Juncos and Argentina, two places

[Ecuajey]

I understand where you're coming from and agree with some of your points. However, I do not believe that most Junqueños are afraid of their town and their safety. They are mostly afraid of el área metropolitana. Junqueños go about their daily lives just as any normal citizen would. Yes, they complain a lot, but drive through caserÃ*os, walk through caserÃ*os, shop in town, and walk to their relative's homes. I walked through the original caserÃ*os without fear or a problem. Then again, I use to walk home at 3 AM from work in the Northwest side of Chicago - never had a problem, I was never afraid.

Junqueños and puertorriqueños for that matter, have abandoned their town centers and pursued a lifestyle that they view as reaching a higher status in society: having a little casita en una urbanización, eating fastfood, going to the mall, having an SUV or Hummer, sending their kids to private schools...etc Who is to blame? Boricuas! (without a lot of influence by the metropolitan power and support by consecutive local governments, but no one put a gun to our heads. We are a colonial, docile people, for the most part) There was no epic struggle for the traditional centers of Boricua life. Those who could not or did not want to lead that kind of lifestyle remained in the places now undesirable by most puertorriqueños. Today, some municipal governments and the local government are realizing that this lifestyle, this urban sprawl is hurting the island and it's people, (12.5% of the population is diabetic and 67% is obese) and that's where the urban center revitalizations are coming in. Still, the policies of past economic and urban growth are still in place and viewed as acceptable by most of the population.

I know that obesity is now an indication of poverty, since Brazilians, as poor as they are, are increasingly becoming obese, as well as other Latin Americans and even Asians. I was just jabbing at your constant rantings against Nuyoricans and scapegoating them as the source of the island's problems, as if islanders have no other means of being influenced by the metropolitan power and are not willing participants of their demise, which has been going on for well over a hundred years, which has more to do about social class than culture itself. As you can tell, I am offended by your grouping of every single mainland boricua into one - deragatory in your descriptions - category. I was not born on the island, I do not live there, but of course I know tons about it and have so much love for it and its people, but will always be viewed by people like you as an outsider. (My experience is not of an islander's, but my cultural heart is of a boricua's. I am not trying to distance myself from the island. It is simply a truth that you may never understand. I wish it wasn't so, but it is.) So what am I? American? lol Everyone born in the Western Hemisphere is American, lol. I am a Nuyorican here, an will be an islander when I move over there. However, I fit into nowhere near any of your descriptions of a Nuyorican...hmm

Oh, and I agree that the average Puerto Rican, period, does not look like Miss Universe. Most of the Miss Universos de Puerto Rico look the same anyway. Plus, I'm glad most Boricua women don't look like nor act like Paris Hilton. Who wants a boney, bird-looking snob, anyway? LOL!

[Edited by Ecuajey on 19th June 2005 at 09:46]

BEING FAT... (or obesity, as the POLITICALLY CORRECT call it) is a result of being a glutton and/or being lazy. And that stems from being complacent with a particular set of circumstances. And in all honesty, that might very well account for many of the people who live in those smaller towns who feel as though they've fallen through the cracks and have given up hope for a better Puerto Rico...