El Sol Latino | May 2019 | 15.6 by El Sol Latino

May 2019

Volume 15 No. 6

Un Periódico Diferente / A Different Kind of Newspaper

Campaña pro fondos proyecto

Credit -Center for Design Engagement

Portada / Front Page

El Sol Latino May 2019

Campaña pro fondos proyecto El Corazón / The Heart of Holyoke por MANUEL FRAU RAMOS El pasado 22 de marzo se inició la campaña de recaudación de fondos (crowdfunding) para el innovador proyecto de El Corazón / The Heart of Holyoke. El evento de apertura se llevó a cabo en El Mercado, localizado en 413 Main Street, Holyoke. El Mercado es parte de la organización comunitaria Nueva Esperanza, Inc. El Corazón / The Heart of Holyoke es una iniciativa entre la ciudad de Holyoke y el Center for Design Engagement (CDE), con la participación y colaboración de residentes y organizaciones comunitarias de Holyoke. CDE es un centro de recursos de diseño comunitario sin fines de lucro localizado en Holyoke dirigido por Joseph Krupczynski y Caryn Brause. CDE es el Director Artístico de este proyecto. El Corazón / The Heart of Holyoke es un proyecto encaminado a crear lugares o espacios artísticos en Holyoke que celebren, valoricen y den visibilidad a la comunidad Puertorriqueña y Latinx de la ciudad. El proyecto visualiza crear un corredor cultural a lo largo de un tramo de una milla a través de la calle Main, comenzando en la intersección de ésta con la calle Lyman, hasta la entrada a la I-391. Esta zona contiene los vecindarios de mayor concentración de Puertorriqueños en la ciudad de Holyoke, compuesta por los vecindarios de South Holyoke y la Flats. La visión del proyecto es crear una vibrante calle llena de coloridas pancartas, obras de arte a gran escala, iluminación dinámica, hermosos murales, guaguas de comida o Food Trucks y festivales culturales y de arte. El Corazón / The Heart of Holyoke busca fortalecer los esfuerzos de crear un ambiente

seguro para las familias que refleje la herencia cultural Puertorriqueña y Latinx y que a su vez sirva de apoyo a la comunidad de la calle Main. El esfuerzo ha sido una colaboración comunitaria que incluye residente y líderes comunitarios de South Holyoke y la Flats. “El hacer la expresión artística una pieza visible de los esfuerzos de desarrollo claramente es algo importante para los Holyokers, ya que nuestra comunidad no solamente prospera por los nuevos proyectos de construcción si no también cuando se hacen públicos proyectos que reflejan nuestras aspiraciones para el futuro y aquellas cosas de nuestro pasado que nos orgullecen,” dijo Alex Morse, alcalde de la ciudad. Si la campaña logra sus metas de recaudar $20,000 para el 19 de mayo a la medianoche, el proyecto recibirá un matching grant del programa MassDevelopment’s Commonwealth Places. El 19 de mayo será el evento de cierre de la campaña de la recaudación de fondos con una actividad en Fiesta Café en el 305 de la Main Street, Holyoke. Para más información sobre este evento, contactar Marcos Marrero, City of Holyoke, marreroma@holyoke.org (413-322-5655) Joseph Krupczynski, CDE info@designengagement.org (413-626-4105). Para más información sobre este proyecto, favor de ver el video y escuchar el podcast de RadioPlasma, o ver página del proyecto en Facebook www.facebook.com/ElCorazonHolyoke. Para contribuir a la campaña de crowdfunding, ir a www.patronicity.com/heartofholyoke

Las torres de acero de Holyoke Gas & Electric al final de la calle Main serán transformadas en marcadores de la puerta de entrada (“gateway” markers) a la nueva Puerto Rican Cultural Area a través de iluminación a gran escala e instalaciones artísticas que celebrarán y representan la comunidad puertorriqueña. / Credit -Center for Design Engagement

contents

Founded in 2004

Volume 15, No. 6 n May 2019

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

Editorial Policy El Sol Latino acepta colaboraciones tanto en español como en inglés. Nos comprometemos a examinarlas, pero no necesariamente a publicarlas. Nos reservamos el derecho de editar los textos y hacer correcciones por razones de espacio y/o estilo. Las colaboraciones pueden ser enviadas a nuestra dirección postal o a través de correo electrónico a: info@elsollatino.net. 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.

3 Portada / Front Page Campaña pro fondos proyecto El Corazón / The Heart of Holyoke 4 A political stalemate over Puerto Rican aid is leaving all US disaster funding in limbo 5 Axel Cabrera, la estrella boricua de La Voz Kids, lanza nuevo sencillo 6 Franco’s invisible legacy: books across the Hispanic world are still scarred by his censorship 7 Opinión / Opinion “There is no room here?” 8 The solution exists to textbook affordability, we just need to apply it

10 Voices from Puerto Rico / Voces desde Puerto Rico: Post-Hurricane María / Pos-Huracán María Special Issue of CENTRO Journal Explores PostMaría Puerto Rico 1 1 Medios / Media Podcasting en Puerto Rico: pasado, presente y futuro 13 Educación / Education STCC and WSU form partnership for urban studies program New HCC student-mentoring program opens campus office

Fighting Injustice in Holyoke... with Injustice

14 Julia Keleher: The Destroyer of Public Schools in Puerto Rico

9 Libros / Books Early Puerto Rican Cinema and Nation Building

15 Ciencias / Science Probiotics & Prebiotics NeuroBoricuas: A New Model of Science Education from Puerto Rico to New York

Portada / Front Page

El Sol Latino May 2019

A political stalemate over Puerto Rican aid is leaving all US disaster funding in limbo by LAUREN LLUVERAS This article was originally published in The Conversation | April 17, 2019 Senate Democrats recently blocked US$13.5 billion in relief for Americans whose lives were disrupted by hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, flooding and other natural disasters. The objections had to do with Puerto Rico. In addition to aid for Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska, this bill included $600 million to cover six months’ worth of nutritional assistance requested by Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rosselló. but Democrats refused to back the bill because it lacked funds that would protect the island from floods and rebuild its electrical grid. The result is an impasse between a Congress that wants to assist a U.S. territory in distress and a hostile White House. As the daughter of Puerto Ricans who moved to the mainland and a policy analyst of racial inequities, I’m concerned that the Trump administration’s neglect of Puerto Rico is based in racial bias.

Complaints President Donald Trump has vocally opposed disaster relief for Puerto Ricans almost since Hurricane Maria made landfall in September 2017. Within two weeks of that storm, which killed an estimated 3,000 people, Trump accused Puerto Ricans in a series of tweets of wanting “everything to be done for them.” Not much has changed. Since January 2019, Trump has reportedly dismissed the need for emergency food aid on the island as “excessive and unnecessary.” Rosselló responded by urging Trump to stop treating Puerto Ricans as “secondclass” U.S. citizens. He seems to have reached a breaking point after avoiding being critical of the president. When CNN asked if he felt working with Trump was like “dealing with a bully,” Rosselló replied, “If the bully gets close, I’ll punch the bully in the mouth.” Part of the US Puerto Rico has been part of the United States since 1898. The island’s residents are U.S. citizens. Yet Trump has repeatedly ignored these basic facts by asserting that money to aid Puerto Rico takes money away from priorities on the U.S. mainland. “We could buy Puerto Rico four times over” with this aid money, he reportedly said in late March.

mainland can be eligible for food stamps if their income totals $1,732 per month. Puerto Rican families of the same size may not earn more than $4,901 per year – $408 per month – and get their own version of SNAP benefits. Because of this distinction, fewer Puerto Rican families get nutritional assistance benefits than would be the case if they earned the same incomes on the mainland. The poverty rate in Puerto Rico is nearly 44%, triple the national average poverty rate. That’s especially problematic given that Puerto Rico ranks among the most expensive places in the U.S. to buy groceries. Slashed benefits Even before Hurricane Maria struck, the territory’s nutritional benefits program was already failing to meet the nutritional needs of low-income Puerto Ricans amid a prolonged recession. And once the disaster relief funds Congress appropriated for this purpose ran out in March 2019, Puerto Rico was forced to slash benefits for the 1.35 million people getting nutrition aid. While nutritional assistance funds should certainly be a high legislative priority, so should protecting Puerto Rico from future floods and fixing the island’s power grid. Puerto Rico experienced an 11-month power outage, the longest blackout in American history and the second-longest in world history after Hurricane Maria. The House, unlike the Senate, passed a $14.2 billion disaster relief bill in January. A new House version, about 25% bigger, would cover $17.2 billion in expenditures. As lawmakers entered their two-week spring recess in mid-April without sending legislation to Trump to at least consider signing, Puerto Rico, Iowa and other disaster-struck regions remained in limbo. LAUREN LLUVERAS is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis, housed at the University of Texas at Austin. In previous positions, Lauren was an equity and inclusion specialist at the Office for Minority Health Engagement and Statistics, and clerked for Texas Advocacy Project, Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid and the Center for Legal and Social Justice at St. Mary’s University, School of Law. Lauren holds a Juris Doctor from St. Mary’s University and a Bachelor of Arts from Texas A&M University.

