de las gavetas de sus agencias y la Junta, en su carta circular número tres mil, impuso la economía del trueque; a pesar de todo esto, fue un gran paso de avance que demostró que los inversionistas volvían a confiar en nuestra solvencia financiera.

Como bien dijera la Junta, el trueque y los vales fueron “turning points” hacia el desarrollo sustentable que hoy ya está en camino. La Junta exigió que los pensionados ofrecieran servicios esenciales so pena de sufrir reducciones en sus pensiones. En pago, estos comenzaron a recibir vales para comer en Pollo Tropical, lo cual mejoró la nutrición isleña pero llevó a la bancarrota a todos los Burger Kings del país.

Si bien estas medidas económicas, unidas a un IVU de 38 porciento y a la venta de todas las corporaciones públicas cuadraron, con golpes de martillo, el presupuesto local, las mismas hubiesen sido insuficientes si la Junta no hubiese alterado de manera radical la estructura administrativa de los municipios, completamente inconmovible desde los tiempos de Juana la Loca. Fue un golpe magistral, en el 2018, unificar a Bayamón, Quebradillas y Guaynabo bajo una sola alcaldía; y hacer lo mismo con Caguas, Cayey, Cidra y Comerío. Las Toas y las Vegas desparecieron en el nuevo municipio TV (T por Toa y V por Vega). Utuado, Lares, Moca y Jayuya fueron borrados por falta de población, pero eso ya eso es otra historia. Gurabo, Juncos, Las Piedras y Humacao quedaron bajo la jurisdicción de Palmas del Mar, que a su vez fue vendida a inversionistas chinos.

Es cierto que la reforma administrativa, como era de esperar, desencadenó una guerra civil entre Bayamón y Quebradillas, con Guaynabo de árbitro; y otra, más fiera, entre Cayey y Cidra con Caguas de mediador. De nuevo, esa es otra historia.

La privatización causó un revuelo en Washington cuando, después de varias llamadas de Ivanka Trump, en el 2018 la AEE fue vendida a Rex Tillerson a precios de quemazón, quién a su vez se la “donó” a su antigua corporación ExxonMobil.

La economía hizo un amago de despunte en el verano del 2017 por acciones netamente del PNP y su inteligencia colectiva. Pero pronto quedó demostrada la sabiduría de la Junta. En repaso de aquel verano candente, después del plebiscito celebrado en junio del 2017 y con una aburrida participación de menos del 50 por ciento de los electores, el gobierno se comprometió a una “campaña de heroísmo y dignidad” hacia el logro de la anexión. Inspirándose en el Plan Tennessee, el PNP nombró siete representantes y dos senadores para tomar posesión de sus escaños en el congreso federal. Ya no recuerdo los nombres de los siete escogidos para la Cámara con la excepción de Jennifer González, Edwin Mundo y Leo Díaz. Pedro Rosselló y El Guitarreño irían de “senadores.” Los augurios no fueron propicios desde el comienzo.

Tres de los representantes se negaron a viajar a Washington cuando descubrieron que tendrían que costearse el pasaje y la estadía. La Junta le impuso varias tranquillas al presupuesto que sometió Ricky y no había dinero para el Plan Tennessee. Así que la delegación estuvo manca desde el principio.

El intenso dramatismo más que compensó por la falta de fondos. La delegación de Puerto Rico anunció que tomarían sus puestos el 4 de julio del 2017, fecha preñada de profundo simbolismo en contra del colonialismo. El destino y el cambio climático también habían escogido esa fecha, aunque por otras razones. Con una temperatura de 97 grados y un índice de humedad de 110, fue uno de los 4 de julio más opresivos en la historia del orbe terráqueo.

Los cuatro representantes y los dos senadores del “estado” de Puerto Rico llamaron a una conferencia en las escalinatas del capitolio antes de comenzar el ascenso hacia lo que denominaron “our legitimate seats.” Con la excepción de Comedy Central y Samantha Bee, nadie cubrió el evento.

Como se trataba de algo heroico, no se amilanaron y comenzaron el ascenso hacia unas pobres barricadas atendidas por dos policías, en mood talibanesco en vista de que fueron obligados a rendir servicio bajo aquel calor volcánico por las ocurrencias del Plan Tennessee.

Los representantes varones iban engabanados menos El Guitarreño que, siendo más inteligente, fue en guayabera. Ante la barricada y los dos policías, ambos al punto del desmayo, lo que ya para ese momento en la tarde se estaba autodenominando “the heroic delegation,” entregó una declaración que uno de los guardias no disimuló en hacerla un bollito antes de echarla a su bolsillo, todo sin emitir palabra o expresar algún gesto que demostrara que estaba vivo y que no era un robot administrado desde el Pentágono.

A los diez minutos bajo el sol, Pedro Roselló llamó a un Uber y desapareció.

El Guitarreño ya se había desembarazado de su guayabera y camisilla y se había tomado un selfie “espechugao” en las escalinatas. A los quince minutos, Edwin Mundo comenzó a cantar “Verde Luz” en inglés antes de desmayarse. Ya Leo Díaz estaba AWOL. Otro de los “representantes” y cuyo nombre hoy se me escapa, sufrió un trastorno nervioso con resultados no loables. Se quitó toda su ropa y comenzó a correr esnú por la plazoleta, con las manos en alto y como si fuera un Hare Krishna tocando una pandereta imaginaria. No se detuvo hasta que llegó a la famosa fuente donde fue

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Opinión / Opinion

Election Year by J’ANTHONY SMITH | March 2017

El Sol Latino April 2017

Distopía: Puerto Rico 2024…

continued from previous page

Independent columnist - smithh251@gmail.com

arrestado por “disorderly conduct.” Solo Jennifer se mantuvo firme.

