El Sol Latino | October 2017 | 13.12

October 2017

Volume 13 No. 12

Un Periรณdico Diferente / A Different Kind of Newspaper

Puerto Rico se Levanta Un Periรณdico Diferente / A Different Kind of Newspaper

Un Periรณdico Diferente / A Different Kind of Newspaper

Ilustraciรณn por Gaddier Rosario

Un Periรณdico Diferente / A Different Kind of Newspaper

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Editorial / Editorial

Puerto Rico se Levanta Las comunidades puertorriqueñas en los Estados Unidos se han unido para apoyar a Puerto Rico.

Los Boricuas del oeste de Massachusetts también están diciendo: ¡Presente!

La comunidad puertorriqueña de la región se ha unido para formar el Western Massachusetts United for Puerto Rico. Esto es una coalición de líderes políticos, organizaciones sin fines de lucro, dueños de negocios, líderes religiosos y activistas comunitarios que han organizando campañas de donación, recaudación de fondos y están trabajando con el gobierno de Puerto Rico para obtener ayuda donde más se necesita.

Todo lo recaudado irá a organizaciones puertorriqueñas que trabajan directamente con las víctimas del huracán.

Con este propósito el Western Massachusetts United for Puerto Rico ha establecido una cuenta en el Freedom Credit Union (FCU) donde la gente puede donar con seguridad su ayuda monetaria para Puerto Rico. El nombre de la cuenta es Western MA Puerto Rican Relief Fund y las donaciones se recibirán en todas las sucursales del FCU. Si prefiere enviar sus donaciones por correo …

Attn: Edward Nuñez Western MA Puerto Rico Relief Fund c/o Freedom Credit Union P.O. Box 3009 Springfield, MA 01101-3009 Para mas información sobre dónde están localizadas las sucursales del FCU pueden visitar https://freedom.coop o llamar al (413) 739-6961.

Cita del Mes/Quote of the Month “I’ve responded to many disasters and many hurricanes – Charley, Frances, Katrina, Rita – and I have yet to see a community with more resilient people as I have seen here. I cannot state that strongly enough.”

Gina Smith, team leader with the National Disaster Medical System in Puerto Rico who usually works at UMass Memorial Medical Center.

Source: Julia Belluz, Vox, September 29, 2017

“I cannot fathom the thought that the greatest nation in the world cannot figure out the logistics for a small island... I am mad as hell.”

Carmen Yulín Cruz, Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico at a press conference on September 29, 2017.

Source: NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt

Foto del Mes/Photo of the Month

contents

2 Editorial / Editorial Puerto Rico se Levanta 3 Portada / Front Page ‘No, Mr. President, Puerto Rico Relief Is Not Going Well’ 4 Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy will make hurricane recovery brutal – here’s why 5 Statement for Puerto Rico 6 Power to the People: Jafet Robles 1983-2017 8 Galería Fotográfica: El Sabor de South Holyoke 9 Galería Fotográfica: Springfield Puerto Rican Parade 11 Opinión / Opinion Fatherhood in Low Income Communities 12 Puerto Rico, Beyond the Disaster 13 Libros / Books Rendición 14 Ciencias / Science Understanding Neuroscience 15 Deportes / Sports Nuyorican Basketball in Puerto Rico: A Game-Changing Documentary

Dr. Solsiree del Moral

Annual Celebration of El Grito de Lares 2017 • Holyoke Public Library

Founded in 2004 n Volume 13, No. 12 n October 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

Dr. Solsiree del Moral (extreme right), Amherst College Associate Professor of American Studies and Black Studies with some audience members. The talk Modern Puerto Rico A First Reading List was organized by Hispanic American Library Inc. Video about the event available on https://youtu.be/vF0Z5AopnvY, courtesy of Scott MacPherson, Executive Director of Holyoke Media

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.

Portada / Front Page

El Sol Latino October 2017

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‘No, Mr. President, Puerto Rico Relief Is Not Going Well’ On September 26, Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez (D-IL) delivered a speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives about the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Puerto Rico a week after it was struck by Hurricane María, the second hurricane to hit the Island in September. Gutierrez called for more urgent and comprehensive federal government aid, the permanent suspension of the Jones Act, and other immediate measures to respond to the urgent need for food, water, fuel and medicine. He also responded to the President’s tweets last night reminding Puerto Rico of its debt owed to Wall Street bondholders.

We know the U.S. is capable. We can invade foreign countries with hundreds of thousands of troops, flawless communications, food and security.

We need the same effort now.

We need the federal government to go all in to rescue Puerto Rico from a humanitarian crisis and welcome other nations if they want to help, like Cuba which has offered doctors and other emergency assistance.

But what I fear is that the federal government is not stepping up as fully and as quickly as we must.

I remember in this body when the legislation to take over the Puerto Rican government and put in place a Junta or Control Board was working its way through Congress, the PROMESA Bill.

What was the main selling point for the bill?

Vote for PROMESA because it will not cost us a penny!

So, that is where this Congress and the federal government start from, not wanting to spend what needs to be spent or do what needs to be done.

We need to waive cost-sharing that would charge Puerto Rico for a percentage of the relief and rescue help they are receiving. Puerto Rico is broke, they cannot borrow and they cannot set their own budgets and spending priorities – that was all taken away from Puerto Rico.

So the U.S. government should start by waiving those cost-sharing requirements and suspend the Jones Act permanently or for a substantial period of time – at least a decade – in order to help in the recovery.

Below is the text of his speech. Also a video of the Congressman’s speech can be found: https://youtu.be/UJs6RgjIIQk. No, Mr. President, Puerto Rico relief is not going well.

We don’t need to be reminded of the debt. We should remind ourselves of our responsibility to the 3.4 million people of the Island Nation of Puerto Rico.

Since it was imposed on Puerto Rico, the Jones Act has cost Puerto Rican consumers more than all the money owed to Wall Street, yet the President reminds us of the debt in his tweets.

Let the ships flow as quickly and as cheaply from wherever they may come from because this is an emergency.

Mr. Speaker, the people of Puerto Rico need our immediate and sustained help.

Let’s be clear, with or without hurricanes, the electrical grid, the roads, ports, public safety and public health systems are close to collapsing, so this emergency cannot just be treated by Congress, the President, FEMA and the other agencies as just another storm.

We all know that flooding, destruction, and the complete elimination of the power grid for the whole Island are among the consequences of Hurricane Maria, but this was no ordinary hurricane and it hit at no ordinary time.

Mr. Speaker, I have asked the Speaker of the House and the Democratic Leader to form a delegation to send Members to Puerto Rico so they can see for themselves how dire things are.

Mr. Speaker, we need all hands on deck and to make rescuing Puerto Rico our number one priority. Immediate needs must be met – fresh water, food, medicine, shelter and fuel. But we will need sustained investment and cooperation with the Island’s government and its people to make Puerto Rico livable again.

I am leaving early on Friday to go there and I am hoping other Members will join me.

They are suffering greatly.

Like a lot of Americans, I have watched with increasing horror and panic as the Governor of Puerto Rico, the Mayor of San Juan, and ordinary Puerto Ricans have pleaded for more help. The work of first responders and our military has been heroic, but the Island needs more.

One third of the doctors – over 5,000 – have left Puerto Rico in the last 10 years.

I have family who need help, so I am headed there to do what I can do.

But most importantly, I am committed to shining a spotlight on the people of Puerto Rico so that they are neither out of sight nor out of mind.

We need to make them the priority in this moment of great need. In this moment of national disaster.

