Hola Amigos...VIVA Puertoriquenos!!!

[Truthangel]

Hola migente and all of that...

First, allow me to introduce myself.

My name is Truthangel and I'm new to PuertoRico.com. I'm an African American young woman and I came to this site to learn a little more about your culture.

Primarily, I'm usually on BlackVoices and there are many Latinos who visit over there on a daily basis.

Basically, I'm a cool person and I enjoy meeting different and interesting people.

Just spreading the love, ya know.

Any takers?

Give me a holler...

[Suki]

I hope you have fun talking with us PR's in this forum. I hope you are opinionated and have plenty to say on a wide variety of subjects. There is a fair amount of threads and postings in Spanish. I hope you don't get discouraged by all Spanish or "Spanglish" usage. Love to see you participating, Suki.

[Truthangel]

Hola:

Thank you for responding and I won't get discouraged. I'm here to learn and yes, I'm very opinionated, as you will discover, but respectful.

What are some of the issues that the Latin community is concerned with right now?

Some of the topics resemble many that I've seen on Black Voices and which one is the most discussed or ones that impassion high responses?

[Suki]

As you can see from some of the threads we are interested in most of the same themes as everyone else. But to make discussions more lively it is good to have some basic information. For example, our politics thread is approaching 11,000+ hits. That is an indication that Politics is a hot topic. In many other Virtual Countries threads the Politics threads are small and have less hits than Open Board or something else.

Politics, Religion, Open Board and Current Events are the most popular I think...How much do you currently know about Puerto Rican politics Truthangel? If you would like an overview of all three major political parties I could give you a quick "cliffnotes"type review, so when you run accross some common jargon in PR politics you will know what they are talking about.

Let me know what YOU are interested in and I will help as much as possible...you seem like a nice, sweet and outspoken young woman. I like to see that in this forum. You might not agree with me politically (I do have very strong opinions about what should be the future of my island!) but I hope we could be friends. Who knows we might agree on Politics after all? But if we do not I will still like to be your cyber-friend? What do you say?

[Truthangel]

Yes, Suki, that would be great.

What political issues are really bothering the Puerto Rican community?

In the black community, the discussion of reparations has been a popular topic, as well as HIV/AIDS. Is the Hispanic community also gearing itself in order to communicate safe sex? The AIDS cases amongst blacks and Latinos is very alarming and I wonder what has been the sound off in your community?

[Suki]

Political status is very much a BIG ISSUE for the Puerto Ricans. In this forum you will find every political party represented.

The Statehooders:

These are people who believe that the reason Puerto Rico has problems is because it is not a state integrated into the Union. They seek to make Puerto Rico the 51st state and to then have 2 senators and congresspeople, etc. etc. They also think that by being the 51st state they could increase the federal revenues to the island and boost the economy.

My opinion: "They are either naive or Uncle Tom like Puerto Ricans who have no pride in their own history and culture and who believe all that crap in Washington D.C. about accepting a majority Spanish-speaking African majority influenced state that is overwhelmingly democrat and liberal...the present climate in Washington is definitely not friendly to pro-statehood sympathizers anyway. Yet they continue to act like Monica Lewinsky type opportunists hoping to be part of the "superpower" group by kissing up to republicans that use them and ignore them (because they have no voting rights) and contribute 0 in federal taxes."

Their statehood party is called Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP) in English (The New Progressive Party) and believe me Truthangel the only thing progressive about it is its progressive stupidity!

That LEADS US to the next political party who at present is in the governor's house in San Juan and is in power now...
El Partido Popular Democratico (PPD) who in English translates into The Popular Democratic Party. Since Puerto Rico is not an independent nation the highest office is the governorship. We got our first locally elected governor in 1948 (before it was a series of gringo military guys some of which had fought Indian wars and were ex-Ku Klux Klan members from the south in the United States.)

In the history of the island we have never had a woman governor before now we do, her name is Sila Calderon. She was the mayor of San Juan (of which we have had another woman in the past in charge of our capital city). But she is a classic politician looking out for her own political survival.
The PPD believes in preserving the present colonial relationship with the United States which is called "Commonwealth" status or "Free Associated State" which is another fancy way of saying "colony of an Imperialistic nation", and we all know how colonies have been treated in the past. THe PPD seeks to expand its autonomous political powers and enhance "beg" for greater funds from the Federal system in Washington.

I happen to believe that if you scratch these wishywashy (on-the-fence type) democrats you will find one of two possibilities: people who want a proud, independent country but are too fearful or faithless to back their intuitive beliefs of nationhood. Or opportunists who just want more money from the Feds but will be allowed to rule their smaller spheres of island influences without any "Big-Brother" like influences from the United States.

So far the PPD and the PNP have taken turns in power since 1948, with the PPD coming out a hairsbreath ahead in general.

Then there is a tiny group of people (about 4-5%) of the voting public that vote for Partido Independentista Puertorriqueno, the PIP. They believe in complete independence for the island and to maintain a friendly relationship with the USA as Equal Partners. They are mostly socialists and believe in a mixed economy and changing Puerto Rico's status through the Ballot Box. Their leaders are excellent public speakers and well educated. A lot of the PIP's criticism has come from the more extreme leftist groups such as PCP and the MACHETEROS who perceive the PIP people as elitist who just want to take over the island's government and turn it into their own little world. Many of the leadership's families do come from rich, well-educated Puerto Rican creole families. Many of them hold degrees from Ivy league universities in the states or from expensive schools in Europe.

They have not gotten a lot of popular support due to many reasons such as in-fighting and lack of funds and also having to cope with the enormous propaganda machine that the PNP and the PPD have at their disposal. Also the USA puts a lot of pressure on dissenting parties to their colonialistic interests.

There are smaller and fragmented but active political groups beside the ones I have delineated but you are getting the overall picture.

Any additional questions Truthangel?

[Truthangel]

Well Suki, it sounds as if that Puerto Ricans are not a monolithic people in reference to politics, but what moves are being made in the U.S. to gain power for your community? I've heard of some candidates in New York, but what issues do you think will truly galvanize the entire Puerto Rican community and inspire them to run for mayor, senator, governor and other offices and have representation which reflects the needs of the community at large?

This is very interesting and are Puerto Ricans seeking to combine forces politically with blacks? In the city of Chicago, this has been done very successfully and many Latino and Chicano candidates run for various offices on a regular basis.