Whether either a Democrat, Republican, or you identify with an independent party, election year is the year in which you get to exercise your greatest tool as a citizen living in a democratic country. It’s the year where you can voice who you want to represent your interest. It’s the year where you have the power to elect or re-elect an elected public official.

Whether it be a local, state, or federal election. It is a year that shouldn’t be taken lightly.

El gobierno logró una foto de esos primeros minutos cuando la delegación estaba intacta frente a las barricadas y comenzó a venderlas para recaudar fondos pro estadidad. La Junta incautó las fotos y embargó los 75 pesos que ya habían logrado. La Junta alegó que ese dinero se necesitaba para pagar la deuda.

During election year your voice suddenly becomes the most important voice to listen to. Republican, Democrat, and independent candidates will be fund raising thousands of dollars for campaigns to get your vote.

Banners will fly, signs will be placed on lawns, fliers will be distributed, and other forms of advertising will be directed to you- the voter. Different candidates will flood you with different sources of information, different perspectives, and different platforms. Your job as a voter is to sort through all of this.

You need to sort through all of the advertisement, because that’s basically what it is, and analyze the choice in product (the candidates) being placed in front of you. It is a larger process than just who you may like as a candidate. You need to vote for someone who represents your issues. You need to find out where a candidate stands on certain subjects. You need to find out whose interest the candidate really represents. You need to look past the picture that they want you to see and make a decision based on factual evidence. You as a voter have that right. You have the right to ask questions. You have the right to ask your government “where do you stand?”

If none of the candidates identify with issues that you identify with. If their agenda isn’t your agenda. You, the people, have the right to produce our own candidates. You don’t have to vote for someone that you don’t identify with. If no candidates represent your agenda; The people have the right to bring forth candidates that they do identify with.

As citizens of this country we need to ensure that our voices are heard in government. The only way to ensure our voices are heard is by electing officials that align with our interest, even if we have to supply the candidates ourselves.

In conclusion, we as voters have a great deal of responsibility in making sure that we are involved in the democratic process. For if we cease to be a part of the process then it becomes less democratic. If less people are involved then a smaller amount of people have more say. It is our civil duty as citizens. A duty that is on behalf of not only ourselves but also that of our communities. It is a year that will determine what change will happen. It is our duty to voice our interest for if we don’t no one will voice them for us. No one will represent our interest like we will. So this is why we must participate in the democratic process. We must ensure our needs are addressed by a government that we fund.

So get out there and vote. Vote for what you believe in. Vote for issues you want resolved. Advocate for the change that you want to see. Claim your voice in this democratic process.

A esa gesta, cuya duración fue de menos de 25 minutos, la prensa local la llamó la “Estadidad en las escalinatas.” Pero la publicidad lograda a través de los comediantes norteamericanos nocturnos hizo que el turismo aumentara para finales de julio y agosto del 2017.

La humillación anexionista en las escalinatas fue descrita por el liderato del PPD como “muestra de la vitalidad del ELA” en Washington.

Por supuesto, aunque se logró un auge turístico por breves semanas, tal despunte económico se esfumó sin mayores consecuencias.

Control emigratorio La única crítica que merece la gestión de la Junta fue su tardanza en no ver lo obvio y esperar hasta septiembre del 2021 para restringir la emigración hemorrágica y decretar que, desde ese momento, solo saldrían del país 20 personas al año, y solo entre las edades de 82 años en adelante. Como todos sabemos, ya para ese entonces quedaban en el país los presos, los encamados esperando a que funcionarios del PNP y del PPD los visitaran para emitir sus votos, y una camada de viejitos, todos ya debidamente ubicados en sus respectivas egidas. Con la excepción de San Juan, el gran total de la población era de trescientos mil habitantes.

La cancelación de las elecciones del 2020 y sus consabidos gastos fue aplaudida por todos menos los encamados que se quedaron sin sus visitas cuadrienales.

Siempre existirá la sospecha de si la tardanza en exigir una cuota migratoria fue parte del plan de recuperación que la Junta tenía para la isla desde el principio. Lo cierto es que, desde el 2020, y con tan escasa población en edades productivas, la Junta agilizó todos los permisos para la construcción de égidas y casinos. El país hoy tiene vastos espacios yermos donde los emprendedores ven futuros campos de golf. Los acreedores han aceptado esos parajes como pago por sus bonos. Lo que fue la Milla de Oro es hoy un corredor de casinos a quienes algunos malintencionados llaman el “Fulgencio Batista Boulevar”. Pero es también un bólido de crecimiento económico donde el trueque en especie no es necesario.

San Juan, con sus tres mil habitantes, es hoy la ciudad de más población y también la única floreciente, pero aquí el ingenio nacional mostró su independencia frente a la Junta. Desde que la alcaldesa decidió, en 2018, que las fiestas de la SanSe serían mensuales, y que las mismas estarían sincronizadas con la llegada de cruceros a la bahía, la economía capitalina no ha mermado.

Yo, Casimiro Oquendo, escribo este recuento desde algún lugar en El Morro, donde he sido destacado por la Resistencia como uno de los amanuenses oficiales de este pasado reciente, y desde donde ya avisto las barcazas de la diáspora que se acercan para unirse al contingente de agricultoras y agricultores que hoy bajan de Utuado.

