Yo soy Boricua, pa'que tu lo sepas

[Khuttar]

Yo soy Boricua, pa'que tu lo sepas

"The famous Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City jump-starts Rosie Perez's witty take on Puerto Rican culture. The parade marches to its own ecstatic beat, as does its people through triumph and indignity. Perez, the Academy Award®-nominated actress turned filmmaker, never lets the footing get too heavy. She and codirector Oscar®-nominated documentarian Liz Garbus enlighten through humor and Perez's own sparkling presence. Weaving snippets of Perez and her family with thought-provoking history narrated by actor Jimmy Smits, the filmmakers render a pastiche of unbridled optimism. The title is a contagious colloquial chant of the island's indigenous people, the Taíno. Puerto Ricans do not doubt their identity, the subjects of the film tell us, but they are determined to let the rest of the world know who they are. Pride, often an overused word, comes alive in a documentary that goes down as easily as a frothy cocktail-and still packs a punch. American exploitation and the fight for political clout are no laughing matters but Boricua shows that toughness sometimes means laughing in the face of such obstacles. In one funny bit, Perez encounters an acute case of mistaken perception on her way to a speaking engagement. As her brethren illustrate throughout the film, the show must go on. Puerto Ricans' contributions to the arts and their inextricable link to New York City (Perez grew up in Bushwick, Brooklyn, just so you know!) reveal the beating heart of a small island whose arteries course throughout society."

- Ron Dicker