Gutiérrez Tells Congress He Will Not Allow Them to Forget About Puerto Rico - Floor Speech

Hospitals have no doctors, nurses, fuel and medicine – at the hospitals that remain open.

The full text of the speech (as prepared for delivery) is below.

This is a public health crisis and should be declared a health emergency by the federal government.

Puerto Rico has been in economic crisis for years. Five thousand people flee Puerto Rico every month, before two hurricanes hit, leaving behind many old, many young, the very sick, the very poor, and the very vulnerable.

Rep. Gutiérrez represents the Fourth District of Illinois, is a Member of the Judiciary Committee and the Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security, and is the Co-Chair of the Immigration Task Force of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. He was born in Chicago to parents who were born in Puerto Rico and he has lived in Puerto Rico at various times in his life.

There is no food in supermarkets.

Floor Remarks

We need an airlift. We need an effort the scale of Dunkirk.

September 7, 2016

A video of his speech is here: https://youtu.be/9TpFdAHSCpE

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Portada / Front Page

El Sol Latino October 2017

Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy will make hurricane recovery brutal – here’s why by LAUREN LLUVERAS This article was originally published on The Conversation | September 25, 2017

which has increased 24 percent in the past five years. But Maria’s winds and floodwaters demolished these gains in bananas, plantains, coffee, dairy and corn production. Roughly 80 percent of Puerto Rico’s crop value just vanished over night, a loss of approximately US$780 million.

The United States had already seen its share of disasters, from back-to-back hurricanes that devastated Texas, Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands to roaring wildfires in the West.

Then, after battering the rest of the Caribbean, Hurricane Maria left the island of Puerto Rico facing a humanitarian crisis. About a dozen people died in the Sept. 21 storm and the island was plunged into darkness.

Lauren Lluveras

Now, some 3.4 million Puerto Ricans – which is to say, 3.4 million American citizens – are confronting life without electricity, gas, cellular service and, in many cases, a home.

After a decade of fiscal decline and a May 2017 bankruptcy, Puerto Rico has become exceptionally vulnerable to disasters like Maria. As both a policy analyst and the daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants, I’m concerned about how austerity-related reforms are now threatening the survival of not just my family there but everyone on the island.

Though food insecurity, poor health care and resource-starved public transit all predate the hurricane, the result of both damaging U.S. policy and deepening financial crisis, these three problems will dramatically complicate Puerto Rico’s recovery.

Food insecurity Because Puerto Rico imports over 85 percent of its food, food security on the island has always been fragile. The U.S. territory has been rationing supplies since Hurricane Irma in early September, but according to Puerto Rico’s former secretary of agriculture, it may have just one month’s worth of food on hand.

Puerto Rico’s main port reopened Sept. 23, allowing 11 ships to begin arriving with aid and resources, including clean water and food. Even so, distributing supplies across the 3,515-square-mile island will prove difficult on roadways damaged by flooding, debris and downed power lines.

Puerto Rico’s food supply is also uncertain given that several islands from which it imports food, including the Dominican Republic, Dominica and St. Martin, were also hit hard. And if the island goes without power for up to six months, the shelf life of the meat, vegetables, fruit and other staples of the traditionally fresh Puerto Rican diet will be awfully short.

This is the U.S. territory’s second food shortage in recent years. When a Puerto Rico-bound cargo vessel, El Faro, sank during Hurricane Joaquin in 2015, residents spent months in strife as the government struggled to develop a plan that ensured everyone had enough to eat.

Prior to World War II, Puerto Rico actually had an agricultural economy, producing and exporting sugar cane, tobacco and citrus fruits. But, postwar industrialization and growing stigma around farm work led to a downturn. Today, the island can’t feed its populace or compete with developed countries’ agribusiness and cheap prices.

In response, Puerto Rico has made an effort to grow domestic food production,

Poor health care Puerto Rico had poor health care before Hurricanes Irma and Maria, but the storms will exacerbate this desperate situation, too. Ravaged by austerity, hospitals and other health care facilities saw their budgets cut by 15 percent from 2011 to 2015. Countless public clinics across the island closed during the past year, while four hospitals have filed for bankruptcy.

The island is also short on health care professionals, with 72 percent of Puerto Rico’s 78 municipalities deemed “medically underserved.”

This deficient system will face grave challenges in providing medical care to Puerto Ricans injured during and after the storm. Serious cuts and broken bones are extremely common following hurricanes, as are heat-related and infectious illnesses.

Loss of power may also lead to the worsening of illnesses for residents with such chronic conditions as diabetes, heart disease, psychiatric disorders and HIV whose medications require refrigeration. My own abuela (grandmother), a diabetic who began having mild cardiac episodes last year, is one Puerto Rican among thousands in this situation.

These domestic barriers to medical care are magnified by the ongoing debate around health care in the U.S. Even though Puerto Rico residents are more likely to be poor, elderly and diagnosed with a chronic illness than the general population, caps to Medicaid reimbursements have forced several hospitals on the island to cut services, close wings, leave positions unfilled and reduce employee hours and pay.

In the wake of this natural disaster, experts expect Puerto Rico’s hospitals to be overburdened, especially in San Juan and other metropolitan areas, where most medical facilities are located. In recent days, Gov. Ricardo Roselló has resorted to retweeting information about which hospitals are open and receiving patients.

Transportation shortages Many Puerto Ricans will not be able to reach help, though. Upwards of 45 percent of the population lives in poverty and an estimated 35,000 riders depend daily on public transit to get around.

With a limited budget, an aging infrastructure and too few vehicles to support the island’s population, however, the transit authority has been struggling to meet needs. The agency underwent austerity-related budget cuts in 2015, operating at a deficit until, finally, in May 2017, it filed for bankruptcy.

This history has complicated evacuation efforts. Locals were puzzled at the “leave or die” warnings sent to Isabela residents on Sept. 23 when a large crack in the Guajataca dam threatened to flood surrounding areas. How, exactly, were they supposed to leave? And how could they get out on roadways long since rendered impassable?

As rescue and recovery efforts continue, transportation shortages have effectively left many residents reachable only by helicopter.

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Portada / Front Page

El Sol Latino October 2017

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Statement for Puerto Rico The Cruelest Storm: 200+ Academics Speak Out for Puerto Rico

by AUREA MARÍA SOTOMAYOR, JUAN CARLOS RODRÍGUEZ, SHEILA VÉLEZ MARTÍNEZ, MYRNA GARCÍA-CALDERÓN, LOURDES DÁVILA, NEMIR MATOS CINTRÓN, ADRIANA GARRIGA-LÓPEZ, LUIS OTHONIEL ROSA, CÉSAR A. SALGADO. This statement was originally published in Common Dreams | September 30, 2017 ESL Editor’s note: The complete list of signatures is published in the document published by Common Dreams The destruction brought by Hurricane Maria has exposed the profound colonial condition of Puerto Rico, as millions of human beings are faced with a life or death situation. The financial crisis manufactured by American bankers, colonial laws such as PROMESA and the Jones Act that controls maritime space, are legal mechanisms that prevent Puerto Rico’s recovery, and even call into question the validity of American citizenship on that island. Given the severity of the situation, political action is necessary. The destruction brought by Hurricane Maria has exposed the profound colonial condition of Puerto Rico.

Introduction The destruction brought by Hurricane Maria has exposed the profound colonial condition of Puerto Rico, as millions of human beings are faced with a life or death situation. The financial crisis manufactured by American bankers, colonial laws such as PROMESA and the Jones Act that controls maritime space, are legal mechanisms that prevent Puerto Rico’s recovery, and even call into question the validity of American citizenship on that island. Given the severity of the situation, political action is necessary.