Porque, para terminar, el Puerto Rico aquí descrito ha sido el de las estadísticas oficiales y que, por consiguiente, entraba en el radar de los banqueros y sus cálculos. El otro Puerto Rico, uno esparcido de manera casi invisible por montañas y lugares ya no visitados por la oficialidad, una isla demarcada por una multiplicación de Casas Pueblos, echó su suerte en otras formas de vida. Y no ha dejado de palpitar.

• Roberto Alejandro Rivera es profesor de Ciencias Políticas en la University of Massachusetts - Amherst

Libros / Books

El Sol Latino April 2017

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En el país que amamos: mi familia dividida por DIANE GUERRERO con MICHELLE BURFORD • (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2016. 303 páginas) Y si cuando tuvieras 14 años al volver a casa después de un día de clases y al abrir escuela.” Cuando sus padres fueron devueltos a la puerta de tu casa descubrirías que durante el día los oficiales de la inmigración Colombia, Diane se alojaba en varias casas de habían llegado a llevar y detener a tus padres por estar en el país ilegalmente, ¿qué amigas y parientes, tratando de ayudar en harías? Esto es precisamente lo que sufrió Diane Guerrero, actriz de los programas cualquier manera con los quehaceres de la casa y Orange Is the New Black y Jane the Virgin. minimizando su presencia lo más posible para no estorbar. Tuvo que madurar rápidamente y tomar Huyendo de una Colombia desgarrada por guerras entre carteles narcotraficantes y la responsabilidad de sí misma porque “¿Quién un gobierno inestable—de un país donde era dificilísmo encontrar un trabajo para quiere ser un caso de caridad permanente?” mantener a su familia—los padres Héctor y María Guerrero huyeron a los Estados Unidos donde nació su hija Diane. Es ella junto con Michelle Burford que cuenta su Pensaba hacerse abogada; ganó una beca para vida desde niñita hasta convertirse en actriz en la autobiografía En el país que Regis College y trabajaba a tiempo parcial para amamos: mi familia dividida, y lo hace con propósito porque, como explica, “habría cubrir los gastos. Cuando pasó un semestre en la American University en significado todo para mí saber que alguien, en algún lugar, había sobrevivido a lo Washington, Diane confiesa que de tanta lucha constante sin la presencia y el apoyo que yo estaba pasando.” Con confesar sus luchas personales, Guerrero espera de sus padres “Caí en una depresión…Faltaba a clases, dejé de socializar, mi inspirar a otros inmigrantes a que alcancen sus propios sueños por luchar contra la apetito desapareció y bajé veinte libras…Me sentía tan agobiada y agotada que pobreza y los prejuicios, y trabajar para que haya cambios en las leyes de inmigración. escasamente tenía la voluntad para seguir adelante…comencé a perderme por completo.” Al comenzar su ultimo año de estudios, debía en préstamos casi ochenta Huyendo de nuevo, pero esta vez de los oficiales de la inmigración puesto que sus mil dólares. padres no tenían documentos de residencia, Guerrero dice que “Nos mudamos muchas veces, pero siempre dentro del pequeño radio de los barrios de Boston, A pesar de que perseguía estudios en gobierno y en la ley pensando que con una unos más deteriorados que otros.” Vivir en Egleston de Roxbury era “una carrera en derecho podía ayudarse a sí misma, a su familia y a todos los inmigrantes verdadera pesadilla: se oían disparos a medianoche, las noticias de apuñalamientos huyendo de la violencia y el hambre en sus países natales en busca de una vida ocupaban los titulares.” Vivía allí con sus padres y su hermanastro Eric. Cuando sus mejor, la música seguía atrayéndola: “me transportó a otro lugar, uno donde no padres peleaban, muchas noches sobre el comportamiento de Eric, Diane, a pesar existían la tristeza ni el dolor ni la miseria.” de querer mucho a su familia, soñaba con ser otra: “yo sería Molly. O Tina. O Cambió de dirección y se matriculó en dos cursos con Peter Kerkrot, Introducción a Elizabeth. O Carrie. O cualquier niña blanca cuyos padres no discutieran.” la Actuación e Improvisación y empezó a descubrirse de nuevo. Y se embarcó en Buscaba refugio en la escuela, en la religión católica, en sus estudios y en su una nueva dirección, una que la llevó últimamente a conseguir unpapel en Orange “primer amor musical: el jazz.” Sin embargo, la escuela no era siempre un lugar is the New Black donde, como confiesa, “me sentía que era parte de algo. De una seguro. Describe su sexto grado donde “las tensiones estallaban entre miembros de comunidad.” pandillas rivales que iban a la escuela con cuchillos…Estaban atrapados en un ciclo La historia de Diane refleja las dificultades y los obstáculos que enfrentan muchos de pobreza y de bajas expectativas.” inmigrantes al buscar refugio en los Estados Unidos. Su libro sí les servirá, como Mientras tanto, sus padres hicieron trabajos de baja categoría, trabajos que otros no ella propone, de inspiración a seguir adelante y de no perder nunca los sueños. Y querían hacer y empleaban a un abogado que les prometía conseguir la ciudadanía. puesto que últimamente la cuestión de la inmigración ha llegado a la vanguardia de Aquel “abogado” resultó ser un estafador ladrón que se esfumó con su dinero y sus la atención pública, su libro ayudará mucho a los que no están muy bien informados esperanzas. de cómo de compleja es la cuestión de la inmigración. No todos los que buscan entrada al país son criminales, ni son la mayoría; muchos, con su inteligencia, sus Cuando Guerrero iba a terminar el octavo grado, la consejera de su escuela le talentos y su energía, pueden enriquecer la cultura de nuestro país. presentó la idea de asistir a la Academia de Artes de Boston. Allí Diane se sentía “como volver a casa. Por primera vez me encajaba. Podía ser yo misma… Aún *Reseña de Cathleen C. Robinson, profesora jubilada del español y de la historia de tenía que tener una actitud fuerte en el barrio, pero podía bajar la guardia en la la América Latina quien ahora se dedica a escribir.