Foto del Mes/Photo of the Month 500 Years in the Jewish Caribbean & Puerto Rico: An Oral History by Harry Ezratty and Barbara Tasch Ezratty Holyoke Public Library - April 9, 2019

Some things operate differently in Puerto Rico, though, including the safety net. Puerto Ricans, for example, lack access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the nutritional benefit system formerly known as food stamps and today better known as SNAP. Instead, Puerto Rico operates its own Nutrition Assistance Program, or NAP. Hurricane Maria did so much damage to Puerto Rico’s economy that nearly 300,000 more Puerto Ricans became poor enough to be eligible for its nutrition assistance – a roughly 30% increase in beneficiaries. Without the additional $1.27 billion in funding that Congress approved in September 2017, the greater need would have meant that everyone getting this help would have had to make do with less, as the cost of this program is generally capped at around $2 billion per year. Puerto Rico’s nutrition assistance program differs from SNAP in another critical way: The threshold is much lower. Americans in families of three on the

L to R - Iohann Rashi Vega, Director of Media Engagement at Holyoke Media (HM) and founder of Radioplasma , Harry A Ezratty, author of the book 500 Years in the Jewish Caribbean, Barbara Tasch Ezratty, author of the book Puerto Rico: An Oral History, Scott MacPherson - Executive Director of Holyoke Media, Natalia Muñoz, News Director of HM, and Jay Candelario, owner of Jay’s Bed & Breakfast in Holyoke.

Portada / Front Page

El Sol Latino May 2019

Axel Cabrera, la estrella boricua de La Voz Kids, lanza nuevo sencillo por MANUEL FRAU RAMOS Axel Gabriel Cabrera, la estrella boricua de La Voz Kids, el popular programa de televisión transmitido por la cadena Telemundo, acaba de lanzar un nuevo sencillo titulado “Vivir sin ti”. Axel, conocido desde sus comienzos artísticos como El Salserito, ha entrado en una segunda fase artística con esta nueva canción dentro del género de la salsa romántica. Durante el mes de abril, Axel estuvo promocionando su nueva canción en los programas de entretenimiento mas populares de la televisión en español en Puerto Rico y Florida. El 12 de abril apareció en el popular programa Un Nuevo Día de la cadena Telemundo junto a los presentadores, Héctor Sandarti y la boricua Adamari López. Un Nuevo Día se trasmite desde Miami, Florida de lunes a viernes en Estados Unidos y en más de 26 países en Latinoamérica.

El cantante, quien es natural de la ciudad de Holyoke y actualmente reside en Springfield, debutó en el mundo musical a nivel nacional cuando participó como cantante de salsa por primera vez en La Voz Kids en el 2015. Ese año fue nombrado como uno de los 50 finalistas entre más de 5,000 participantes que iniciaron la competencia. Axel regresó al programa al año siguiente, en el 2016, y logró la tercera posición entre unos 7,000 participantes. Axel formó parte del equipo del cantante puertorriqueño Daddy Yankee, considerado “El Rey del Reguetón.” Desde los 4 años de edad, Axel se interesó por la música. Observaba a su padre tocar guitarra y cantar con su banda y quería ser como él. Cuenta su padre, Axel Noel Cabrera, que Axel se subía al escenario a acompañarlo con su guitarra de juguete. Su madre observaba la escena desde una esquina, cantando y bailando.

Foto suministrada. Axel junto a Raymond Arrieta y Dagmar.en el programa Día a Día.

Su padre fue el primer maestro de Axel, enseñándole a tocar la guitarra y a cantar. Axel asistió a la Lt. Clayre P. Sullivan School de Holyoke, donde tuvo la oportunidad de estudiar música con José González, cantante, compositor y reconocido virtuoso maestro del cuatro puertorriqueño. Una de las grandes influencias en la carrera artística de Axel fue su abuela. En varias ocasiones Axel ha manifestado que, “Mi abuela fue mi inspiración.” Fue ella quien lo instó a participar en el programa televisado La Voz Kids. Antes de morir, le pidió a Axel que le prometiera que iba a participar en le programa y él así lo hizo.

Foto suministrada. Héctor Sandarti y Adamari López junto a Axel en el programa Un Nuevo Día de la cadena Telemundo.

En Puerto Rico, Axel también se presentó en otros populares programas de la cadena WKAQ-TV Telemundo Puerto Rico entre los que se encuentran Día a Día con Raymond Arrieta y Dagmar. Además fue entrevistado por Lourdes Collazo quien trabaja como presentadora de la sección de entretenimiento del programa Acceso Total que se transmite por Telenoticias de lunes a viernes por Telemundo Puerto Rico / WKAQ. Axel apareció en Alexandra a las 12, programa que se transmite en horario en vivo de lunes a viernes por Telemundo, con la reconocida periodista Alexandra Fuentes. Foto suministrada. Axel junto a Lourdes Collazo, presentadora de la sección de entretenimiento de Acceso Total de Telemundo.

Axel resume la historia de la siguiente manera…. Aproximadamente dos años después de que ella falleciera, un primo de la familia llamó a mi padre y le dijo que los castings para La Voz Kids eran en una semana en Nueva York. Supe que era hora de ir para cumplir la promesa que le hice a mi abuela. Fui a los castings en Nueva York y pasé todas las rondas, y un mes después de los castings, me llamaron y me dijeron que tenía que volar a Florida porque iba a tener la oportunidad de hacer una audición al frente de los jueces. Cuando finalmente llegó el momento, hice una audición, y lamentablemente, no logré ser parte de un equipo. Sentí que ella merecía más que un solo intento. Así que lo que hice fue volver, lo intenté de nuevo. El casting en Nueva York me fue bien otra vez, y me llamaron y me dijeron que me estaban dando otra oportunidad de audicionar. Sentí que tenía una segunda oportunidad y me sentí bien feliz. Así que esta vez, hice una audición una vez más, y logré que todos los jueces dieran la vuelta. Llegué a la final de la temporada, donde fui de el equipo de Daddy Yankee y fui finalista primero en mi equipo. En ese momento supe que finalmente hice realidad el sueño de mi abuela, nuestro sueño se hizo realidad. Durante los últimos dos años Axel ha sido el padrino de varios desfiles puertorriqueños de la región. También ha sido invitado ha cantar en importantes festivales latinos, y ha tenido la oportunidad de ser invitado para abrir espectáculos y conciertos para legendarios cantantes latinos. Axel busca servir de inspiración para la juventud, llevándoles el mensaje de que nunca se rindan ante las adversidades que se le puedan presentar en la vida. De las cosas negativas siempre sale lo positivo.

El Sol Latino May 2019

Summer at STCC The most affordable option! Online, day, evening, and weekend classes starting June 3rd and July 8th • 5-week and 10-week options • Get ahead • Transfer credits

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4/17/19 El Sol Latino 1/4 page: 4.75” x 5.75” Manuel Frau Ramos: manuelfrau@gmail.com Runs: May and June 2019

IS GRAT S TODO OS VENID N IE B FREE ME ELCO W L L A

Opinión / Opinion “There is no room here?” by MIGUEL ARCE and WALTER MULLIN

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” The inscription above is etched at the base of the Stature of Liberty which stands in New York Harbor. These words, installed in 1875, represent a core American value that immigrants are welcome here. Based on the assumption of kindness and justice, the idea is that most American families immigrated to the United States from somewhere else and, once here, they would not close the door on those coming behind them. Currently, President Donald Trump has set the federal government on a course that works against this American value with repercussions for all Americans but especially for those who are living in poverty in the Untied Sates now. “There is no room here”? Recently, in a speech in California, President Trump spoke about immigration in which his outright lack of compassion assaulted the American consciousness, standing in direct contrast to the words on the Statue of Liberty. He said “This is our new statement: The system is full. We can’t take you anymore. Whether it’s asylum, whether it’s anything you want, its illegal immigration. We can’t take you any more....Our country is full, our area is full, the sector is full. We can’t take any more. Sorry. Can’t have it...So turn around. That’s the way it is.” In the run for the presidency, Donald Trump made immigration the centerpiece of his campaign. He proposed constructing a wall along the Mexican border, cutting refugee resettlement, closing the border, and even, separating families. His tone reflected the idea that it would be acceptable to mistreat an immigrant. By choosing to focus this way on an unsolved problem, his rhetoric emphasized a disdain for people of color and those without financial resources. The President and his supporters claimed that immigrants would take jobs from Americans. He appealed to Americans who were struggling themselves, inciting them to believe that this viewpoint would solve other American problems such as poverty or unemployment.

