Independence!
Since moving here I have noticed many of my friends and co workers asking me if you needed a visa to work here or a passport to come here. No and no, Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States. (Sort or a state but not).
There was a truck slowly driving down the street playing victorious Spanish music. I sat on the porch, smoked a cigarette and watched the truck go by. As I sat there pondering to myself what all that was about, two men came up to me wearing matching tee shirts. The one started speaking Spanish to me and I did not understand. The other one piped up “Hi, I am Louis. I am running for mayor of San Juan. Is there anything I can do to make San Juan a better place?” (Pauses and waits for me to say something.) Uh, do most people have an immediate answer to such a broad question? Hold on, give me about two hours to write down 100 items that you could make better.
I didn’t actually say that, it was what I was thinking. “I am not actually registered to vote” I said to the would-be-mayor. I thought to myself WOW, I don’t think I have ever met a would-be-mayor. He then began to tell me all about what he stood for, told me to register to vote, and shook my hand and left.
The main thing on his agenda was the fact that he was for Puerto Rican independence. That is a question I have been asking myself ever since I moved here. What the hell is a colonization? Could Puerto Rico survive without the US? I wanted to ask him more questions but he had more potential voters to meet.
I am not going to dive too deep into this subject because I really don’t feel like digging all over the web to find answers to this question. Nor do I know that much about the politics between the US and PR.
Side note-I can’t actually think of 100 things to fix here in Puerto Rico. Like I may have mentioned before, it is more like a developing country than a part of the United States. People here don’t seem to care about the environment (we have seen on many occasions people just throwing their trash on the ground) and you may want to read my other post on dead dogs . Yes, there are many things he could fix but only because of my high standards for society from living in the states.
March 14th, 2008 |
http://perimeno.ca/pics/Night.jpg <— Here’s the picture.
March 14th, 2008 |
I was looking at some pictures of Earth at night and noticed that Puerto Rico is the most lit island in the area - which is usually a sign that a place is more civilized (look at North Korea, for example - no lights!).
If Puerto Rico could be as much in the 21st century is it is without being part of the U.S., I’d be very surprised. They have representation, they have votes, so what do they have to complain about?
They probably want independence for some really stupid list of things that doesn’t take into account all the GOOD that comes from being part of the U.S.
They should be fighting for statehood, not independence.