Un jíbaro en USA: un podcast de la diáspora CV: ¿Por qué es importante representar a la comunidad a través de los medios?

RR: Creemos que la diáspora tiene mucho que decir y aportar. Muchas veces los medios van a buscar esa noticia que impacte (aunque no siempre de manera positiva) y ahí es donde nosotros queremos hacer la diferencia. Queremos demostrar que la mayoría de los que estamos aquí estamos puestos para lo positivo, para echar pa’lante y que además de esto no nos olvidamos de nuestra gente, nuestra cultura ni nuestros valores.

Co-fundadores de Podcast, Roberto Rosa y Juanky García

CV: ¿Cómo ha sido el proceso de aprender cómo hacer un podcast?

RR: Ha sido toda una experiencia de aprendizaje para nosotros. Esto lo empezamos desde cero y sin saber prácticamente nada al respecto. Aunque al comienzo estábamos un poco asustados, hemos podido disfrutar de todo el proceso de crear este proyecto. Definitivamente requiere de mucha paciencia, sacrificio y sobre todo crear una disciplina. Un Jíbaro En USA está empezando, y hay que dedicarle mucho tiempo (fuera de lo que son nuestros empleos y nuestro tiempo de compartir en familia). Es un poco más

continued from page 8 complicado de lo que parece, pero se puede y poco a poco lo hemos logrado.

CV: ¿Cómo se ha presenciado Un jíbaro en USA a través de las redes sociales?

RR: En las redes sociales usualmente lo que buscamos es entretener a las personas con temas relacionados a lo que es la vida de un jíbaro o jíbara que vive en USA al igual que resaltar noticias positivas de puertorriqueños dentro y fuera de la Isla.

Intentamos alejarnos de los temas de política, religión, etc. ya que estos temas muchas veces separan a las personas y nosotros lo que buscamos es unión entre los diferentes grupos.

CV: ¿Que son tus planes para el futuro?

RR: Para el futuro buscamos varias cosas: • Expandir nuestra audiencia tanto en el podcast como en las redes. El podcast fue lo que nos abrió las puertas al público por lo cual siempre va a ser la esencia de Un Jíbaro en USA. • Desarrollar un Blog en el cual podamos ampliar con un poco más de detalle lo que ocurre en nuestras entrevistas, al igual que darle foro a la diáspora a que se exprese mediante música, poesía o algún tipo de arte que nos distinga • Buscar cómo podemos contribuir a los diferentes grupos culturales y ver de qué manera podemos colaborar para fomentar la cultura boricua en la diáspora.

Para escuchar un episodio de Un jíbaro en USA, visite soundcloud.com/ unjibaroenusao o su página web www.unjibaroenusa.com.

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Música/ Music

El Sol Latino April 2017

Juan Flores’s Salsa: A Never Ending Conversation by JUAN OTERO GARABÍS Reprinted with permission from Centro Voices - Center for Puerto Rican Studies Imagine you are at the Tritons, “a very modest, small-scale social club” of the Bronx, October 1958, and “some piercing flute sounds [you] to a room” where Charlie Palmieri met Johnny Pacheco a few years before la pachanga became the new trend, the new New York sound, that in less than a decade will conquer markets around the world branded as salsa. To those specific locations of New York Latin music history, Juan Flores guides the readers in his posthumous Salsa Rising: New York Music of the Sixties Generation (Oxford 2016). In the first New York Rican history of salsa, Flores charmingly narrates the backbone stories of the encounters and the places, settings, communities, and most of all, the musicians as workers who generated one of the most notably cultural remittances that Latin@s have spread through Latin America.

Following the working class point of view characteristic of his writings since his days at the beginning of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Flores visualizes salsa’s genealogy through the contrasting differences between Cuban and Puerto Rican communities’ experiences in New York between 1930 and 1975. So he proposes the forking paths of success obtained by Moisés Simons’ “El Manisero” —recorded

by Don Azpiazú’s Havana Casino Orchestra and Antonio Machín— and Rafael Hernández “Lamento Borincano” as points of departure that exemplifies the contrasting differences between the Cuban and Puerto Rican cultural production during the first decades of the 20th century. Flores points out that although both songs tell stories “about economic transactions,” Simons’ is “an invitation to sensual delights” which eventually corresponded to the “crossover” stories of Cuban Music in Latin Jazz and Mambo. In contrast, “Hernández’s signature song evokes real-life suffering and struggle, disillusion, pride, and nostalgia for a distant homeland” (4), which through “a hundred of versions” spread this romantic sentiment through Latin America, and its guitar trio’s ensemble emerged as the most precious Puerto Rican music on both sides of the ocean during the Mambo craze.

Salsa Rising brings to the scene the contrast of the uptown “more grassroots music of the city’s expanding Latino communities” (12), whose tastes oscillated from mambos and sones to boleros, guarachas, décimas, plenas and aguinaldos, played by tríos in small clubs and family parties in the Bronx, many of which were recorded in New York and filled the juke boxes all around Puerto Rico, as Pedro Malavet Vega has observed. Then, evading to fall into binary essentialist oppositions, Flores explores the rise of salsa as the new cultural production of the Sixties generation of New York Latin community, mostly composed by the Puerto Rican working class migration of the 1940s and 1950s, and “once the ‘umbilical cord’ to Cuba was severed” (38).