El Sol Latino May 2019

Forced migration/immigration is a world-wide problem. It is not just an American problem. It has caused millions of people around the world to be uprooted, including refugees, internally displaced persons, and migrants. Twenty people are forced to leave their home every minute and the global total of forcibly displaced people currently stands at over 65 million. Ten million of them are stateless and 22 million are refugees in a foreign land. The Amnesty International website states “Every day, all over the world, people make one of the most difficult decisions in their lives: to leave their homes in search of a safer, better life”. People are forced to flee persecution or human rights violations or armed conflicts or violence. They no longer feel safe and feel targeted. According to Migration Policy Institute, “Refugees and asylees are individuals who are unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin or nationality because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution. The solution to this world-wide crisis cannot be found alone in the United States. It must be found in the world nations collectively. What does this mean for those who live in poverty in the Pioneer Valley – well north of the southern border? Here in western Massachusetts we listen to news about immigration. We can easily think this has little to do with us but, in reality, it does. The discourse on immigration has the potential to incite division among us based on race, ethnicity and financial resources. The implications are multiple and include the ideas that Latinos from Central America are not desirable as Americans and those without financial resource will never be productive. Life in poverty is considerably more stressful than living with resources. When the public discourse disparages those in poverty (even if they live far away or in another country) by generalizing stereotypes and attributing negative qualities to those in this situation, people become marginalized. People in poverty have the same rights and need the same experiences as those who live with resources. When the United States government establishes the values of social justice at the border and throughout the country, it can be contagious and poor people can also feel supported in western Massachusetts. This guest opinion is one in a series on living in poverty. DR. WALTER MULLIN (wmullin@ springfieldcollege.edu), Professor of Social Work and MIGUEL ARCE (marce@ springfieldcollege.edu), Associate Professor of Social Work at Springfield College.

President Trump has established consistency in his policies related to immigrants. He has not addressed the oppression and violence in nearby countries that are driving people to the border in search of a safe harbor. In 2017, his administration banned nationals from eight mostly majority Muslim countries from entering the country. During the same time, the President reduced refugee admissions to the lowest level since the resettlement program was created in 1980. He cancelled the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals impacting 690,000 immigrants brought to the United States as children. He signaled that Hondurans and possibly Salvadorans would also lose their work authorization and protection from removal. He has emphasized that the goal of legal immigration should be to support the needs of businesses and that legal immigrants should be ready with skills that are needed by these businesses. This all represents changes in federal government policy toward a narrower position on addressing a world crisis.

The United States Office of the Inspector General January 17, 2019 report indicates at least 2,737 children were separated from their parents or guardians at the United States–Mexico border in 2018. This is cruel traumatic treatment of children. Children separated from families cannot receive the necessary emotional, physical, and mental health services that they need. It is unlikely that the devastating damage inflicted on these children and their families will be completely overcome. These separations violate international conventions. As Governor Gavin Newsom of California stated, “His words show a total disregard of the Constitution, our justice system, and what it means to be an American.”

Cursos de verano

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The current focus of federal immigration policy tends to be on “illegal” immigration at the Mexican border. According to the Migration Policy Institute, the United States Customs and Border Patrol apprehended 404,142 people in 2018. This is a significant increase from 2017. Ninety-eight percent of border patrol apprehensions in 2018 were made along the Southwest border. Labeling this as a crisis, in spring 2018, President Trump implemented a zero-tolerance policy for some immigration violations, which led to the separation of thousands of so-called alien families.

Ponte en forma, adquiere nuevas destrezas, cambia de carrera. En línea y en el recinto.

Opinión / Opinion

El Sol Latino May 2019

The solution exists to textbook affordability, we just need to apply it by KAUNG MYAT HTAY MASSPIRG Students As primary races pick up steam across the country the phrase “Free College” is making headlines, and for good reason. College tuition increased at 260% the rate of inflation since 1980, and that’s ridiculous. Want to hear something staggeringly ridiculous? Textbook costs increased at 812% the rate of inflation since 1980.

Students are creative, we’ve always found ways to make it work: used books, library copies, renting, or sharing with hallmates. Unfortunately, publishing companies are catching on, finding new ways to shut down price saving methods with products like access codes. Access codes force students to buy a single use password, which are sometimes only available bundled with the newest edition of a textbook. These are required in order to access homework, required texts, and even tests! I’m already paying tuition, now they want me to pay to do homework. The solution is open textbooks, which are free to read, cheap to print, and high quality. They’re written under an open license which means they’re free to share and professors can adapt them for their classes. Classes that use open textbooks have seen increased student performance and completion, probably because students read books they can afford. The Massachusetts Department of Education is working to be part of the solution by creating the Achieving Access for All initiative which held trainings for professors on what Open Textbooks are and how to use them. Some schools, like UMass Amherst and Salem State University, have grant programs to help professors make the switch from traditional textbooks to free open ones. These programs save students millions of dollars. We need more of these grant programs and support systems to help professors make the switch away from expensive traditional books towards open textbooks. The solution exists to textbook affordability, we just need to apply it.

HCC student

The average price of textbooks sits between $200 and $400 dollars. For a full class load textbook prices balloon to $1,000 - $1,200 a year.

MASSPIRG is a consumer group that stands up to powerful interests whenever they threaten our health and safety, our financial security or our right to fully participate in our democratic society. Since 1972, we’ve stood up for consumers, countering the influence of big banks, insurers, chemical manufacturers and other powerful special interests.

Fighting Injustice in Holyoke... with Injustice by DAVID & JACQUELINE YOS A quarter of a century later it turns out the famed Education Reform Act of 1993 has done little, if anything, to alleviate the great disparities in educational funding between poorer communities, such as Holyoke, and wealthier ones. What makes this even more inequitable is that students In the former communities are further challenged by growing up in a more difficult general economic environment. One would think the leadership, so-called, of Holyoke would be up in arms about this situation, demanding more equitable treatment from Boston, but, with few exceptions, no; instead it wants to build two gleaming new middle schools, with no provision for funds to operate them, in way which in all likelihood will be detrimental to economic growth, and which will disproportionately hurt our poorest residents, homeowners and renters alike. With a price tag of approximately $132,000,000 the cost per square foot for the proposed new schools, in part because of the added expense of demolishing the Peck School, is too high to receive the full state reimbursement of eighty percent; in fact, the city would receive only fifty-eight percent, meaning the people of Holyoke would be on the hook for about $55,440,000, plus borrowing costs; quite a significant amount when one considers that the entire annual operating budget for the city is about $128,500,000. Obviously, given the city’s already precarious fiscal situation, an additional expense of $3,206,000 or so annually (assuming a four percent interest rate), for the next thirty years, is well beyond its means, hence the call for a debt exclusion, which is essentially a way of getting around the state law which limits annual local tax increases to no more than two and one-half percent, plus new growth (if only there were any). Equity, again given that Holyoke is the poorest of communities, would seem to call for more external funding, but this proposal goes in exactly the opposite direction. What makes it worse is that it relies on what is surely our most regressive form of taxation, that on the value of real property, which may have little, or even a negative – as in the case of retirees who purchased their homes decades ago – correlation with ability to pay. While hopefully we can all agree that better facilities for our deserving students

and dedicated teachers is a worthy end, although not the cure-all that some suggest, it does not justify using whatever means to get there. It is not an excuse for the worst in money grabbing and fiscal mismanagement. A tax increase on the many hard-pressed people and businesses of Holyoke should be a last, rather than first, resort. So much greater effort was spent on finding more equitable ways to finance such things as the Library expansion, Senior Center, and Lyman Terrace renovation. Although strong supporters of that last, much-maligned, project, we nonetheless would never have done so were it to have been done in the same unjust way as this current proposal. At this point some will be saying, but this is different, these are our children, they are our future, we must invest in them. Although that last part is of course true, there is a difference between investing and overextending oneself beyond all one’s available resources. Even those for whom money is no object when it comes to this current proposal presumably at home they first get their houses in order -- rent/mortgage loan, utilities, etc. – and then do the best they can for their kids with what’s left; just as we don’t think they care any less about their kids because of that, neither should one think that those of us with sensible reservations about this, which are not eased simply by it being other people’s money involved, don’t understand about investing in our children. The other main argument being advanced in favor of the proposal is that it will somehow pay for itself, by both bringing back those who’ve sent their children out-of-district, and attracting people from out of town; however, while capital improvements are certainly good, it is difficult to see how they can generate much academic improvement by themselves without also having the necessary operational resources and an improving community at large . Viewing it from the perspective of those on the outside looking in, no matter how brightly those new buildings may shine, it is not going to blind them to the glaring fact that there is no clear path, actually no path at all, being presented out of receivership. Furthermore, with a commercial rate going well above $40 per thousand, already reluctant businesses will be even less, rather than more, likely to come into the city, depriving it of the economic growth it so badly needs.