The State of Facts Puerto Rico is experiencing a humanitarian crisis as a result of Hurricane Maria, which struck the island on Wednesday, September 20, as a Category Four hurricane. Immediately thereafter, Governor Roselló declared a curfew from dawn to dusk for security reasons. More than a week after the event, hundreds of communities are still flooded, isolated without any food or drinking water, as highways and roads are blocked or destroyed, making communication between towns, neighborhoods and cities impossible.

Telephone, internet, drinking water and electricity services have not been reestablished in most communities. The weather radar was destroyed as well as the surveillance towers at the San Juan International Airport. There is a public health crisis due to the precarious conditions in hospitals and the threat of epidemics stemming from contaminated water. Cities, towns and neighborhoods outside the metropolitan area have been abandoned, and efforts are concentrated in the San Juan metro area. The western part of the island, for example, lacks minimum services.

The images shared with the world by visibly shaken journalists, television anchors, and meteorologists speak of the human drama caused by the disaster. What is missing from many of those reports is concrete information of plans and immediate, achievable initiatives to move the country ahead, as well as an ongoing plan. Explanations are necessary for why so many efforts to reach, house, feed and clothe many Puerto Ricans are unsuccessful. The people and the local government need the freedom to make and act on decisions quickly. There is no sensible political analysis of the situation due to such dire absence of communication. The state of precariousness in which the entire population of the island finds itself forces individuals to concentrate all of their strength on survival. Many have already opted to leave the country as the re-opening of the Luis Muñoz Marín airport demonstrated in its first day of service after the hurricane. It is a cruel way of emptying Puerto Rico of its most valuable resource, its people; the potential silencing of any dissident voices in the process is unacceptable.

This state of emergency could be used to promote new measures of austerity that will not benefit Puerto Rico, a country already devastated by the financial disaster of an unpayable debt.

“This state of emergency could be used to promote new measures of austerity that will not benefit Puerto Rico, a country already devastated by the financial disaster of an unpayable debt.”

The Caribbean has been pummeled by two major hurricanes in the month

of September: Irma and Maria. The Virgin Islands, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Dominica, Barbuda, Antigua, Guadeloupe, St. Kitts, and Puerto Rico are geopolitically precarious: physically as islands and politically for their colonial history and status. They were traditionally called “Overseas Provinces” because of their political and economic dependence on a metropolitan mainland. The world has found out in the past few days what our history has always stubbornly made visible to us.

Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States. Its political status stems from the U.S. invasion of 1898 and a series of laws that served only to consolidate U.S. control, hindering the possibility of Puerto Rican sovereignty and political emancipation. One such law is the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, or Jones Act, which determines that Puerto Rico’s maritime waters and ports are controlled by U.S. agencies. The limits on shipping imposed by the Jones Act double the cost of consumer goods arriving at our shores, since they curtail the ability of non-U.S. ships and crews to engage in commercial trade with Puerto Rico. The recent legislation, PROMESA (or “promise,” a cynical and injurious acronym for the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act), which imposes millions of dollars of accrued debt and stringent austerity measures on Puerto Rico and its inhabitants, is yet to be audited. PROMESA has established a supra governmental body with complete control over finances and the laws and regulations adopted by the PR government. PROMESA represents Congress’ most significant overt act to restate its colonial authority over Puerto Rico in total disregard of democracy, republicanism, and popular sovereignty. Here is where the need to repeal PROMESA and the Jones Act intersect, as both are exercises of colonial power to further the economic and political interest of the metropolis. At this time of humanitarian crisis and dire times for Puerto Rico Washington will not act in the best interest of the people of Puerto Rico by repealing both PROMESA and the Jones Act. The US citizenship of Puerto Ricans, in this circumstance, is not a privilege, but the branding of a slave. It is a restrictive citizenship subject to the limits imposed by the US Congress without any interpellation of the subject to whom it is imposed. As an American colony, citizenship in this case actually denies Puerto Ricans any of the rights obtained by other regions impacted by the same events in the North American mainland. Citizenship makes us hostages, dispensable entities and victims of calculated charity. It is necessary to repeal the Jones Act, which imposes restrictions on the entry of other vessels to the island, even if their intention is only to offer humanitarian aid. It is necessary to abolish the PROMESA Law, since Puerto Rico cannot be rebuilt on the basis of an unpayable and fraudulent debt.

Both laws condemn the country to an unsustainable economic future that will intensify the exodus of Puerto Ricans from their island.

The manner in which aid delivered to Puerto Rico has been confiscated and controlled by FEMA, along with the refusal to assist Puerto Rico in a manner similar to that offered to mainland localities affected by Hurricane Irma, for example, shapes our interpretation of this event. It subjects the inhabitants of a territory in crisis to the limits of what a federal agency is willing to do, and denies aid that may come from other countries at this critical time.

Beyond the paternalism that this implies, it turns Puerto Ricans into hostages of their colonial condition.

“The PROMESA law and the Jones Act must be repealed. This is not the time to invoke the false rights inherent in second-degree citizenship, but to claim the right of every human being to life.”

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Portada / Front Page

El Sol Latino October 2017

Power to the People: Jafet Robles 1983-2017 by WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS POLITICS & INSIGHT Published on September 22, 2017. • Reprinted with permission from WMassP&I. In the hours after his death last week, Jafet Robles’s gaze was everywhere.

Often rocking a cap and Neighbor 2 Neighbor (N2N) T-shirts and sweatshirts, the Springfield activist’s fierce eyes appeared across social media and in hearts. Though that wasn’t fierceness—Robles had that too—but resolve.

This inflection point for Robles came amid one for Springfield. The eyes meant to oversee the city proved vacant and hollow. As with its finances, they had lost track of its people too.

He served four years, but struggled to find work and support his kids. Jobs in home improvement would come his way, as well as opportunities to mentor other young guys like himself. He obtained his associate’s degree from Holyoke Community College in political science. Holyoke City Councilor Jossie Valentin, in a remembrance, said he showed potential as a student in her wife’s class.

Activism would reunite Robles and Valentín years later.

Mentoring others led to organizing around North End issues like repairing the dank Gerena School tunnel under I-91. Criminal justice reform and demands for more and broader policy reform followed.

“Jafet was never really a professional in anything exception a professional in love and helping people make better decisions,” Springfield Ward 1 Councilor Adam Gomez, a close friend, said.

Jafet Robles in 2015 (via Facebook)

Robles resolved to not accept the status quo underinvesting in his neighborhood, imprisoning his generation and depriving millions more of dignity. The solution and his calling was organizing—organizing his community, Springfield, and much more. Hardly parochial, Robles networked and reached out, soliciting support from and battling on behalf of many causes, groups and people.

“How many people would agree that right now is the time is to get involved in an organization, grassroots, to really be active right now?” he declared at a February solidarity rally outside the Hampden County Hall of Justice.

“How many people agree on that?”

Organizing became Robles’s raison d’être. Success gave him—and his community—a measure of power. Yet before his rise came the fall. He did time for drugs. He came home and like many before him—and too many after—there was struggle.

Sometime before the morning of September 11, Robles was murdered.

Chicopee Public Works employees discovered his body, riddled with multiple gunshots, in Szot Park. Chicopee Police have not disclosed much, but have urged the public to come forward with information.

A wave of shock, disbelief and blunt sadness swept across Greater Springfield.

Photographs of Robles bombarded Facebook as friends, family and colleagues of his struggled to make sense of the crime. Many expressed sympathy for his family or directed the bereaved to Go Fund Me page for his children.