It is in this way that the Tritons Club counter acts and crosses with the Palladium, where the Big Bands of Machito, Puente, and Rodríguez competed at the peak of the Mambo madness. This Jew-owned “social club on Sothern Boulevard in the Hunts Point neighborhood of the Bronx” (38) was the place not only of Charlie Palmieri and Pacheco’s first encounter that led to the pachanga craze, but this was the club that Eddie Palmieri rented for the rehearsals of what became La Perfecta, the original sound of “el Rumbero del Piano”, as Palmieri later was branded.

There, at the Tritons—Flores highlights—was the “authoritative presence” of Barry Rogers, roaring with his trombone and dancing at the front of Palmieri’s group.

Flores underlines that it was Rogers who brought to La Perfecta his “background experiences...in a range of bands and genres”, mostly jazz, and rhythm and blues.

Finally, but no less important, it was at the Tritons that Al Santiago’s Alegre All Stars rehearsed and recorded what is the seed or the model of the Fania All Stars concert at Cheetah in 1971, for many considered it as the birthplace of salsa’s boom. Instead of following the narratives that situates salsa as only a continuum of Mambo and the big clubs of downtown Manhattan—that is to say, of Cuban music—Flores traces the rise of salsa from the Tritons in the early 1960s when Palmieri and Pacheco started the two different típico styles that characterize salsa, which continue—with its discontinuities—the “‘uptown-downtown’ dichotomy”.

So Flores criticizes the stories of salsa that limit its styles to Fania and Pacheco’s matancerization. The Triton, Palmieri’s típico, and the absolute emphasis on improvisation of Alegre All Stars present not only an uptown story, but underlines salsa’s communication with African American music styles and communities.

So for him, the Latin boogaloo era represents an axis of these multiple-direction

interactions. As in a previous essay, he presents the story of Latin Boogaloo as a new musical genre—“the equivalent, at a vernacular level, to Cubop in its time” (107)— adding up emphasis on its beginnings precisely at small clubs near to the Palladium, in the Bronx and in Brooklyn.

Reminding that Latin boogaloo was a crossroads of African American and African Caribbean musical traditions with the interventions of the musical industry, Flores traces the path of communication between African American and Latin communities which Ray Barretto and Joe Bataan followed, which eventually was excluded by the definition of Latin music, made precisely by Fania. And paying attention to salsa’s political sides, Flores also reminds the sex and drugs, peace and love, civil rights, Black Panthers and Young Lords “excitement[s] of the time”, all visible in pachanga, boogaloo, and salsa lyrics. As examples, Flores presents the Felipe Luciano reciting “Jíbaro / My Pretty Nigger” in Palmieri’s concert at Sing Sing, and the romantic and nationalistic “Canto a Borinquén” that many New York bands recorded. This reminder of how close salsa rising was to New York cultural and political localities, as the Harlem Renaissance is to Newyorican poetry, is definitely the most thrilling assertion of his extraordinary book.

In this direction, Flores considers Willie Colón as one of the main figures who stresses out salsa’s links with Puerto Rican communities in New York, including its nationalistic nostalgia. And if this was not enough, Flores highlights Colón’s Asalto Navideño as one of the most beloved products of salsa as one of the most visible and important cultural remittance of the New York Puerto Rican community, as he had already asserted in his previous The Diaspora Strikes Back (2009). But is because his career started at the borderline of the end of the boogaloo and the boom of the Palmieri and Pacheco’s típicos style, that Flores names Colón “the first lifelong salsa musician”.

So following this circulation of salsa as a cultural product I would love to have heard more about the importance of Puerto Rico as both musical market and imaginary homeland. Since the pachanga craze and through boogaloo and latin soul, in New York recorded albums, Puerto Rico was constructed as a tropical paradise and beloved homeland, as well as Panamá, Colombia and Venezuela as a sort of extended family.

And at the time, the round trip travel between Puerto Rican communities —“a ambos lados del charco”—was more intensive than the previous decades and musical groups from both sides of the Atlantic competed for markets in New York and in many Caribbean cities. How important was this circulation in la guagua aérea —the “jala jala” from between Puerto Rico and New York—for the establishment of the Matancera style as the standard? Transiting this two-way path were Cheo Feliciano, Roberto Rohena, Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz, whose experiences in Puerto Rico was recognized in Our Latin Thing and the two albums Fania all Stars Live at Cheetah.

And, though well recognized, I also would have loved to read more about Tite Curet Alonso, from Santurce, who extended and expanded those Colón’s barrio images, and underlined the similitudes and traced connections with Puerto Rican history, literature and racial discourse in the Sixties Generation. But maybe what I miss in the book responses only to my side of the Boricua zone experience and point of view.

Salsa Rising comes on as a closing of a long scholarly career dedicated to Puerto Rican studies, a period in which salsa has risen as main topic of the inclusion of popular culture in national discourse and scholarly research. It reminds me of the kind of interaction and dialogue with Juan that I will miss forever; and I also believe that I’m not the only one. I am sure this was the kind of conversation that he had with those “utterly indispensable sources” who helped him to articulate his views.