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Libros / Books

El Sol Latino May 2019

Early Puerto Rican Cinema and Nation Building National Sentiments, Transnational Realities, 1897-1940 by NAIDA GARCÍA-CRESPO • Bucknell University Press: June 2019 | 250 pages Early Puerto Rican Cinema and Nation Building focuses on the processes of Puerto Rican national identity formation as seen through the historical development of cinema on the island between 1897 and 1940. Anchoring her work in archival sources in film technology, economy, and education, Naida García-Crespo argues that Puerto Rico’s position as a stateless nation allows for a fresh understanding of national cinema based on perceptions of productive cultural contributions rather than on citizenship or state structures.

business practices associated with early cinema reveal that transnationalism is an integral part of national identities and their development. GarcíaCrespo shows throughout this book that the development and circulation of cinema in Puerto Rico illustrate how the “national” is built from transnational connections.

This book aims to contribute to recently expanding discussions of cultural networks by analyzing how Puerto Rican cinema navigates the problems arising from the connection and/or disjunction between nation and state. The author argues that Puerto Rico’s position as a stateless nation puts pressure on traditional conceptions of national cinema, which tend to rely on assumptions of state support or a bounded nation-state. She also contends that the cultural and

Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press. NAIDA GARCÍA-CRESPO is an assistant professor of English at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

Fighting Injustice in Holyoke... with Injustice continued from page 8 Some proponents of the proposal have reminded us of a rather embarrassing, to put it mildly, episode from about thirty years ago – slightly before the nonetheless-ineffectual education reform came along – when the citizens of Holyoke voted in favor of a tax override for trash pick-up, but against one for education (although, as we understand it, once the Mayor at the time got his hands on the money he shifted some of it back to the schools; a good result that time, but still a cautionary tale). There is the stereotype of the elderly, embittered, ethnically-prejudiced, (grand) childless voter – which, although not gone, is certainly much further from the norm now than then – but, while punching down is certainly easier, wasn’t the real injustice the drastic state funding cutbacks which precipitated the crisis in the first place? Now, just as much as then, even if Holyoke is taxed to the hilt it cannot reach school-funding parity with its wealthier counterparts; that is the concept behind educational equity, and what the reform was supposed to remedy.

greatly from it in the short-term.

While undoubtedly the vast majority of those pushing for the new schools as proposed do so with only the best of intentions, neither can it be denied that some of those pushing the hardest are special interests which stand to profit

• A comprehensive plan must be developed for taking our school system out of receivership, instead of just drifting along believing it’s acceptable;

Foto del Mes/Photo of the Month Conversation with Dr. Carlos Santiago

Massachusetts Commissionner of Higher Education Presentation of the new edition of his book (co-authored by Edna Acosta Belén) – Puerto Ricans in the United States: A Contemporary Portrait Holyoke Public Library - April 19, 2019

The worst part about all this is that the conscientious voter will be forced to choose between something downright unjust, without any coherent plan behind, or very unintentionally sending the message that he or she doesn’t care about our kids. Here are what we believe should be done before considering proposals such as this: • City government must be held accountable for operating as efficiently as possible before asking for more sacrifice from its residents, this of course involves some tough decisions that may well not be politically popular; • State government must finally be held accountable for funding education equitably, not only for operating costs, but capital as well, certainly with the full eighty percent reimbursement being provided to the poorest communities;

• Voters must be offered some alternative choices, rather than just one takes it or leave it proposal. We, who have long been engaged in, and have tried our best to advocate for, public education, find it somewhat ironic to now be the outsiders, while others who previously had given it little thought, at best, are suddenly its great champions; nonetheless, we choose to stand for what we believe is most just. Indeed it does take a village to raise a child, but the village cannot do so if it’s bankrupt, morally or financially. DAVID & JACQUELINE YOS ( jdyos@hotmail.com ) are residents of Holyoke.

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

Seated – Dr. John Cook, Vanessa Otero, Dr. Carlos Santiago, Dr Arlene Rodríguez. Second row – Dr. Manuel Frau Ramos, Dr. Kathryn Senie, María Pagán, Tim Price, Lucy Sánchez, María Rodríguez, Juan Falcón, Miguel Arce (semi oculto), Edgar Vergne, Dr. Carmen Rolón, Dr. Roberto Alejandro, Maddie Márquez, and Dr. Roberto Márquez.

Libros / Books

El Sol Latino May 2019

Voices from Puerto Rico / Voces desde Puerto Rico:

Post-Hurricane María / Pos-Huracán María by IRIS MORALES • Red Sugarcane Press: March 2019 | 290 pages Hurricane Maria smashed into Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017, the most devastating cyclone to hit in almost a century. This anthology brings together the writings of twenty-two activists, community organizers, and artists who describe the destruction and dire conditions that the hurricane exposed: widespread poverty, lack of infrastructure, and severe austerity resulting from more than 120 years of United States colonial domination and a complicit local government. First-person accounts, poetic narratives, and essays detail how Puerto Ricans mobilized and the grassroots activism that opened another chapter in the struggle for national self-determination, human rights, and climate justice. The anthology is bilingual, English/Spanish. El huracán María azotó a Puerto Rico el 20 de septiembre de 2017, el ciclón más devastador en casi un siglo. Esta antología reúne escritos de veintidos isleños --activistas, organizadores comunitarios y artistas-- que describen la destrucción y las condiciones que el huracán expuso: pobreza generalizada, falta de infraestructura y austeridad severa como resultado de más de 120 años de dominación colonial de los Estados Unidos y un gobierno local cómplice. Los relatos en primera persona, las narraciones poéticas y los ensayos detallan cómo se movilizaron los puertorriqueños y el

activismo de base que abrió otro capítulo en la lucha por la autodeterminación nacional, los derechos humanos y la justicia climática. (La antología es bilingüe, inglés / español.) Contributors/Contribuyentes: Amara Abdel Figueroa, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Mariela Cruz, Sarah Dalilah Cruz Ortiz, Ismael “Kique” Cubero Garcia, José Ernesto Delgado Hernández, Raquela Delgado Valentín, Roberto A. Franco Cardona, Yasmín Hernández, Alberto MartinezMárquez, Arturo Massol Deyá, Mari Mari Narváez, José OrracaBrandenberger, Ana Portnoy Brimmer, Maite Ramos Ortiz, Roberto RamosPerea, María del Mar Rosa-Rodriguez, Maricruz Rivera Clemente, Giovanni Roberto Cáez, Ruth Santiago, Roberto José Thomas Ramírez, Ana Teresa Toro. Organizations/Organizaciones: CivicEats.com, Junta Gente, LaborNotes.org. IRIS MORALES is a lifelong activist, educator, independent scholar, filmmaker, attorney, and author. An outspoken advocate for human rights, she brings her love of history and storytelling to write about Latinx social movements, gender and racial equality, and the colonial status of Puerto Rico.

Special Issue of CENTRO Journal Explores Post-María Puerto Rico by CENTRO Staff

Reprinted with permission from © Center for Puerto Rican Studies. Published in Centro Voices 28 March 2019 The CENTRO Journal’s latest issue, “Puerto Rico Post-Hurricane Maria: Origins and Consequences of a Crisis,” is now available for purchase via Centro’s online store. Centro Director Edwin Melendez and University of Connecticut professor Charles Venator-Santiago served as guest editors for the special issue, which will also include a semester-long book tour of colleges around the United States. “We are a critical juncture in the reconstruction effort,” said Dr. Melendez. “We are approaching 18 months since Hurricane Maria and it’s important that politicians, scholars, policy experts, and every other potential stakeholder all have as much information and context as possible to be able to work together on the next steps going forward.” To that end, the issue establishes a timeline for the crisis in Puerto Rico that spans from 1976 to present day. 1976 is of course the year when a federal tax exemption for U.S. companies based on the island—popularly known as Section 936—was enacted. Zadia M. Feliciano’s article is an overview of the 20-year period in which the tax exemption helped to fuel the Puerto Rico’s manufacturing economy, as well as the 10-year phasing out period that coincided with the advent of the current economic crisis. Dr. Melendez picks up the story ten years later with a pair of articles exploring the political and economic consequences, respectively, of the controversial P.R.O.M.E.S.A. bill signed into law by President Obama in 2016. Next, economists Pablo Gluzmann, Martin Guzman and Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz evaluate the relationship between debt relief and debt sustainability, ultimately concluding that “the island’s current debt position is unsustainable.” Similar concerns were expressed by island residents during a recent public forum in Puerto Rico in which austerity measures and the slow pace of distribution of federal hurricane recovery funds were discussed. On a similar note, the fate of the energy grid remains an integral part of the broader conversation on Puerto Rico’s future. Amid growing interest in alternatives to fossil fuels and the privatization of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), Efraín O’Neill-Carrillo and Miguel A. Rivera-

