Student Creative Works

Political Status Options for Puerto Rico

• Soundcloud

Song by Kevin Arocho-El Camaleón [The Chameleon]

PRLS 1001 Introduction to Puerto Rican and Latin@ Studies, Prof. Vanessa Santiago, Fall 2020

This rap is based on the three major political parties in Puerto Rico, each favoring a different status—Popular Democratic Party (pro-Commonwealth), Puerto Rican Independentist Party (pro-Independence), and New Progressive Party (pro-Statehood).

For information on the urgent situation in Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican diaspora, see: https://puertoricosyllabus.com/ and Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños: https://centropr.hunter.cuny.edu.

Shared with permission.

Tengo mucho que decir de frente
Pero estamos en cuarentena hay que joderse con el 2020
Estamos en tiempos sin precedentes
Ganó Biden pero no se quiere ir el f*ing presidente
[I have a lot to say up front
But, we are in quarantine and damned with 2020
We are in unprecedented times
Biden won but the f*ing president doesn't want to go]

Pero yo no vine hablar de americanos
De los Demócratas ni los Republicanos
Vengo hablar de lo político de mis paisanos
Y Boricuas que no se dan la mano
[But I did not come to talk about Americans
the Democrats nor the Republicans
I have come to talk about the politics of my countrymen
And Boricuas who don't shake hands]

Me dicen “tú no te mereces la ciudadanía”
Si me lo dieron de gratis, cabrón, pues mala mía
Te venden la película psicología
Por eso no tenemos la estadidad todavía
[They tell me "You don't deserve citizenship"
If they gave it to me for free, you bastard, it’s my bad
They sell you the psychology movie
That's why we don't yet have statehood

Tuvieron que botar a Roselló
Volvió ganar un PNP. Puñeta, ¿qué pasó?
Puerto Rico pide el cambio, pero el cambio, ¿qué sé yo?
Volvimos a confiar en lo que fracasó
[They had to throw out Roselló
A PNP won again. Damn, what happened?
Puerto Rico asks for change, but the change, what do I know?
We returned to trust in what failed]

Ellos nos colonizaron en un tiempo oportuno
Nunca vamos a ser la estrella 51
Plebiscitos al congreso han sido más de uno
Y por eso por más que lo queremos no se da ninguno
[They colonized us at an opportune time
We are never going to be the 51st star
Plebiscites to Congress, there have been more than one
And as much as we want it, there is none]

Se aprovechan de ignorancia y de la religión
No son lo que ustedes ven en la televisión
Antes, si hablabas en contras, te ibas pa’ prisión
Y siguen violando libertad de la expresión
[They prey on ignorance and religion
They are not what you see on television
Before, if you spoke against, you would go to prison
And they continue to violate freedom of expression]

Yo admiro cada Independentista
En su propia casa piden una reconquista
Coño, déjenme hablar al periodista
Los amo de corazón, aunque no son realistas
[I admire every Independentist
In their own house they ask for a reconquest
Damn, let me talk to the journalist
I love them from my heart, but they are unrealistic]

No tengo mucho en contra de los Populares
Pero contra, para mí, les hacen falta los binoculares
Si pa’ los estados unidos no hay un Grito de Lares
Colonial – independiente, por favor no sean tan bipolares
[I don't have much against the Populares
But, damn, for me, they need binoculars
If there is no Grito de Lares for the United States
Colonial – independent, please don't be so bipolar]

Si quieren proteger a la cultura
Pásalo pa’lante pa’ que no haya sepultura
Commonwealth, mejor llámenle basura
Siendo colonia no es la cura
[If they want to protect the culture
Pass it forward so that there is no grave
Commonwealth, better to call it trash
Being a colony is not the cure]

Exenciones de impuesto, pero yo te apuesto
Que roban todo lo que ven mal puesto
Si no manejan bien el presupuesto
No vale decir que estamos juntos en esto
[Tax exemptions, but I bet you
They steal everything that they see badly positioned
If they don't manage the budget well
It is not worth saying that we are in this together]

En madre patria no hay trabajo
La juventud se está largando pa’l carajo
La sistema educación coge a to’ el mundo de relajo
El salario mínimo está muy bajo
[In motherland there is no work
The youth are leaving to go to hell
The education system makes a joke out of all of us
And the minimum wage is very low]

Mi Borinquen bella, isla Puerto Rico
Donde el pobre más se jode y gana el más rico
Donde te asfixias si no prendes abanico
Donde me callan la boca si testifico
[My Borinquen, beautiful island Puerto Rico
Where the poor are the most damned and the rich win
Where you suffocate if you don't turn on the fan
Where they shut my mouth if I testify]

Specific Questions for Consideration

• Who is Biden?
• Who are Boricuas?
• Who is Roselló?
• What is the PNP?
• What is the reference to the 51st star?
• Who are the Independentists?
• Who are the Populares?
• What is the Grito de Lares?
• What is Commonweatlh?
• What is Borinquen?

General Questions

• What is the particular viewpoint?
• What are the themes?

Disclaimers

Bit of profanity. Transcribed and English translation provided by Dr. M. Pérez y González.

PRLS

• Video

By Alyssa Santiago

PRLS 1001-Introduction to Puerto Rican and Latin@ Studies, Fall 2021

Who am I
If not a collection
Of all those you came before me
And a part of those yet to be

I never know how rich I was
Until I went looking for the lost history of my people
Buried
In racist politics and broken school curriculums

I am a pearl
Formed from sea and sand
A precious gem

My existence is a consequence
Of a people who refused to die
Genocide¹
Sterilized²
Traumatized and repeat

I am a pearl
Washing up onto new shores
Trapped in my hidden place
Only to be discovered by the greed of man

New shores
Like I had a choice
The Land, taken from us
to build farms then factories³
Forced our people to look for new shores to rest their tired feet on

Fighting wars that aren’t ours⁴
Paying debt that’s not ours⁵
No statehood No independence
Forever a limbo between the two
that dismisses their accountability and responsibility

I am rare
I am valuable
I am pearl

Dedicated to the PRLS Department at CUNY Brooklyn College

1 “The Spaniards exploited the island’s gold mines and reduced the Taíno to slavery. Within twenty-five years of Columbus’ arrival in Haiti, most of the Taíno had died from enslavement, massacre, or disease. By 1514, only 32,000 Taíno survived in Hispaniola.”
https://gsp.yale.edu/case-studies/colonial-genocides-project/hispaniola

2 “Between the 1930s and the 1970s, approximately one-third of the female population of Puerto Rico was sterilized, making it highest rate of sterilization in the world.”
https://www.panoramas.pitt.edu/health-and-society/dark-history-forced-sterilization-latina-women

3 "They were taught to produce what they don't consume, and they were taught not to produce what they consume," he says. "That's the kind of dependence that was created under that colonial system."
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/05/13/527934047/how-puerto-rico-lost-its-home-grown-food-but-might-find-it-again

4 "That Puerto Ricans became American citizens in 1917 have been attributed by many to the need for soldiers as the U.S. entered World War I.”
https://centropr.hunter.cuny.edu/digital-humanities/pr-military/world-war-i

5 “The Puerto Rican debt crisis has many origins. Most notably, investors in Puerto Rican municipal bonds received favorable tax treatment for years. ... Prompted in large part by this tax advantage, Puerto Rico issued too much bond debt and began relying on borrowed funds from bond issuance to balance its budget.”
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/090915/origins-puerto-rican-debt-crisis.asp