I am sure that all of them has something to add to this discussion. To contribute with this never ending conversation, Juan left us with what along with Las memorias de Bernardo Vega, Jesús Colón: A Puerto Rican in New York, Down These Mean Streets, Snaps, Puerto Rican Obituary, Nilda, La Carreta Made an ‘U’ Turn, and a few others, is a Nuyorican Masterpiece.

Salsa Rising: New York Latin Music of the Sixties Generation (Oxford University Press, 2016 ) 288 pages; $21.95 [paper]. * Juan Otero Garabís is Professor of Puerto Rican and Caribbean Literature at the University of Puerto Rico - Río Piedras.

Science & Society / Ciencia & Sociedad The importance of science in our society

by BRYAN SALAS-SANTIAGO | bryansalas0815@gmail.com In my opinion, science is the main reason our society has advanced as far as we have in the last one hundred years. It can be defined as the study of facts or truths of the physical and natural universe done through observation and experimentation.

Thanks to the scientific advancements in medicine, engineering, physics, biology, etc., human society has improved its standard of living and its economy.

Science is very versatile; from finding cures to diseases, improving infrastructure, or putting a human on the moon, it has been the basis of all major discoveries. There is a great chance that in the future, through scientific advancements, we can find the cure for cancer and possibly even send a human to conquer another planet. Some things may be achieved soon, others will take more time, but by working together and improving science we can make that future closer through every day that passes.

My name is Bryan Salas-Santiago and I am a PhD candidate at UMass Amherst in the Microbiology Department. Something that I have discovered in my path towards scientific preparation is that our Latino community is very underrepresented in the Sciences, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) field. According to the U.S Congress Joint Economic Committee (JEC), by 2020 the overall employment in STEM occupations will increase by 17%. This increase in jobs related to science will create a golden opportunity for the younger generation to go to college and study related fields. We make up around 17% of the population, yet only 8% of the degrees earned in STEM are by Hispanic/Latino students.

What is more shocking is when we focus at the Latino population with a higher degree education in STEM. An astonishingly low 4% of people with a Masters degree are Latinos and it drops even lower to 3% when we look at people earning PhD’s. As you can imagine, this is a problem for our community and that is why the government has programs to encourage underrepresented minorities to achieve higher degree education in STEM.

El Sol Latino April 2017

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Personally, I have noticed that the more I learn about advances in science, microbiology and genetics, the less I am able to communicate these innovative discoveries with my family and friends. This occurs because as more advances are made in STEM, a bigger gap grows between the knowledge and our community.

This problem can result from different reasons, many of which can be from personal circumstances. Nevertheless, our educational system has a degree of responsibility in the outcome of the situation to decrease the gap.

My personal goal with this is to help our community in the understanding and acceptance of scientific discoveries to help reduce the gap that is becoming a major concern for the future. In addition, I hope to increase the curiosity for science in younger generations. With this opportunity, I would like to become someone who can help explain things that are important in science. I can explain how new discoveries have an impact on our future, answer questions, and/or concerns that the community might have. Furthermore, I would like to use this medium to present facts about misunderstandings that exist in the community. That way, everyone has all the correct information and will be well informed before making personal decisions on important matters.

Science is the future of our society; the more we understand it, the better our lives will be. My hope for our community is to take advantage of these historical moments and pursue STEM careers to join the rest of the world in scientific advancements and discoveries.

I welcome all readers to feel free to send me any questions or concerns that you may have. I will gladly try to write and answer any question to the best of my ability. Science is our future and we should encourage future generations and our government to increase its interest and funding for universities and education in STEM. By creating opportunities for the study and pursuit of science and technology in younger generations, we will create a brighter future for ourselves and our descendants.

EAT. Art. Love.

Experience the Nourishing Power of the Arts

UMass Fine Arts Center – Abril 2017 JASON VIEAUX Martes, April 4, 7:30 p.m. | Bowker Auditorium

ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER Martes, Abril 25, 7:30 p.m. | Fine Arts Center Concert Hall

Ganador del Grammy 2015 por “Mejor Solo Clásico Instrumental” por PLAY and hailed por NPR como “quizás el mas preciso y soulful guitarrista clásico de su generación,” Vieaux se ha ganado una reputación por poner su talento y expresión al servicio de una increíblemente amplia gama de música. $35, $20; Estudiantes - Five College 17 años y menores | $10; Five College Faculty & Staff

Proclamado un “vital embajador cultural americano para el mundo” por el Congreso de Estados Unidos, la compañía combina técnicas maestras, gran expresividad, una coreografía brillante, y una interpretación única de la experiencia cultural afro-americana. El programa de esta noche será un repertorio mixto de danza moderna y ballet clásico, cerrando con el favorito de la audiencia Revelations.

Sponsored by Ronna Erickson

$70, $65 y $30; Estudiantes - Five College 17 años y menores | $10; Five College Faculty & Staff

Sponsored by

Para boletos: 413-545-2511, 800-999-UMAS o visite fineartscenter.com

¡HAY MUCHO MAS! Visite fineartsecenter.com para ver la lista completa de las actividades.