Quiñones discuss the link between energy policy and the potential for sustainable energy options. Shifting to U.S. policy, William Suárez II’s article focuses on the relationship between a controversial maritime law known as the Jones Act and the resurgent agricultural industry in Puerto Rico. Marie T. Mora, Alberto Dávila and Havidán Rodríguez then build upon their research into the demographic and socioeconomic connections between Puerto Rico and the diaspora. They do so within the context of what they have termed La crisis boricua, which, in turn, reflects the onset of the economic crisis, from 2006 onwards. Similarly, Centro researcher Jennifer Hinojosa establishes a direct correlation between Puerto Rico and the diaspora via the the impact of post-Maria migration to the mainland and the resulting depopulation of the island. At present, 3.2 million Puerto Ricans live on the island, compared to close to six million living in the United States. In their article, Jason G. Irizarry, Rosalie Rolón-Dow and Isar P. Godreau examine the mainland response by institutions of higher learning to the displacement of students in Puerto Rico. CUNY, for example, allocated funds to cover the cost of tuition and other fees for incoming students, while offering in-state tuition to all who enrolled. “Después del Huracán: Using a Diaspora Framework to Contextualize and Problematize Educational Responses Post-María” also looks at the impact of migration on stateside school districts, a topic of successive Centro research briefs published in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Centro research associate Carlos Vargas-Ramos utilizes electoral data in his contribution, “Political Crisis, Migration and Electoral Behavior in Puerto Rico.” Lastly, guest editor Charles Venator-Santiago closes the special issue with an article that expands upon his previous work on the Puerto Rico’s incorporation into the United States as a territory and its relationship to political status. The CENTRO Fall 2018 issue is available for purchase at www.centropr-store. com

Medios / Media

El Sol Latino May 2019

Podcasting en Puerto Rico: pasado, presente y futuro por ENRIQUE VARGAS

Artículo originalmente publicado en boletín No. 46 de Podcaster@s | 21 de marzo de 2019 • Reimpreso con permiso del autor.

Nota del autor: Los datos parecen sugerir que el crecimiento del podcasting en Puerto Rico está alcanzando un punto de inflexión. En este artículo le daré una mirada a la historia y al presente de la industria boricua, teniendo en cuenta su contexto de desarrollo con sus particularidades climáticas, políticas y religiosas.

Lo que debes saber de Puerto Rico Para contar la historia del podcasting en Puerto Rico haré algunas aclaraciones respecto a la fuente de información utilizada para esta nota: los archivos RSS, que son como páginas en Internet con toda la información referente al podcast en cuestión. Ésta tiene sus desventajas: por un lado, los archivos RSS se pueden modificar y esto trae incertidumbre. Por otro, dichos archivos no requieren que se incluya el país de origen. A esto se le debe añadir lo difícil que es descubrir podcasts, un problema que todavía no tiene una respuesta satisfactoria. Pero, en el caso puertorriqueño, hay que sumarle los efectos que tiene su relación política con los Estados Unidos. Una consecuencia de esta articulación se observa en que las principales bases de datos de podcasts no reconocen a Puerto Rico como otro país. En vez de esto, la producción local queda diluida en el océano de podcasts estadounidenses. Esto hace que la tarea de descubrir archivos RSS para descifrar la historia del podcasting puertorriqueño se convierta en un ejercicio de arqueología digital, algo que llevo haciendo por más de tres años. Con todo esto en mente, te presento lo que he descubierto. Inicios de Puerto Rico en el podcasting Puerto Rico ha estado presente en la escena del podcast desde sus inicios en el 2005. Los archivos RSS muestran que podcast como Puerto Rico TravelCast, iWannabes y FADcast fueron pioneros en el medio, aunque conozco por anécdotas de personas como Manolo Matos (de Podcast Ateorizar) y James Lynn (de ¡Resuélveme Tecnético!) que experimentaron con el formato cuando la palabra podcast aún era desconocida localmente. Desde entonces hasta el 2011 la podcastfera boricua se mantuvo pequeña pero estable. Podcast como Foro Colegial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tiflo Audio y Rincón del Irreverente sobrevivieron esta primera etapa. El podcast Hablando de Tecnología con Orlando Mergal es también un sobreviviente de esa primera etapa que merece una mención especial. Desde el inicio, Orlando reconoció las diferencias entre el podcast y la radio tradicional. A esto se suma que tuvo en cuenta la importancia del “Search Engine Optimization” (SEO), que son técnicas para maximizar la visibilidad de contenido en Internet. Sus estrategias, atadas a un contenido útil e interesante, le ganaron el honor de ser el primer podcast con una gran audiencia internacional. La primera gran ola: los podcasts de religión Durante la primera etapa no había una categoría dominante. Esto fue así hasta que a finales del 2011 los podcasts de música y religión comenzaron su ascenso. De estos, sin duda el primer colectivo puertorriqueño que aprovechó el potencial del podcast fueron los grupos religiosos, específicamente los cristianos protestantes. Podcast como IWES, Encuentro con la Esperanza, Iglesia Ciudad de Dios, Truth Talk e Iglesia Emanuel Cayey PR iniciaron el movimiento publicando sermones y clases bíblicas, tendencia que causaría un despunte vertiginoso. En el 2013 “Religión y espiritualidad” pasó a ser indiscutiblemente la categoría con más podcasts en Puerto Rico, posición que mantuvo hasta finales de 2017.

El fenómeno de Masacote El comediante Vicente “Chente” Ydrach comprendió del legendario periodista estadounidense Larry King el secreto para hacer una buena entrevista: escuchar. Con este entendimiento, en marzo de 2014, comenzó su podcast de entrevistas “Masacote con Chente Ydrach” para documentar la historia y el estado de la comedia en Puerto Rico. Su estilo casual, sus ocurrencias anormales y el uso (y abuso) del lenguaje censurado en los medios tradicionales le ganaron fama de inmediato. Pero una mezcla fortuita entre la oportunidad de entrevistar a personalidades locales reconocidas y una estrategia genial de SEO, logró posicionar a “Masacote” en la lista de los podcasts más populares de iTunes. Esto convirtió a Chente en la primera estrella del podcasting boricua. Gracias a este evento muchos puertorriqueños, en particular los adolescentes y adultos jóvenes, escucharon la palabra podcast por primera vez. “Masacote” también marca la consolidación de los podcasts de entrevistas informales y de conversaciones entre amigos. Como una muestra mencionaré a Dulce Compañía con Angel González, Empresarios con Pablo Tirado, Coloquio Podcast, ¿¡En Serio!?, De La Vaqueta Podcast, Hablando a 24 Frames y Dándote en la Cara. La mayoría de estos reforzaron la categoría “Sociedad y cultura”, la cual comenzó un crecimiento marcado desde principios de 2015 hasta que recientemente pasó a ser la que tiene más podcasts. Entrada de los medios locales y personalidades reconocidas Los grandes medios de comunicación de Puerto Rico llegaron muy tarde y han sido demasiado tímidos incorporando al podcast como parte de su oferta. El primero que lo usó seriamente fue la emisora de radio SalSoul cuando publicó al menos cuatro de sus programas en este formato. Otra emisora reconocida es Fidelity con al menos un programa de radio que re-empaquetó como podcast. Sin embargo, todas estas producciones desaparecieron. También, la emisora de radio pública de Puerto Rico publicó esporádicamente una serie de programas con temas culturales y radio dramas desde agosto de 2015. Es tan reciente como el verano de 2017 cuando la emisora de radio WKAQ, como parte de un pedido de su matriz Univisión, comienza a publicar varios de sus programas más populares en el formato podcast. El Azote de Luis Dávila Colón, Las cosas como son con Ángel Rosa, Sin ataduras con Jay Fonseca y WKAQ Analiza con Luis Pabón Roca y Carlos Díaz Olivo fueron los primeros en ser re-empaquetados, marcando la entrada de los grandes medios a la escena del podcasting local. No obstante, aún falta para que esta industria comprenda las diferencias entre el podcast y la radio tradicional. Este entendimiento parece que comenzó a llegar a mediados de 2018, pero primero la naturaleza provocó una interrupción. Temporada de huracanes La historia reciente de Puerto Rico se divide en antes y después de los azotes de los huracanes Irma y María en 2017, pero particularmente del Huracán María el 20 de septiembre. En los años anteriores, Puerto Rico ya estaba experimentando un éxodo creciente, principalmente hacia Estados Unidos. Los huracanes aceleraron esta migración causando que alrededor de 160 mil personas salieran en los meses siguientes (según un análisis del Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños). Esto impactó en la escena del podcasting boricua de maneras inesperadas.