Maria Elena Latona, executive director of N2N’s Massachusetts chapter where Robles worked, called him the “heart of N2N’s organizing work.”

“He was fierce, fearless and relentless in his work to end mass incarceration,” she said. Like many others, Latona underscored his advocacy for people regardless of color, sexuality, legal status and beyond. “Jafet knew in his soul that we are one,” Latona added.

“They look out of no face but…”

Jafet Robles was born on December 2, 1983 in Bayamón, P.R. and later moved to Springfield as a chield. Though friends recall seeds of empathy as a teenager, he had trouble in school. Robles got mixed up with drugs, left school and was drawn into the prison pipeline he would later seek to plug.

Remembering Jafet Robles during the Springfield Puerto Rican Parade on September 17.

Still he organized like a pro. He built coalitions as with labor to push the Jobs not Jails initiative. Sharp, but earthy and relatable, he could energize a crowd or activate people with a selfie video. Despite Springfield’s dilapidated civic virtue, he and others, orchestrated marches, rallies, actions, meetings and petitions and, most formidably, registered voters.

“The sun was rising now in fellowship with the same stars that had escorted it…”

Casual and comfortable in the streets or dressed up in the mayor’s outer office, Robles got officials’ attention.

Barely a month ago, he was outside the Springfield State Office Building in Springfield protesting Governor Charlie Baker’s legislation to let local police engage in immigration enforcement.

Bullhorn in hand, he slammed the bill as an effort to divide people. “We need to start coming together despite our different social, economic whatever the difference may be. We all know that if one person ain’t free, none of us are free.”

Some electeds grudgingly folded. Others embraced Robles’s agenda.

Gomez said many establishment figures in the North End could not help but respect him. Mayor Domenic Sarno, while praising Robles’s compassion in a statement—issued nine days after his murder—admitted to disagreeing with his methods. For his part, Robles had called Sarno “baby Trump” due to, among other things, the mayor’s immigration rhetoric.

Calvin Feliciano first met Robles back in 2009 working for SEIU Community Action. The union-backed organization sent Feliciano to Springfield to work on the city’s first-in-a-generation ward races. Robles impressed Feliciano with his drive and effectiveness.

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Portada / Front Page

El Sol Latino October 2017

Power to the People: Jafet Robles 1983-2017

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continued from previous page

Unlike himself, Feliciano admitted, Robles was from the streets of the North End. Critics or establishment Latinos couldn’t discredit Robles as an outsider.

present tense. “When I heard the news last Monday, I couldn’t believe it. I refused to believe it.”

“But he was so freaking good at organizing,” he said. “There was nothing they can say to him.”

“From a little spark may burst a flame…”

“Remade, as new trees are renewed when they bring forth new boughs…”

Robles never sought office himself. He campaigned for others, statewide and local. He supported Ivette Hernandez’s unsuccessful state rep bid, from which she emerged as an even stronger activist. The following year he helped elect Gomez, defeating Zaida Luna who had turned back stiff challenges before.

“We made a decision this was a chance to make a mark politically,” Gomez said. He and Robles had gone to a conference which urged people to run for office. The message was partly in the campaign itself, win or lose. As it happened, the message resonated with voters.

However elections went down, Robles still went to Boston and Washington— rallying at the State House steps end mandatory minimums or marching for fair deal for Puerto Rico. But he backed his friends’ causes, too: the environment, labor rights, civil rights, and transparency.

In the hours after his death, mourners of all stripes gathered at N2N’s Chestnut Street office in Springfield. “There were Latinos there who spoke no English there and the Nation [of Islam] there,” Feliciano said.

N2N led a contingent that capped Sunday’s Puerto Rican parade. Friends, family and comrades of Robles, a rainbow of Springfield, marched with banners and shirts emblazoned with his face.

The week before, allies of Robles were openly worrying organizing in Springfield might not recover from losing him. Preliminary day in Springfield was perhaps the first election in years where he was not dragging voters to the polls.

In addition to his four children, Robles leaves behind his sister and mother.

Robles had flaws and made mistakes. His friends took pains to note that and keep his memory down to earth. Most mentioned his dedication to his kids of whom he had custody.

A river of Facebook and Instagram posts and YouTube videos show his outreach to N2N members, to allies, to friends, or to anybody tuning it.

Robles’s final Instagram post on the last day of his life was typical. Perhaps that freewheeling social media use aided his organizing.

Interspersed though, were videos of him with his kids goofing off or singing along with the radio.

“He was a musician. There wasn’t one kind of music that he didn’t like,” Gomez said. Even in high school, Robles could connect with different people, trying different foods and different music. “He listened to everything and he understood people.”

“He just had a way of talking to everybody without having any judgment,” Govan said, trying to explain how he could cut across barriers. “I think that’s what’s needed.”

“Life is short and this is a short ride,” Robles said in macabrely prescient TED Talk-like speech from 2016. You could not build a legacy, he argued, upon earthly possessions or popularity but by taking a stand for what’s right.

Though people who do so may die, “their voices still echo. We still hear them because they fought hard.”

The topic was ending mass incarceration, his pet cause, but it could have been any of his issues or one of friends’.

But there was resolve Sunday.

“What do you want to be remembered for?” he exhorted, looking out, seeing everyone.

“I feel like he’s still here,” Zaida Govan said, often referring to Robles in the

Jafet Robles was 33.

Yoga en Español

Jornada de puertas abiertas con Monica Leitner-Laserna Sábado, octubre 7, 2017 10:00am - 1:30pm -Estas clases son gratis 10:00am - 11:00am Yoga en español para principiantes Apenderas posiciones y rutinas basicas que te ayudaran a encontrar balance y equilibrio en la parte fisica, mental y emocional.

Adultos mayores de 18 años.

Parking gratuito. Esterilla de yoga provisto.

11:15am - 12:15pm Yoga restaurativo y meditación Ideal para aquellas personas que estan buscando una actividad de relajacion fisica y mental. En esta clase tendras la oportunidad de trabajar en el estiramiento y la flexion de tus musculos en una clase lenta, con musica y luces que invitan a la relajacion.

12:15pm - 1:30pm Comamos sano! Hay una conexion profunda entre nuestra salud y como nos alimentamos. Reunisese con nosotros para probar comidas saludables y deliciosas y aprende como hacerlo en su casa. Comida deliciosa y sano.

Monica ha practicado el yoga y la meditación por los últimos 10 años y lo ha enseñado por los ulitmos cinco años. Le encanta trabajar con estudiantes que son nuevo a el yoga y la meditacion y le gusta enseñar en español. También es chef vegitariania y le gusta enseñar y aprender de la salud holistica.

Breathing Space, 208 Race Street, Suite 301 Holyoke, MA 01040 Tel 413.437.0747 breathingspaceholyoke.com Breathing Space Inc. is a nonprofit 501(c)3 corporation

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Portada / Front Page

El Sol Latino October 2017

Galería Fotográfica El Sabor de South Holyoke 23 de septiembre de 2017 Johathan Jensen y Iohann Rashi Vega

Deyaneira Crespo y José Colón

Israel Rivera, Michael Moriarty y Adam Gómez

Ricardo Jiménez y Nelson Román

Trio Los Liberales

Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy will make hurricane recovery brutal People across the island are already suffering the consequences. One family – Irees Gonzalez Collazo, 74, and her two sisters, Carmen, 73, and Sara, 72, of Utaudo municipality – exemplifies the cascading effect of this tragedy. All three women had immobilizing health complications and, unable to evacuate, were killed on Sept. 24 when a mudslide buried the home where they rested.