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Portada / Front Page

El Sol Latino April 2017

Thursday, Thursday, April 13 April 13

Puerto Rico:

Panel - Debt, Privatization, and Diaspora Panel - Debt, Privatization, and Diaspora Moderator: Marcos Marrero Moderator: Marcos Marrero Presenters: Laura Briggs, Francisco Fortuño Bernier, Presenters: Laura Briggs, Francisco Fortuño Bernier, Miguel Alvelo-Rivera, Luis Beltrán Álvarez Miguel Alvelo-Rivera, Luis Beltrán Álvarez

Savage Neoliberalism, Colonialism And Financial Despotism

Panel - Dependence and Resistance Panel - Dependence and Resistance Moderator: TBA Moderator: TBA Presenters: Ismael Presenters: Ismael Ramírez Soto,Ramírez Soto, Eduardo Aponte-Hernández, Eduardo Aponte-Hernández, Mayra Vélez Mayra Serrano,Vélez Serrano, Héctor Cordero-Guzmán, Héctor Cordero-Guzmán, Sarah MolinariSarah Molinari

Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies

University of Massachusetts Amherst April 13-14, 2017 T his past June the United States

Keynote Panel - Puerto Rico: Savage Neoliberalism, Keynote Panel - Puerto Rico: Savage Neoliberalism, Friday, April 14 ColonialismColonialism and Financial Despotism and Financial Despotism Panel - Labor, Human Rights Moderators:Moderators: Roberto Alejandro, Agustin Laó-Montes Roberto Alejandro, Agustin Laó-Montes Moderator: Solsireé del Mora María de Lourdes Santiago – Member of the Puerto Presenters: María de Lourdes Santiago – Member of the Puerto Aimee Loiselle, Jo Rican Senate, former candidate for governor Ortiz-Chico, Rican Senate, former candidate for governor José Raúl Cepeda representing the Puerto Rican Pro-Independence Party representing the Puerto Rican Pro-Independence Party Rafael Bernabe – Professor Hispanic Studies, Rafael Bernabe of– Professor of HispanicLunch Studies, Keynote Address: Juan Gonz University ofUniversity Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, former of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, former candidate forcandidate governor for representing governor the representing the Puerto RicanPuerto Working People's PartyPeople’s Closing Rican Working PartyPanel - Crisis: Analy Moderator: Roberto Márquez

Congress approved the establishment of a Fiscal Oversight Board to take control over all budgetary decisions by the government of Puerto Rico. The Board, known in Spanish as “Junta de Control Fiscal,” consists of seven persons, all appointed by President Obama acting on recommendations by both the Republican and Democratic congressional leadership. President Obama appointed all members, three of whom are Puerto Ricans. The governor of Puerto Rico is an ex-officio member of the Board with voice but no vote.

The Governor of Puerto Rico is mandated by the law that creates the Junta to submit all fiscal plans and annual budgets to this seven-members body, which will in turn determine whether these budgets help the island to return to the financial markets. Tellingly, the Congressional bill did not stipulate economic growth as one of its goals.

Rather, the explicit objectives seek to make the government more efficient in the provision of public services; to organize Panel -available, Debt, Privatization, the local finances to make possible that bond holders of Puerto Rican debt, contingent on resources will be paid; and Diaspora Marcos Marrero to open doors in the financial markets now closed to the central government and its public corporations, and toModerator: foster projects Presenters: Laura Briggs, Francisco Fortuño Bernier, aimed at reducing the island’s dependence on oil for all its energy needs.

All of this can be expressed in a different way: Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States confronting an unsustainable pattern of Miguel Alvelo-Rivera, Luis Beltrán Álvarez public indebtedness, which led the Federal government to take over. This is a situation in which imperialism, colonialism, and neoliberalism coalesce in a society that has been fraying for a long time and is now moving toward a humanitarian crisis. With a public debt of seventy - Dependence Resistance billion in a country where annual tax revenues are ten billion, an additional forty billion in retirementPanel obligations, and amidand a recession for more Moderator: than a decade, the Puerto Rican model is no longer viable. Per the Congressional logic, supported by local elites, the solution does TBA not lie in Presenters: Ismael Ramírez Soto, democracy but in a suspension of democratic practices as well as in the imposition of the well-known recipe of privatization and higher taxes that ravaged Latin American economies in the 1980s as it is now ravaging the Greek economy.

Eduardo Aponte-Hernández, Mayra Vélez Serrano, The triad mentioned above of neoliberalism, imperialism, andism, and will design public policies that,Cordero-Guzmán, likely, will deepen Sarah the deterioration Héctor Molinari of the social fabric and create conditions for a radical reformulation of the present colonial relationship with the United States government. The main goals of the event are to educate the Five College community on the important events nowKeynote taking place on -the island and to build bridges with the local Puerto Panel Puerto Rico: Savage Neoliberalism, Rican community in Holyoke and Springfield, and regionally.

Colonialism and Financial Despotism

Puerto Rico:

Thursday, April 13

Savage Neoliberalism, Colonialism And Financial Despotism Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies

University of Massachusetts Amherst April 13-14, 2017

Friday, April 14

Emilio Pantojas García – Prof for Social Research, University

José Caraballo – Professor of University of Puerto Rico, Caye

Jorge Duany - Director of the C Professor of Anthropology, Flor Miami

Liliana Cotto Morales - Profes Puerto Rico, Río Piedras

Panel - Labor, Human Rights, and the ColonialReception Crisis Moderator: Solsireé del Moral María de Lourdes Santiago – Member of the Puerto Presenters: Aimee Loiselle, Jorell Meléndez Badillo, Ashley Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies Rican Senate, former candidate for Office governor ofOrtiz-Chico, 522 Thompson Hall – 200 Hicks Way José Raúl Cepeda the Provost Amherst, MA 01003 representing the Puerto Rican Pro-Independence PartyVice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Labor, Human Rights, and the Colonial Crisis & Senior TPanel his past June the United States Panel - Debt, Privatization, and Diaspora las@econs.umass.edu www.umass.edu/clacls Lunch Congress approved the establishment of a Fiscal Rafael Bernabe – Professor of Hispanic Studies, Moderator: Solsireé del Moral Oversight Board to take control over all budgetary decisions Moderator: Marcos Marrero Keynote Address: Juan Gonzalez of Democracy Now! University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, former by the government of Puerto Rico. The Board, known in Spanish as Laura Briggs, Francisco Fortuño Bernier, Presenters: Loiselle, Jorell Meléndez Badillo, Ashley Ortiz-Chico, José Raúl Cepeda “Junta de Control Fiscal,”Aimee consists of seven persons, all appointed