La línea azul representa el total de episodios publicados al mes de los podcast de Puerto Rico y muestra un efecto inesperado de Irma y María. Como un presagio a la catástrofe que se avecinaba, tal parece que muchos podcasters se apresuraron a publicar sus episodios, ocasionando el pico notable en la gráfica que aparece justo antes de los huracanes.

continued on next page

Medios / Media

El Sol Latino May 2019

Podcasting en Puerto Rico continued from previous page Bicha Cool y los podcasts por mujeres Entre las personas que salieron hacia Estados Unidos debido al Huracán María se encontraba Greydaliz Rivera. Esta joven madre vio en el podcasting una manera de mantenerse en contacto con Puerto Rico y en enero de 2018 lanzó su proyecto llamado “Bicha Cool Daily”. Su ambiciosa propuesta era publicar por un año un episodio diario para documentar sus historias y estrategias como empresaria y emprendedora, en sus propias palabras: “cómo ir tras tus sueños a pesar de los miedos disfrazados de excusas”. Antes de continuar debo dejar claro que en Puerto Rico “bicho” es una mala palabra. Así que solo el nombre del podcast demuestra el nivel de riesgo de su emprendimiento, a la vez que refleja la dualidad rebelde y cool de la personalidad de Greydaliz. Su apuesta dio frutos. Sus monólogos breves, pero con la sinceridad y sabiduría de una amiga que tiene los pies firmes en la tierra inspiró a un batallón de mujeres que encontraron en Greydaliz la energía para lanzar sus propios emprendimientos como negocios, blogs y, por supuesto, podcasts. No estoy diciendo que Greydaliz fue la primera. Podcast como Musicofilia y Preparate son de mujeres que fueron pioneras produciendo para este medio. Pero “Bicha Cool Daily” fue motor para la entrada definitiva de las mujeres puertorriqueñas en la podcastfera. Entre los podcasts que han surgido desde entonces están: Una Jeva Boricua, A Pasos de Hormiga, Boricua Fuera de La Isla, La Descarga Vegana, Influencia Creativa, Finanzas On The Go!, Mejor con Guanábanas y Mujeres Poderosas Podcast, solo por mencionar algunos. Foto: Segundo Encuentro de Podcasts Boricuas en septiembre de 2018. De izquierda a derecha: Luis Ayala e Ylenia González (Muévete en Bici), Greydaliz Rivera (Bicha Cool Daily) y Enrique Vargas (Mirada Científica).

La segunda llegada de los grandes medios En octubre de 2017, el periodista Carlos Weber (chileno, residente en Puerto Rico desde 1973) publicó su podcast “Isla Doncella: Puerto Rico en crónicas” para relatar situaciones actuales del país y retratar el impacto del Huracán María. Es el primero en su categoría, conducido por una personalidad local reconocida, que aprovecha al máximo todas las características que diferencian al podcast de la radio tradicional. Fue en este tiempo cuando Julio Axel Ponce, creador de Click Deportes Podcast y empleado de la emisora de televisión WAPA, se acerca a la gerencia para proponer que hicieran un podcast. Su propuesta fue escuchada y en febrero de 2018 salió el primer episodio de El Podcast de Wapa Deportes. Un mes después, el principal periódico de Puerto Rico, El Nuevo Día, presentó su oferta de podcast con Torres Gotay Entrevista, Entrelí-neas, Maldita Montero y Tiempo Extra. Así, los grandes medios locales entran definitivamente a la podcastfera boricua, impulsando también a la categoría “Noticias y política” hasta ser la segunda con más podcast en la actualidad. Crecimiento en los últimos años Desde principios del 2017 comenzó una explosión en la producción de podcast independientes. Ya en 2018, figuras públicas como el exgobernador de Puerto Rico, Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, y el abogado y presentador, Jay Fonseca, introducen la palabra podcast a la población madura, que es la más numerosa. También se observa una reciente producción de podcast por parte de periodistas, comunicadores y empresas pequeñas, aunque todavía es muy pronto para decir si será algo definitivo. Hasta el cierre de la edición de este artículo, identifiqué más de 500 podcasts relacionados de alguna manera meritoria con Puerto Rico. De ellos, aproximadamente 300 tienen al menos un episodio publicado en el último año y los considero activos. Entre los inactivos, 58 desaparecieron.

En los últimos meses, las categorías que presentan los aumentos más agresivos siguen siendo “Noticias y política” y “Sociedad y cultura”, pero los temas: “Tecnología”, “Comedia”, “Negocios” y “Salud” han tenido aumentos sin precedentes. Puedes ver la lista completa de podcast y los datos que colecto visitando la página Observatorio de Podcast de Puerto Rico. Este gráfico representa la distribución por categoría para mediados de noviembre de 2018. “Sociedad y cultura”, “Noticias y política” y “Religión y espiritualidad” son las dominantes con un total combinado de 45.5%; es decir, casi 1 de cada 2 podcasts de Puerto Rico está en alguna de esas tres categorías. Estas son las categorías primarias según fueron establecidas por iTunes, excepto “Desconocido”, que la añadí para agrupar a los podcasts que no dicen a cuál categoría pertenecen.

Reflexionando sobre el futuro Si mi interpretación de los datos es correcta, el podcast en Puerto Rico está por alcanzar el primer pico del llamado “ciclo de sobreexpectación” [este término hace referencia a la madurez, adopción y aplicación comercial de una tecnología específica]. ¿Cuándo lo alcanzará? Eso no lo sé, pero desafortunadamente la teoría dice que luego de llegar a esa cima, llamada el “pico de expectativas sobredimensionadas”, le sigue el “abismo de desilusión” donde muchos podcasts terminarán abandonados. Puerto Rico llega tarde. Hay quienes estiman que este ciclo ya se cumplió para el podcasting en inglés y que ahora se encuentra en su etapa de madurez. De ser así, esto presenta una oportunidad para aprender de los errores cometidos y experiencias aprendidas por otros. Así, al futuro del podcasting local llegarán aquellos que aprovechen las enseñanzas de los que arribaron primero. Mi recomendación para los y las podcaster@s es que investiguen acerca de las producciones que los inspiran o les causan asombro cada vez que las escuchan. Sospecho que se sorprenderán cuando descubran que el trabajo en cada episodio requiere mucho tiempo y esfuerzo. Sospecho también que descubrirán la importancia de aprender sobre destrezas de comunicación, de contar historias y de locución. Es decir, llegarán aquellos que tomen en serio la tarea de mejorar la calidad de sus podcasts mediante la educación y la autoevaluación, hasta lograr innovar en su proceso de producción. Esos serán los que sobrevivirán el abismo de desilusión y se transformarán en podcasts espectaculares. Ojalá no me equivoque, porque también existe el riesgo de caer en la trampa del conformismo que tanto acecha a varias facetas de la cultura puertorriqueña. La radio y la televisión local cayeron en ese engaño y todos sufrimos las consecuencias. Escuchar podcasts independientes que siguen como modelo a la radio tradicional o que los grandes medios empaqueten sus programas radiales como podcast, no demuestra originalidad ni contribuye a erradicar el conformismo. Pero cuando veo personas emprendiendo en el podcasting siento los aires de cambio. Creo firmemente que los podcasts pueden mostrar el camino hacia la revolución que tanto necesitan los medios de comunicación en Puerto Rico. ENRIQUE VARGAS es de Puerto Rico. Produce Mirada Científica, Repaso Noticioso y Talento Escondido en su estudio de grabación, JYE Studio. Desde que le dio la fiebre del podcasting se la pasa averiguando sobre la escena podcastera puertorriqueña. También colabora con la Unión Podcastera. Twitter @vargas_ej, página web www.jyestudio. com Podcaster@s es un boletín bisemanal que forma parte Adonde Media con el propósito de reunir la comunidad de productores y amantes del podcasts en español

Educación / Education New HCC student-mentoring program opens campus office HOLYOKE, MA | HOLYOKE COMMUNITY COLLEGE | April 17, 2019 – People often twist themselves silly trying to invent clever acronyms that are both readable and descriptive. Most attempts fail, leaving the confused masses tripping their tongues over seemingly random associations of letters, like those you might find stuck inside an empty can of alphabet soup. SHOUTS, though, is a winner, an acronym that works as a powerful verb and an apt summary of the organization it represents – Students Helping Out Students. This new mentoring group comprises students from two distinct but related Holyoke Community College support programs with their own acronyms: STRIVE (Students Together Reaching Individual Visions of Excellence) and OSDDS (Office for Students with Disabilities and Deaf Services). “We’re like guides helping students find the right facilities and services,” says SHOUTS mentor Valeria Flores of Holyoke. “I like helping people.” Although SHOUTS has been operating since the fall 2018 semester, the group recently celebrated the grand opening of its office on the first floor of the HCC Donahue Building, which it shares with the Assistive Technology Center. The door is hard to miss, marked on both sides by colorful cartoons – original art courtesy of SHOUTS mentor Nevalle Ward of Springfield – and large letters that visually shout, “Welcome All Students!” SHOUTS does not have regular hours, but is staffed at least several hours every day by shifts of SHOUTS mentors, who are all volunteers. Students can fill out a short form to be matched with a mentor and set up an appointment, or they can drop by anytime the office is open, and you’ll know it’s open because a string of blue holiday lights will be draped around the door. “When the blue lights are on, people can just come on in,” says Denise Roy, a STRIVE learning specialist and a SHOUTS adviser. “The mentors will give them any type of support they need.” SHOUTS started as a mentor club exclusively for STRIVE, an academic support program that serves first-generation, low-income and disabled students.