An American humanitarian crisis If the situation in Puerto Rico seems dire, that’s because it is. People on the island will face seemingly insurmountable problems in nearly every aspect of their lives for months to come.

The Trump administration, which has thus far demonstrated a notable lack of concern for the island, could provide some urgent disaster relief by responding Gov. Rosselló’s request for increased aid for law enforcement and transportation, among other basic needs.

continued from page 4

The U.S. Congress could also play a role in the territory’s longer-term recovery. Increasing the island’s Medicaid funding, for example, would save lives in this critical time and free up some of the territory’s scarce funds for other purposes.

While FEMA picked up the pace of aid five days after the storm, few Puerto Ricans anticipate that they’ll see the kind of “historic” federal disaster relief sent to Texas and Florida after hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

Fortunately, Puerto Rico has a culture of resilience. Since the storm, residents have stepped up to help, feed and shelter one another. If the U.S. federal government won’t save Puerto Rico, we Puerto Ricans will.

LAUREN LLUVERAS is a Post Doctoral Fellow at the Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis, University of Texas at Austin.

Portada / Front Page

El Sol Latino October 2017

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Galería Fotográfica Springfield Puerto Rican Parade 27 de septiembre de 2017 Inclusive Leadership coalition

Vejigantes

WGBY 57 Hispanic-American Library

Holyoke Community College

Statement for Puerto Rico

Phillip Borras

While exploiting the physical deprivation Puerto Ricans are experiencing, FEMA’s presence also promotes psychological servility. As military uniforms increase and become more visible due to this emergency, a very troubling image is emerging of the Puerto Rican people, under increasingly fragile and precarious conditions. Efforts are delayed for a population that the federal government considers expendable. Rampant indifference is affirmed with lack of solidarity with neighboring towns by preventing other kinds of aid from flowing into and through the island. This situation brings Puerto Ricans down to their knees, at the mercy of the equivocal aid provided by the US, while other humanitarian aid is blocked. Puerto Ricans are placed under peril, endangering the lives of thousands that still have not been reached. The ultimate goal of this federal aid is unknown. Its growing militarization at a time when Puerto Ricans are deprived of the basic means of survival and communication is alarming. It turns this state of emergency into an opportunity for some to thrive financially while hundreds of people die from lack of water, food and medical treatment.

No political or economic reason justifies the death of diabetes patients who do not have the means to keep their insulin cool nor dialysis patients who have seen their treatments interrupted due to lack of electricity. The

Westfield State University continued from page 5 consequences of this blockade on solidarity could be greater than the victims produced by the hurricane itself. The recent statements by President Trump are unworthy of any president. In the midst of a humanitarian crisis, he demands payment of the credit debt. Immediate actions must be taken.

The PROMESA law and the Jones Act must be repealed. This is not the time to invoke the false rights inherent in second-degree citizenship, but to claim the right of every human being to life.

Faced with these facts, we demand: • The recognition of a state of humanitarian crisis.

• The immediate repeal of the Jones Act (Merchant Marine Act of 1920) for Puerto Rico and the repeal of the PROMESA Law. • That the aid provided by the federal agencies not be subjected by any conditions that can delay or limit its reach.

• The opening of the ports to all those who wish to show solidarity with the Puerto Rican people.

• The reestablishment of all means of communication across the island.

• Dedicated funds and assistance for the thousands of people without home, water, food, and electricity.

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El Sol Latino October 2017

Opinión / Opinion Fatherhood in Low Income Communities

by MIGUEL ARCE and WALTER MULLIN

There are enormous challenges to being a successful father when living in low income communities. In spite of cultural changes in defining the roles of mothers and fathers as more fluid and flexible, there is still a significant belief that the success of a father is defined by his financial accomplishments in providing for his children. The association of being male and living in poverty can be an overwhelming and insurmountable challenge.

Fathers’ absence is a real crisis in the United States. Clearly children usually benefit when there is a father in the home. In the United States, 1 out of 3 children live without their biological father in the home (U.S. Census Bureau). It is more likely for children without fathers in their home to be poor as compared with children who have a father in the home (Sorenson and Zibman, 2001).

Youth in father-absent household have significantly higher odds of incarceration than those in mother-father families. The National Fatherhood Initiative paints an even sadder picture; as compared with homes with the father present, children raised in a father-absent home are more likely to face abuse and neglect; more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol; more likely to go to prison; and, more likely to commit crime. There is a father absence crisis in America. Fathers matter.

In reality, when given the opportunity, fathers can be effective even though they are not residing with their children. It is a myth that men cannot be caring and nurturing to their children if they have social problems themselves. For example, men who have had legal troubles or end up incarcerated are not necessarily bad parents. Child welfare programs that systematically cut the father-child relationship because of the father’s legal troubles miss the possibility that these fathers might still be nurturing to their children. Also rehabilitation connected to prisons results in men coming to terms with the obligation as a father.

Noteworthy, about 2.7 million children have a parent in jail. Most (92%) of parents in prison are fathers. According to “Fathers Behind Bars: The Problem and Solution for America’s Children”, fathers in prison are, overwhelmingly, fatherless

The Holyoke Public Library welcomes Dr. Llana Barbee author of Latino City Friday, October 20 at 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM Holyoke Public Library - 250 Chestnut St Holyoke, MA

Llana Barber’s new book, Latino City: Immigration and Urban Crisis in Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1945–2000, “explores the transformation of Lawrence into New England’s first Latino-majority city. The arrival of tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans and Dominicans in the late twentieth century brought new life to the struggling city of Lawrence, but settling there meant facing hostility from neighbors, exclusion from local governance, inadequate city services, and limited job prospects.

Join us as Dr. Barber shares her insights and invites us to explore the parallels between Holyoke and Lawrence in the recent past. Her book will be available for purchase and signing at the event (cash or check only).

Dr. Barber’s talk is co-sponsored by the Public Humanities Center at Holyoke Community College, the Puerto Rican Cultural Project, the Friends of the Holyoke Public Library, and the Holyoke History Room. It is also the inaugural event for the Holyoke Public Library’s collecting initiative: Saber es poder: Resources on Puerto Rican and Latinx History, Culture, and Social Movements. Sponsored with help from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Carlos Vega Fund for Social Justice.

For more information, call 413-420-8107

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themselves (National Fatherhood Initiative, 2016). It is possible to theorize that there could be fewer men in jail if their fathers had been present in their lives.

In Holyoke, Massachusetts, Enlace de Familias, Inc. has a Nurturing Fathers program that seeks to assist men in developing effective father skills. This program is available for any man who is having difficulty in the father role. Some of the men live and work in their communities. A major focus of the program is to work men who are getting out of jail. This is a community-wide effort that builds upon collaboration with the Sheriff’s Department to assist men become successful fathers and contributing member to their family and community. The effort seeks to shape a vision for men and help them see themselves as having an irreplaceable role in their life of their children.

The Nurturing Fathers program offers a group experience to men who bond together and reinforce new learned behaviors. Enlace de Familias/Nurturing Fathers mentors men to attain goals in navigating the child support system as an important task towards being a good role model. They give them the confidence and new understandings. Enlace de Familias/Nurturing Fathers promotes being highly involved fathers in their children’s lives. They show men that their children thrive with love. Involving fathers is the key.

Society has symbolically marginalized fathers. Contemporary society fails to fully recognize the critical role of fathers and limits them to providing financial support. What is the cost of a father who is not present? Relationships in the family are changed; what is the cost? What is the cost of supporting parenting classes as opposed to incarceration or fathers in the community who are avoiding parental duties?