by PresidentPresenters: candidate for governor representing the Obama acting on recommendations by both the Republican and Democratic congressional Beltrán Puerto Rican Álvarez Working People's Party Closing Panel - Crisis: Analysis and Solutions LunchPresident Obama appointed all members, three of whom are Puerto Ricans. The Miguel Alvelo-Rivera, Luis leadership. governor of Puerto Rico is an ex-officio member of the Board with voice but no vote.

Moderator: Roberto Márquez

Friday, April 14

Puerto Rico:

Moderators: Roberto Alejandro, Agustin Laó-Montes

Thursday, April 13

vage Neoliberalism, Colonialism Keynote Address: Juan Gonzalez of Democracy Now! Panel - Dependence and Resistance Closing Panel - Crisis: Analysis and Solutions And Financial Despotism Moderator: TBA Moderator: Roberto Márquez The Governor of Puerto Rico is mandated by the law that creates the Junta to submit all fiscal plans and annual budgets to this seven-members body, which will in turn determine whether these budgets help the island to return to the financial markets. Tellingly, the Congressional bill did not stipulate economic growth as one of its goals.

Rather, the explicit objectives seek to make the government more efficient in the provision of public services; to organize the local finances to make possible that bond holders of Puerto Rican debt, contingent on resources available, will be paid; to open doors in the financial markets now closed to the central government and its public corporations, and to foster projects aimed at reducing the island’s dependence on oil for all its energy needs.

All of this can be expressed in a different way: Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States confronting an unsustainable pattern of public indebtedness, which led the Federal government to take over. This is a situation in which imperialism, colonialism, and neoliberalism coalesce in a society that has been fraying for a long time and is now moving toward a humanitarian crisis. With a public debt of seventy billion in a country where annual tax revenues are ten billion, an additional forty billion in retirement obligations, and amid a recession for more than a decade, the Puerto Rican model is no longer viable. Per the Congressional logic, supported by local elites, the solution does not lie in democracy but in a suspension of democratic practices as well as in the imposition of the well-known recipe of privatization and higher taxes that ravaged Latin American economies in the 1980s as it is now ravaging the Greek economy.

The triad mentioned above of neoliberalism, imperialism, andism, and will design public policies that, likely, will deepen the deterioration of the social fabric and create conditions for a radical reformulation of the present colonial relationship with the United States government. The main goals of the event are to educate the Five College community on the important events now taking place on the island and to build bridges with the local Puerto Rican community in Holyoke and Springfield, and regionally.

Presenters: Ismael Ramírez Soto,

Emilio Pantojas García – Professor of Sociology and Center for Social Research, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras José Caraballo – Professor of Business Administration,

University of Puerto Rico, Cayey Emilio Pantojas García - Professor of Sociology Center for Social Research, Eduardoand Aponte-Hernández, Mayra Vélez Serrano, Jorge Duany - Director of the Cuban Research Institute, of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Héctor Cordero-Guzmán, Sarah Molinari nter for Latin American,University Caribbean and Latino Studies Professor of Anthropology, Florida International University, José Caraballo - Professor of Business Administration, University of Puerto Rico, Cayey Miami Keynote Institute, Panel - Puerto Rico: of Savage Neoliberalism, Friday, April 14 Miami Jorge Duany Director of the Cuban Research Professor Anthropology, Florida International University, University of Massachusetts Amherst Liliana Cotto Morales - Professor of Sociology, University of Colonialism and Financial Despotism PuertoHuman Rico, RíoRights, Piedras and the Colonial Crisis Liliana Cotto Morales - Professor of Sociology, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Panel Labor, Moderators: Roberto Alejandro, Agustin Laó-Montes Moderator: Reception Solsireé&del Reception April 13-14, 2017 & Live Music by Charlie Berríos LiveMoral Music by Charlie Berríos Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies 522 Thompson Hall – 200 Hicks Way Amherst, MA 01003 las@econs.umass.edu www.umass.edu/clacls

e United States d the establishment of a Fiscal take control over all budgetary decisions of Puerto Rico. The Board, known in Spanish as Fiscal,” consists of seven persons, all appointed by President ecommendations by both the Republican and Democratic congressional dent Obama appointed all members, three of whom are Puerto Ricans. The Rico is an ex-officio member of the Board with voice but no vote.

Puerto Rico is mandated by the law that creates the Junta to submit all fiscal plans and

María de Lourdes Santiago – Member of the Puerto Presenters: Aimee Loiselle, Jorell Meléndez Badillo, Ashley Rican Senate, former candidate for governor Ortiz-Chico, José Raúl Cepeda Office of the Provost representing the Puerto Rican Pro-Independence Party & Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Lunch Rafael Bernabe – Professor of Hispanic Studies, Keynote Address: Juan Gonzalez of Democracy Now! University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, former candidate for governor representing the Puerto Rican Working People's Party Closing Panel - Crisis: Analysis and Solutions Moderator: Roberto Márquez

& Live Music by C