El Sol Latino May 2019

OSDDS. Now it’s both our programs working together to make sure students get the support they need from a student’s perspective.” Inside the SHOUTS office, books dangle from the ceiling. The walls are awash with bright colors and a time-management clock. A banner proclaims “Good Vibes.” There are two computer terminals and lots of comfortable chairs. The mentors are trained not just to answer questions but to provide practical and meaningful support, such as helping students log into Moodle (HCC’s internal network), find their grades, upload a video or document for a class, make an appointment with an adviser, or find their way to HCC’s Writing, Math or Tutoring centers. “They’re not tutors. They’re really navigators,” said Roy. “They all go through training so they understand what their role is, what the special programs are on campus, and how they need to work with students so they make sure they’re directing them to the right place.” SHOUTS mentors also offer moral support and guidance, as suggested by the preponderance of motivational phrases affixed to the walls, such as: “Yes, you can.” “Work hard. Dream big.” “Change your words, change your mind.” The decor, Roy said, reflects the students’ vision and ideas. “If one student says to SHOUTS-group: SHOUTS mentors welcome another, you can do it, they’re more likely visitors during a grand opening of their new HCC campus office March 27 to believe it,” she said. Many of the 16 current SHOUTS mentors started as mentees seeking support and guidance. At the open house, Roy singled out SHOUTS mentor Kiara Taylor of South Hadley. “When she first came to the group, she was very shy,” Roy said. “She really wouldn’t say a peep. Now she’s leading campus tours. She’s an NSO (New Student Orientation) leader. She’s talking to tons of students all the time.” Taylor agreed. “This group is actually what helped me establish myself,” she said. Now she’s hoping to do the same for others. “For many, it’s a lifetime connection to the college,” said Roy. “A lot of mentees become mentors, so they pass it on.

“But we felt we were missing people,” says Roy, “so that’s when we reached out to

STCC and WSU form partnership for urban studies program SPRINGFIELD, MA | SPRINGFIELD TECHNICAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE | April 5, 2019 –Beginning this fall, Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) will offer a new urban studies program to prepare students for careers that can help the growth of gateway cities like Springfield and Worcester.

“The idea for urban studies grew out of the need to solve problems within the city of Springfield such as socio-economic hardships and public health disparities,” Greco said. “Most of our students come from Springfield and stay here after graduation. This is an opportunity for them to help create positive changes in their community.”

After graduating from the program, STCC students can transfer credits to Worcester State University (WSU) where they can pursue a bachelor’s degree in urban studies. Alternatively, STCC graduates can transfer to sociology baccalaureate programs offered at four-year colleges or universities in Massachusetts.

Students will learn that the challenges facing urban cities like Springfield are not unique. “Cities like Springfield, Worcester and a number of other gateway cities that were once thriving hubs are starting to see a resurgence. This program has the ability to aid and help these cities bounce back,” Greco said.

In a ceremony on April 5, STCC President John B. Cook and WSU President Barry M. Maloney signed an agreement creating a partnership between the schools.

The urban studies program at STCC will expose students to courses offered in different academic disciplines throughout the college, including architecture and building technology, public health, sociology, history, economics and literature. Students will need to earn 62 credits to graduate from the program, which will include some online studies.

“With appreciation to our talented faculty, it is very exciting to now have an urban studies pathway with Worcester State University, which has a well-established program,” Cook said. “With a Springfield to Worcester option, we are excited to offer Western Massachusetts students with an affordable way to develop skills that will transform their communities. This agreement with Worcester State is truly unique, and opens doors to an important set of career choices.” Maloney said, “We seek partnerships that align with our strategic mission which benefit the student and serve the community. This urban studies pathway accomplishes both.” As part of the agreement, students who enroll in the two-year urban studies program at STCC and earn their associate degree can transfer to Worcester State. At WSU, students can pursue a bachelor’s degree in urban studies, which typically takes two years. They will have the option to continue their education and pursue a master’s degree, which typically takes one year in a 4 + 1 track. Richard Greco, interim dean for the School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at STCC, said the urban studies curriculum prepares students for careers in areas such as civic engagement, municipal planning, public policy, community organization and nonprofit management.

As part of the final project, students will develop a proposed solution to an actual challenge facing the city of Springfield and present it to the community. “They will get a deep appreciation for what it’s like to get immersed in an urban revitalization project,” Greco said. Students in the STCC and WSU programs will have opportunities to take field trips to Springfield and Worcester and learn about each other’s cities, Greco said. “We’re excited. We’re actually quite thrilled,” said Associate Professor Thomas E. Conroy, Urban Studies Department chair at Worcester State. “This gives us the opportunity to take in students who have been immersed in an urban studies curriculum already. If they have a two-year degree from STCC and come to us, we can push them further to work on more complicated research projects with our faculty, secure more advanced practica and internship experiences, and conduct more sophisticated fieldwork.”

continued on page 15

Educación / Education

El Sol Latino May 2019

Julia Keleher: The Destroyer of Public Schools in Puerto Rico by DIANE RAVITCH Originally posted on Diane Ravitch’s Blog - dianeravitch.net | April 6, 2019

Julia Keleher will one day have engraved on her tombstone: “She Destroyed the Public Schools in Puerto Rico.” She joins the blog’s Wall of Shame for her shameless assault on public schools, the teachers’ union, and the students of Puerto Rico. Keleher resigned her position as Puerto Rico’s Secretary of State earlier this week (April). Her resignation comes after two years of top down education reform. She was hated by the Island’s teachers. She’s closed more than 350 schools in Puerto Rico, worked hand in hand with Betsy DeVos to undercut public schools by bringing vouchers and charters to the island, undermined special education services for students and threatened to turn over 30 schools to fly-by-night companies with no experience who want to cash in on schools. She is the Betsy DeVos of Puerto Rico, although she was neither born nor raised there. She was born in Philadelphia, where she attended Catholic school. She received her BA from the University of Pennsylvania and graduate degrees from the University of Delaware and the for-profit Strayer University. There is no indication on her Wikipedia bio that she ever taught, though she has done consulting, data-driven management, web-based stuff, project management, and worked for the for-profit Sylvan tutoring services. She is a Republican. She was imported to Puerto Rico to disrupt the public schools on behalf of Wall Street and the power elite. After she resigned, she was initially given a $250,000 a year job in the treasury department but she was forced to resign that backup position after newspapers in Puerto Rico questioned her ethics. The Yale Education Leadership conference still invited her to keynote its ed reform conference yesterday that’s supported by the Walton Foundation, Broad, 50CAN (funded by Jonathan Sackler of the opioid industry) and other right-wing organizations. Puerto Rican students from Yale wrote an open letter to Yale and to Julia Keleher which they distributed before she spoke. Imagine that: A conference on education funded only by right-wing foundations! Now there is a balanced discussion! The letter is below. To the Yale School of Management Education Leadership Conference: I am disappointed, yet not surprised, that this year’s Education Leadership Conference has chosen to host Julia Keleher as one of their keynote speakers for leaders in education reform. Keleher’s “reform” of the Puerto Rican public education system does not serve to solve any of its problems but rather to mutilate it in order to benefit all but those Puerto Rican citizens who actually rely on high quality public schools. This celebration of Keleher’s work only displays the way in which members of elite institutions like the Yale School of Management can be so blind to the reality and context of life in Puerto Rico. To Former Secretary of the Puerto Rico Department of Education Julia Keleher: During your time as the Secretary of the Puerto Rico Department of Education, you promoted the closing of over 400 public schools. You boasted that schools were mostly back to normal just weeks after Hurricane Maria, despite the fact that many schools still did not have power well into January of 2018. Rather than overseeing plans that would put the public school system onto a path of genuine recovery and growth, you pushed the creation of charter schools. In addition to this quasi-privatization of public schools, you blatantly spoke out about your intentions to meld schools with the private sector. You even boldly stated that students in Culebra should start being trained to be streamlined into the tourism industry, as if tourism should be prioritized as the only viable option for young Puerto Rican students as they grow up. Even now as you step down from your former position, you will receive a salary of $250,000 just to serve as an advisor the education department of Puerto Rico. This is more than 10 times the average salary of a teacher in Puerto Rico, which only further highlights the longstanding disrespect you have exemplified for the public school teachers of PR. You have described unionized teachers engaging in peaceful civil disobedience as “violent” in attempts to invalidate their defense of an uncompromised public school system. Teacher unions have been part of the foundation of Puerto Rican