In conclusion, society benefits when it is recognized that men in low income communities can be good fathers. By shifting long standing social norms, a community of fathers and children can be more effective in navigating life’s tasks.

This is an on-going guest column series on 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

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Opinión / Opinion

Puerto Rico, Beyond the Disaster

by ANGELO FALCÓN

The NiLP Report (September 23, 2017; updated September 24, 2017) Isla linda y bonita Con sus aguas benditas Yo le canto a la Isla de mi encanto Isla linda y preciosa Sobre todas las cosas Yo mantengo en mi mente tu memoria Puerto Rico Isla de gran riqueza De cariño y belleza De palmeras y playas sin iguales Isla tierna y pura Y de gran hermosura Verdes valles y pueblos hechiceros Puerto Rico Isla linda y preciosa, fabulosa, maravillosa ---excerpt from Eddie Palmieri’s--“Puerto Rico” (Mango Records 1973) As I listened to Palmieri’s “Puerto Rico” after seeing reports of the destruction that Hurricane Maria wrought on the Island and thinking of my family there, my heart sank. Persons after persons who were on the ground in Puerto Rico at the time all said the same heartrending thing: the Puerto Rico of yesterday is no more. This gives new meaning to Palmieri’s lyric, “Sobre todas las cosas / Yo mantengo en mi mente tu memoria / Puerto Rico” (“Above all else / I keep in my mind your memory / Puerto Rico”).

This speaks to the need for the Island and its diaspora to at some have go beyond survival to its reconstruction and a hopeful future. The focus now has to be on making all life support systems functional and assuring the safety and health of its residents. Basic stuff.

But again, from the rubble we need to also eventually look to the future.

Before the two hurricanes, the people of Puerto Rico were already bracing for the impact of the directly human-made social disaster from its massive debt crisis and the expected draconian austerity measures it was to bring.

Already thousands of Puerto Ricans had fled that anticipated social disaster, to the point that there are now many more Puerto Ricans living stateside than on the Island. With the current hurricane disaster, one can assume that this exodus from Puerto Rico will continue, adding to its depopulation to a unprecedented extent.

While it will take some time for Puerto Rico to recover, if it does, it is clear that it needs to do so, as US citizens, with major emergency assistance from the United States government. Besides emergency disaster funding (Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez [D-NY] estimates that a full recovery should run around $10 billion), there are the largely ignored recommendations from a Congressional economic development task force established as part of the PROMESA legislation to address the Island’s debt crisis.

The current disaster has gotten President Trump’s attention to the point that he plans to travel there, as well as will a Congressional delegation, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has done so already with supplies and first

El Sol Latino October 2017

responders, to see firsthand the damage and how they can help. This recover effort now includes the star power of J-Lo, who has pledged $1 million to husband Marc Anthony, and baseball star Alex Rodriguez. These celebrities are pulling together an all-star benefit for Puerto Rico relief that will bring much-needed broad attention to this effort.

Up to this point, it was difficult to get Washington’s serious attention to the fiscal crisis on the Island, but the publicity on the hurricanes gave the ongoing lobbying of players like Congresswoman Velazquez some momentum. Velazquez recently held a Congressional hearing to explore economic development recommendations on Puerto Rico. More recently, Bronx Congressman José Serrano sent a letter to the White House recommending the establishment of a task force to coordinate relief efforts in Puerto Rico and other areas hit by Hurricanes. As a result, there is a clearer mandate for the Congress to adopt Velazquez’ and the Congressional Task Force on Economic Growth in Puerto Rico‘s recommendations that include: • A one-year waiver for the island from the sabotage restrictions under the Jones Act. • The need for the government of Puerto Rico to develop a comprehensive economic development strategy that exploits the island’s many comparative advantages.

• The need for Congress to enact an equitable and sustainable legislative solution to the financing of Puerto Rico’s Medicaid program early in 2017.

• The making of changes to how Medicare is administered on the island, possibly changing the opt-in requirement for Puerto Ricans who want Medicare Part B. • The expansion by Congress of the federal child tax credit in Puerto Rico so families there with one or two children can claim it just as families in the states do.

• The reform by the government of Puerto Rico of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, which the task force said “does not inspire confidence” with its high-priced and unreliable electrical production and grid.

• The consideration by Congress of whether to authorize Puerto Rico to have greater flexibility in its use of Unemployment Compensation benefits for the purpose of increasing employment.

• The assessment and reform by the US Small Business Administration of its rate structures, limits, and contribution formulas for making small business loans in Puerto Rico.

• The creation by Congress of a program for contracting preference program for Puerto Rico small businesses to participate in federal contracts.

• The need for a Congressional hearing to determine if Social Security Supplemental Security benefits should be extended to disable people in Puerto Rico.

• The appointment of someone with expertise in Puerto Rico tourism to the United States Travel and Tourism Advisory Board.

• The basing of the U.S. Economic Development Administration of its Puerto Rico representative in Puerto Rico rather than Philadelphia.

While these policy and administrative changes would help, many of them would only do so marginally. They are clearly not enough and certainly do

continued on page 14

Libros / Books

El Sol Latino October 2017

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Rendición por RAY LORIGA • Alfaguara. Barcelona, España: 2017. 216 páginas. • reseña por CATHLEEN C. ROBINSON Imagina tu mundo totalmente destruido. Y el de tus vecinos. No queda nada sino escombros por dondequiera. Todos tus vecinos ya han huido del avance del ejército enemigo a un sitio de refugio que se llama la ciudad transparente. Tú te vas también con tus seres queridos. Llevas una sola maleta en la que metes lo que más te importa de tu vida. Una maleta por persona, como exigen las autoridades.

Parece algo como lo que te habían planteado en el colegio cuando estudiabas 1984 de George Orwell.

Esto es lo que propone Ray Loriga en su novela Rendición, ganadora del Premio Alfaguara 2017.

El yo narrador, cuyo nombre nunca sabemos, piensa huir con su esposa, también anónima, en uno de los tres autobuses destinados hacia la lejana ciudad transparente. Días antes, viven en una atmósfera de miedo y de desconfianza: “Todos los días detienen a algún vecino…Hay delatores que delatan a otros delatores.” Pero antes de salir, tienen que destruir todo para que el enemigo no se aproveche: “Nos han dado dos bidones de gasolina para quemar la casa.”

Lo que les han dicho las autoridades sobre su destino, la ciudad transparente, es que parece ser un paraíso…con límites: “nos dirán allá en la ciudad nueva cómo ganarnos cada uno la vida…se han pensado tareas y empleos para todos de acuerdo a nuestras aptitudes…”; “no se permiten ni el alboroto ni los disturbios”; “no se van a permitir desmanes ni jaleos y que habrá quien vigile que sea todo recto…”; y “cada uno se cuidaba de lo suyo y había espacio para todos.”

Mientras se preparan para la huida, los esposos encuentran en el jardín a un crío abandonado, “sangrando y sin quejarse de nada.” Deciden llevarlo porque “Abandonar al niño a su suerte no nos parece ninguna cosa de Dios.” El niño parece contento a pesar de que nunca habla, y a sus nuevos padres le quita un poco el dolor de echar de menos a sus propios hijos. Éstos fueron a la guerra como soldados y los padres no saben de su paradero ni de su condición, ni siquiera si siguen vivos.

Los tres montan un autobús con destino a la ciudad transparente. Cuando se le agota la gasolina al autobús, siguen a pie con los otros pasajeros. Ven a una pareja que son “los dueños del agua,” lo que más necesitan todos porque “agua de beber no hay por ningún lado.”

