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Suki, that is a gem of a poem that Pietri wrote. The way he vivvidly potray the lifes of the Puerto Rican in those times comes off very sincere and you feel like you know or have known any of these characters. See, I could appreciate his poesy for what I think it is: A picture in time of our social condition in this country. I still come to the same conclusion as I did back when I first read it. However,that is not our current state and to think otherwise is to do a diservice to those Puerto Rican who truly were discriminated and never stood a fair chance to move forward in life. If you change a few lines here and there from the poem, you will see that this is not much different than the experiences of previous immigrants. The irony is that we were already citizens but even we are not unique in that respect. If you look at the black experience. At least we came willingly. Of course, one can argue that if it wasn't for our colonial status and the likes of "operation bootstrap" then we would have not been here in the same masses. I for one think that if it weren't for 9/11, there would have been more perceived "anti American" ruckus on the island and who knows how further we would be in our quest for independence.
The only problem is you can't get into the "what ifs" with history. It is written and second guessing it makes one a revisionist of some sort. All you can do is learn and try to apply the lessons for the future. I hate to win by default but this is the most likely scenario to me at least. All others scenarios are not likely. I don't expect Puerto Ricans to wake up tomorrow and decide to break free of the rampant consumerism,and the billions of dollars of pork that comes our way and demand independence. Not likely either, that they will want to live a higher sense of purpose and go pick the coffee beans to help the newly form republic. I woudn't want to pick coffee beans either lol. I think the independence party has to change their plaform with the Puerto Rican people but that is another subject. Its been 40 yrs of a downhill slide in regards with voters.With no change in strategy!
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