cultural preservation, as they were key activists in the fight against Englishonly education efforts in the 1900’s and for keeping Puerto Rican history and cultural traditions in curriculum. PR’s community of teachers has already been damaged by recent anti-union legislation, and your proposed charter schools would only further harm it as teachers and locally elected school board members are largely left out of their decision making process. These charter schools which you proudly explain are schools that use government funding yet are run privately (or in other words, not run democratically) further expose the colonial government practices already present in PR, which you uphold. Beyond the political tone-deafness of the “reform” you have implemented in Puerto Rico, your sureness of their success only speaks to how little you understand life in Puerto Rico and the students you are meant to serve. PR residents know how long it can take to travel around the island due to road congestion and a lack of reliable public transportation. Forcing teachers to work 2 hours away from home through your merging of public schools is hugely disrespectful to their time and value. Working parents also cannot just drive their children to far away schools when buses are not available. Furthermore, the higher number of buses that would be required to transport students to school would only worsen the air pollution which causes Puerto Rican children to suffer some of the highest rates of asthma in the world. Charter schools also consistently underserve and exclude students with special education needs, which account for more than 40% of all Puerto Rican students. This must not be ignored in plans for PR’s public school system. The island’s limited funds for public education should be used to repair and update existing school buildings, not spent on unnecessary and detrimental charter schools and temporary trailers. You have relied on the emigration of families after Hurricanes Maria and Irma to justify your closing of schools, but basic logic dictates that closing schools would only worsen the conditions that made them leave in the first place. For many Puerto Ricans, moving to the mainland US was not meant to be a permanent relocation, but your “reform” only makes it harder for families to eventually return to their homes. You are closing pillars of local communities, which in turn weakens the entire island’s social and economic progress. Though perhaps said jokingly, perhaps said in attempts to ameliorate the image of a non-Puerto Rican undermining the island’s public school system, you have referred to Puerto Rico as your “adopted land.” Though being Puerto Rican is not just about where you live and the diaspora is an integral part of the community, a fundamental part of Puerto Rican identity is a deep shared history of struggle and resilience, which you can never be a part of. This is especially true with your commitment to your role remaining outside of the sphere of the island’s politics. While the support of public education should always be bipartisan, no current administrative position in Puerto Rico is apolitical, especially not under the undemocratically appointed fiscal control board of PROMESA. Sincerely, Adriana Colón-Adorno Yale College Class of 2020 Supporters of this Letter: Dr. Adriana Garriga-López Department Chair and Associate Professor of Anthropology at Kalamazoo College in Michigan Agarriga@kzoo.edu Diane Ravitch (Photo: dianeravitch.com)

Ciencias / Science Probiotics & Prebiotics by JORGE L. MURIEL MUNDO Probiotics are live microorganisms that are generally safe for consumption. A growing interest for the development and/or increasing food products ingesta containing either probiotics or prebiotics, have been increasing significantly in the past recent years. Mostly, because of the huge existing propaganda of all the potential positive benefits that these probiotics tends to confer during consumption. A few of the claimed benefits are mostly associated with restoring gut flora. A little information about gut microflora; it is a group of many and/or any endogenous microorganisms (that belong naturally to the host). This microflora does not provide any harm, on the contrary, because it is part of us, it helps us to combat multiple diseases, like antimicrobial activity. This anti-microbial activity is highly recognized because microflora tends to avoid and/or delay any external-exogenous pathogenic bacteria to attach or link to any surface in human digestive organs and more importantly these probiotics can also metabolically compete with these pathogenic bacteria for available nutrients in the digestive-tract. Indeed, this metabolic competition is one of the best immune defense mechanisms that this gut microflora can provide against food and or nonfood pathogenic bacteria that are constantly trying to invade the digestive-tract in the human body. Interestingly, probiotics as it was mentioned before, can help us to restore and fortify this gut microflora in our body. Our microflora can be significantly reduced or negatively affected by multiple factors like bad-diet, nutrition, genetic factors and, more commonly, with the abuse of prescriptions like oral-antibiotics. Surprisingly, antibiotics in excess have detrimental effects to human gut microflora. However, oral probiotics acquisition has been proposed in order to compensate for these losses. Different pills containing billions of different probiotics strains have been developed and recommended in the past. Moreover, food products like yogurt are currently available that provide billions of strains of probiotics.

El Sol Latino May 2019

On the other hand, prebiotics are recognized as chemicals that induce the growth or activity of microorganisms. Prebiotics rarely are added alone to a product, even when they are healthy enough to provide our microflora with necessary growing nutrients. When probiotics and prebiotics are added together they can be expected to have a higher positive effect in our body. Mostly because when they are both added together to a food or pill product, they have been previously matched, providing high Picture Source: specificity between the prebiotic and a Yakult Probiotic particular probiotic. Eventually this probiotic will have Drink the necessary nutrients to secure their growth when it is consumed based on this previously established match with a proper prebiotic. However, more research needs to be carried on in order to elucidate probiotics and prebiotics full-potential benefits. Recommendations for their consumption are crucial. Perhaps after you compare disadvantages and advantages, there’s nothing to fear. All of the positive potential benefits they can provide make this product consumption one of the most fascinating discoveries of this century. Pharmaceutical companies are now moving into this probiotic research direction, According to a DuPont press release (2018), “Today, we are witnessing a significant rise in demand for probiotics as consumers make health and wellness a daily priority. We are proud to continue to deliver on our commitment to invest in this fast-growing segment, which can also enable sustainable growth for our customers around the world.”

JORGE L. MURIEL MUNDO (Murielmundojorge@gmail.com and/or jmurielmundo@ umass.edu) is a Ph.D student at the Department of Food Science - UMass Amherst.

NeuroBoricuas: A New Model of Science Education from Puerto Rico to New York by CENTRO Staff Reprinted with permission from © Center for Puerto Rican Studies. Published in Centro Voices 5 April 2019 In the spirit of solidarity and inclusion, a young team of Puerto Rican scientists has taken it upon themselves to make science education accessible to underserved communities, and to encourage the development of future neuroscientists from underrepresented backgrounds.

students enrolled in high schools and colleges around New York City associated with the City University of New York (CUNY), as well as in other cities across the United States.

NeuroBoricuas is a non-profit organization that promotes neuroscience education in an effort to “revolutionize the way science is taught in schools in Puerto Rico.” As such, they believe in empowering students to become both mentees and mentors, and in establishing a culture of collaboration early in their academic careers.

Part of the NeuroBoricuas model includes visiting schools to talk about neuroscience and current research, in addition to training students and educators about basic neuroscience and how to use equipment for teaching and research purposes. The lab incorporates modules related to neurophysiology, pharmacology, biotechnology and other scientific fields. The NeuroBoricuas education team has also produced a curriculum that provides an introduction to neuroscience and developed highly competitive projects that have been presented at national and international science fairs. If a participating school is interested, NeuroBoricuas can facilitate the creation of a neuroscience lab using affordable equipment from their collaborators at Backyard Brains.

The organization, which has collaborated with Ciencia Puerto Rico, Yale Ciencia Academy, and the Puerto Rico Center for Environmental Neuroscience (PRCEN), among others, has been successful in schools and universities throughout Puerto Rico and continues to expand at a significant rate. Their wish now is to extend this unique learning opportunity— which is free of financial cost to the participating schools or universities—to young Boricuas everywhere, including to

The NeuroBoricas team includes over a dozen scientists and educators from worldrenowned research institutions such as Columbia University, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Hunter College (CUNY) and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Together, they are hoping to make a difference in science education in Puerto Rico and beyond. To contact NeuroBoricuas and enroll your school, contact Christian Bravo-Rivera, president of NeuroBoricas, at christian.bravorivera@upr.edu. For more information, visit www.neuroboricuas.org

STCC and WSU form partnership continued from page 13 Conroy said he looks forward to helping students complete their senior-year research and projects to prepare for jobs. Other students may choose to apply for one of three master’s degree programs: public management, public administration & policy, or Nonprofit Management. “There are a lot of opportunities that I think connecting STCC and Worcester State through this avenue achieves,” Conroy said. Worcester State offers the only urban studies bachelor’s degree program in the Massachusetts higher education system, Conroy said. While students in the new STCC urban studies program can choose the pathway to Worcester State, they have other options after graduation. They can transfer to

another four-year institution in Massachusetts and pursue a bachelor’s degree in sociology, said Matthew Gravel, dean of Academic Initiatives at STCC. The urban studies curriculum meets the requirement for the “MassTransfer” associate-to-bachelor’s pathway in sociology, Gravel said. MassTransfer gives students the choice to begin their academic career and then transfer to a state university or public college at a significant cost-savings. • Visit www.stcc.edu to learn more about MassTransfer benefits. • To learn more about the Urban Studies program at STCC, visit www.stcc.edu/explore/programs/ urbn.aa. • To learn more about Worcester State University’s program, visit www. worcester.edu/Urban-Studies.

Festival 2019

El Sol Latino May 2019

HECTOR “PPPPPP” PÉREZ VICTORIASANABRIA ALEX "ELBIZCOCHITO"

CARLITOCARIBBEAN

Cool

EdeL la G RBachata INGO

FFFFFFFF

DDDDDDD

DRA. SONIA CORREA POPE Y FAMILIA

N och e Jueves MAYO30 Cr ist ian a

ÉXITOS ROMÁNTICOS

MARIACHI

LUIS ALFONSO ORQUESTA LA VICTORIA LÓPEZ

EMPERADORES DE PUEBLA SPRINGDALE PARK

MAYO30 - JUNIO2

844 Main St., Holyoke, MA

del Oeste de Massachusetts

Junio 2

Coolers, Outside Food, Alcohol Beverages (Only at Beer Tent)

Dogs, Bikes, Scooters, Skateboards, or Rollerblades,

No video recording devices or cameras allowed on the Festival grounds.