Pero al entrar en la ciudad de cristal ven “los cuerpos del dueño del agua y de su señora colgados de un poste…boca abajo…en el pecho de cada uno habían cosido un zafio cartel de papel en el que estaba escrita a mano la palabra TRAIDOR.” Ahora, en la ciudad transparente hay agua en abundancia y todos se duchan tres veces al día: “Se llamaba cristalización y te lo aplicaban en la primera ducha” y en todas las siguientes.

Les dan casa y trabajo: a ella por ser tan inteligente le asignan ser bibliotecaria, trabajo que le encanta; a él le dan trabajo “en la planta de reciclado y destilación de residuos corporales” o sea, en la planta de mierda.

El protagonista/narrador se da cuenta de que “todo tenía que ver con el agua, pues nada más llegar nos obligaron a una de esas cristalizaciones para evitar no sé qué bacterias, y a partir de ahí ya no había vuelto a ser yo mismo, y cada vez que pasaba por la ducha salía menos preocupado y más feliz.” Le preocupa esto de estar siempre feliz:

Algo tenían esta ciudad y cada uno de sus asuntos que hacía que uno fuese incapaz de quejarse de nada, no porque no te dejaran hablar, que te dejaban, sino porque no conseguías encontrar queja alguna de lo bien que funcionaba todo, y en el fondo del alma no tenías más que una sensación de contento que no te abandonaba nunca…

Se da cuenta de que esto de estar siempre feliz le quita el libre albedrío y uno pierde el sentido de ser uno mismo. Dice el narrador que “me iba yo pareciendo a mí mismo otra persona, alguien en quien no podía confiar del todo.” Con el paso de los días, él va “perdiendo el gusto y el interés por casi todo.” Resuelve encontrar manera de salir de la ciudad transparente: “Así pasé las horas, sentado en la cama sin saber qué hacer, dándoles vueltas a las ideas más siniestras y con muchas ganas de salir de esta ciudad a pesar de lo mucho y bien que nos cuidaban.”

Logra salir de la ciudad transparente y otro destino le espera.

Loriga parece pesimista en cuanto a la naturaleza humana. Dice por boca del protagonista que “Es sorprendente cómo trata la gente las cosas que no son suyas, las ganas de destrozarlo todo…cuando por no haber vigilancia alguna ni autoridad ni mando, saca cada cual lo más bruto que lleva dentro y arremete contra todo con una saña que asusta.” Sin embargo, prefiere el hombre imperfecto y la vida imperfecta al de un mundo supuestamente perfecto donde reina la felicidad a costo de la pérdida del libre albedrío. El protagonista/ narrador dice que allá en la vida de antes “las cosas nunca son perfectas en ningún sitio al que uno vaya y hasta hay que dar gracias a Dios porque así sea”. Parece que hay que poder sentir la necesidad y el dolor para poder saber lo que es la dicha. Y lo que es de más: saberse ser humano.

Puesto que la trama y el tema son tan serios, el lector le va a agradecer al protagonista su sentido de humor. Hablando de la forma de vestirse en la ciudad transparente dice que “al usar siempre camisas y pantalones ligeros que solo se diferenciaban por el color, y lo mismo para hombres y mujeres, que al parecer ahí faldas no había, lo cual te daba un poco de pena por no poder verles las piernas a las chicas.”

Rendición del autor Ray Loriga, conocido también como Jorge Loriga Torrenova, salió ganadora del Premio Alfaguara, concurso de este año que vio presentadas 665 obras.

Reseña de Cathleen C. Robinson, profesora jubilada de español y la historia de la América Latina quien se dedica ahora a escribir.

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

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Ciencias / Science

El Sol Latino October 2017

Understanding Neuroscience by BRYAN SALAS-SANTIAGO Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. The nervous system includes the brain, spinal cord, and nervous ramifications that enable the brain to communicate with the rest of your body. The nervous system’s main cells are neurons. They can be distinguished by multiple features, but the most important property is their ability to communicate with other cells via synapses and participate in neurocircuits. Neuroscience is a multidisciplinary field, it deals with anatomy, biochemistry, and molecular biology to name just a few.

Dr. Luke Remage-Healey is an associate professor from UMass. His research lab focuses on studying songbirds. In comparison of their behavior and how their brain works during song learning, songbirds share a lot of things in common with people when learning a new language.

This makes the songbird system a very good one for understanding this process. After these birds hatch from their eggs, they have a critical period of 35 days to learn and Dr. Luke Remage-Healey (Credit: Department of memorize a song. If the Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMASS Amherst) bird learns the song, after 35 days, they will start to babble just like an infant trying to make noises when they are learning to speak. They are using those noises and comparing them with their memory to slowly get to the song notes that they want to make. This process is very similar in parallel with speech and language learning in human babies.

It does not matter the culture and language a baby is raised in, they learn any language during the early years of life. If you compare babies learning languages with adults, adults have a really hard time learning another language. Most likely the reason of why this happens has to do with the plasticity of the brain. Brain plasticity is the ability of a circuit of neurons to rewire itself. The human brain can reorganize itself by forming new

Puerto Rico, Beyond the Disaster not constitute any real economic development plan. The urgent need is for a much more ambitious initiative closer to the Marshall Plan for Europe following the Second World War. Hurricane Maria brought an unprecedented attention to Puerto Rico that hopefully finally reaches the average American and even Republican Members of Congress to let them know that Puerto Ricans are all US citizens and that they need to be finally treated as such. With the humanitarian crisis that was widely predicted to come from the debt crisis problem now being exponentially deepened by the hurricanes, the pressure will hopefully mount on the Congress to finally take decisive action. It will also hopefully have a similar effect on the Island’s debt collectors, including the vulture funds, to be more willing to at least take their losses and move on. But none of this is assured.

While no one at this moment of crisis is focused much on the future, this disaster forces us to have to do so eventually nonetheless. How, for

| bryansalas0815@gmail.com

connections between different neurons. This plasticity is suggested to be important when learning something new.

Based on the evidence in adults, these connections are very strongly wired when compared with children and infants, and could explain why it is harder for adults to learn new things, such as a new language. What Dr. Healey’s lab thinks is happening inside of the brain is a neurochemical plasticity. Brain cells can make a protein called aromatase, which is important for making estrogen. Typically, this hormone is associated with females’ menstrual cycle, but regardless if you are male or female, every brain has the ability of making estrogen. Both the human brain and the songbird brain make this hormone in the auditory areas of the brain. In both species, estrogen is involved in processing new forms of vocalizations, which is why lab is studying these ideas. Because both processes are so similar, using the songbird system is a great way to try to understand how a similar neurocircuit is working in humans.

By understanding how everything is working together, we could take advantage of this knowledge to make new drugs for neurological disorders.

Many neurological disorders, like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, have connections to estrogen dysfunction. The function of estrogen in the brain is a new concept and we are still learning about it. We currently know that estrogen can interact with brain receptors and change the activity of neurons within minutes. This means that the neurocircuit is clearly sensitive to estrogen, but we don’t know specifically what it does.

The understanding of the brain is big deal for our society, but the whole discipline of neuroscience is still very young. With the current understanding that we have, we can make a computer model of a sevenneuron circuit connection. For some perspective, the simplest model organism used in neuroscience is C. elegans and it consists of 329 neurons.

We know all the receptors and connections inside of those seven neurons, but still we cannot map every behavior that we see in C. elegans, so we are really in the early days of understanding it. The human brain is estimated to have billions of neurons, and that for Dr. Healey, is the nearly unsolvable problem: how from a 7-neuron connection model we will understand billions of neuron connections inside of a human brain. This shows the importance of more support and continued research in this field that is so essential for our lives.

“To me science is for everybody. We like teaching people who want to learn about the brain to come and visit our lab. I like to try to make science approachable for everybody.” -Dr. Luke Remage-Healey

continued from page 12 example, can Puerto Rico prevent its assets from being sold as though it was the site of a large scale garage sale? Will the disaster and recovery efforts by the US government provide greater or less support for the Island’s statehood movement? Will Puerto Rican migration stateside continue on a massive scale, this time outside of Florida, accompanied by a further brain drain? Will Puerto Rico’s depopulation result in a much older and more dependent population? And now what does the Junta do?

But for the present, we all need to focus on the here and now. So donate, volunteer and keep borinquen in your prayers and in your hearts.

Angelo Falcón is President of the National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP).

He would like to thank Howard Jordan and Gabriel Haslip-Viera, the cochairs of the Film Review Committee of The Boricua Film Club for their helpful comments on this review. Angelo Falcón can be reached at afalcon@latinopolicy.org.

Deportes / Sports

El Sol Latino October 2017

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Nuyorican Basketball in Puerto Rico: A Game-Changing Documentary by SUSET LABOY Reprinted with permission from Centro Voices - Center for Puerto Rican Studies | November 2015 The documentary Nuyorican Básquet will be released November 2017.

We are reproducing this interview that was initially published two years ago.

Short version of the story: A group of Nuyoricans changed the history of Puerto Rican basketball forever. There’s now a movie about it. Longer version of the story: Of course we all know about the great migration of Puerto Ricans to the United States during the 40s and 50s. Even if we have never been to New York, we know of a Puerto Rican friend, cousin, greatgrandparent who has visited or grew up there. The guagua aérea is not a new thing. And yet, the rich and textured details of the movement of Puerto Ricans to the United States remains an exciting terrain to uncover.

Such is the case of a motley crew of Nuyoricans who forever transformed basketball on the island when they played for Puerto Rico’s National team against Team USA for the gold in the 1979 Pan American games. This is the subject of a new documentary—Nuyorican Básquet, a movie that explores the dynamics around issues of migration, diaspora, and cultural identity as told through the lens of this historical basketball match. We had a chance to catch up with the movie’s co-director and screenwriter, Ricardo Olivero Lora to learn more about the project: Suset: Tell us a bit about your background. How did you stumble on this subject and what led you to pursue this story?

Ricardo: I come from a family of athletes, where basketball has been as prevalent as rice and beans. One day, my brother, who works for the Programa de Desarrollo de Selecciones Nacionales de Baloncesto, came back from a trip to New York and shared many of the stories of how those Nuyorican basketball players we had grown up watching and idolized arrived to the island. And that’s how the idea to make the documentary started taking shape.

Suset: You’ve managed to assemble an amazing number of basketball legends for the documentary. What were the best and most challenging parts of securing interviews with them? Were you able to connect with the relatives of missing basketball player Angelo Cruz? Does the documentary presents new information on his case?

Ricardo: The players were always very helpful, and it has been amazing to work with them. Of all the people we interviewed, I’d say that the most challenging one was Angelo’s mom because of the emotional aspect of her son’s disappearance.

Suset: How did Nuyoricans change the game in Puerto Rico? Why was this moment so pivotal? What did they contribute to Puerto Rican basketball?

Ricardo: Nuyorican players filled a generational gap that catapulted basketball on the island when its level and development had been stagnant. They filled a void, and they played a key role in having basketball replace baseball as the island’s main sport. These players arrived with New York’s style of street basketball and radically changed the way the sport is played.

Raymond Dalmau guarded by Mario ‘Quijote’ Morales.

Suset: What can we expect from the soundtrack? How did the collaboration with José Furito Ríos (formerly of Cultura Profética) come about? Is there a specific music genre that will be used to represent this historical period given the variety of musics that were popular at the time in both NY and PR? Ricardo: We just finished recording with the banda sonora early Friday morning. Right now, we are doing the mixing. I’m telling you, what’s coming is quite powerful. Furito Ríos did an extraordinary job, in his compositions, César Fantauzzi in his arrangements and his recruitment of musicians. He is an incredible musician! In terms of the genres, you will have to watch the documentary, but I can tell you that you won’t be able to stay sitting in the movie theaters.

Suset: During the making of the documentary, what did you learn about what it means to be a Puerto Rican from NY? Ricardo: The most important thing I came to understand is how complex identity issues are. The traditional coordinates of what it means to be Puerto Rican do not conform to what has been our historical development as a people, of which the Puerto Rican diaspora is an integral part.

Suset: Ultimately, what do you hope people will walk away knowing/thinking/ learning from the documentary.

Ricardo: That during a historical period of basketball in Puerto Rico, it was Nuyoricans who lifted the game, turning it into what it is today on the island; that our basketball has Nuyorican basketball from the streets of New York as an important ingredient; that our diaspora has an African American influence; that you can have multiple complementary identities that are not mutually exclusive; and to thank Nuyoricans, and the diaspora, for its contributions to that entramado identitario that is to be Puerto Rican. ___________________________ To learn more about the making of Nuyorican Básquet visit their website at www.facebook.com/ nuyoricanbasquet/

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El Sol Latino October 2017

Temporada 2017-2018 TANGO BUENOS AIRES: “THE SPIRIT OF ARGENTINA”

Miércoles, Noviembre 1, 7:30 p.m., FAC Concert Hall Directamente desde Buenos Aires, esta sensual y emotiva presentación agrupa una experta compañía de músicos, vocalistas y bailarines en una apasionada celebración del tango argentino y de la figura mas prominente de su historia, Carlos Gardel. A veces juguetones, otras veces dramáticos, y siempre sensuales, estos intensos y dinámicos bailarines se conocen como una de las representaciones mas auténticas del tradicional arte del tango. $35, $30, $20; Estudiantes de los Five College y jóvenes de17 años o menores: $10 Charla antes del espectáculo, en el lobby, a las 6:15 p.m.

Demostración de tango en el lobby a las 6:45 p.m.

Cena argentina a precio fijo (prix fixe dinner) disponible en el UClub antes del concierto. Menú y detalles en fineartscenter.com/prixfixe

Sponsors:

Comimg Next JORGE CABALLERO ¡Guitarra! Classical Guitar Series Sábado, Noviembre 11, 7:30 p.m., Eric Carle Museum, Amherst Ampliamente considerado como uno de los mejores guitarristas de su generación, Jorge Caballero es el músico mas joven y el único guitarrista en ganar el Naumburg International Competition Award.

Se le conoce por su deslumbrante virtuosismo, su intensa musicalidad y sus fascinantes actuaciones

THE UNDERWATER BUBBLE SHOW Jueves, Noviembre 30, 7 p.m., FAC Concert Hall Using cutting-edge laser technology, snow cannons, soap bubble tornadoes, theatrical fog, and optical illusions, the Underwater Bubble Show is an interactive performance that appeals to children and adults alike. This show offers a truly immersive “underwater” show, complete with bubble artists Enrico Pezzoli and Dace Pecoli, two of the foremost bubble artists in the world.

Usando una innovadora tecnología laser, cañones de nieve, tornados de burbujas de jabón, niebla teatral e ilusiones ópticas, el Underwater Bubble Show es un espectáculo interactivo que apela a niños y a adultos por igual. Este realmente es un espectáculo “bajo el agua”, con los artistas Enrico Pelozzi y Dace Pecoli, dos de los artistas de burbujas mas famosos del mundo.

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