Puerto Rico’s Colonial Status – Page 2

America and Race, Globalization, Hemispheric Identity, Latin Music, Latinos and Race, Puerto Rico's Colonial Status, Urban/Global Politics

Residente vs. Tempo: Reggaetón Battle Of The Century

What’s revealed when two Puerto Rican MCs face off Beefs and clap-back answer songs are a tradition in hip-hop, from Biggie versus Tupac and Jay Z versus Nas all the way back to Roxanne Shanté versus The Real Roxanne. But the recent clash between Puerto Rican MCs Residente (a.k.a. René Pérez Joglar), formerly of the […]

America and Race, Globalization, Hemispheric Identity, Police Violence, Puerto Rico's Colonial Status, Resistance in the Trump Era, Urban/Global Politics, US Intervention in Latin America

Puerto Rico’s Political and Economic Crisis Deepens

May 24, 2017 Last week, events in Puerto Rico continued to reach new levels of tension and emotion as the island’s bankruptcy proceedings began, the university’s month-long strike was threatened by court maneuverings, and the long-held political prisoner Oscar López Rivera emerged from house arrest to assertively spread an anti-colonial message to a people long […]

Globalization, Hemispheric Identity, Latinos and Race, Police Violence, Puerto Rico's Colonial Status, Resistance in the Trump Era, Urban/Global Politics, US Intervention in Latin America

How UPR Students Leading the Resistance to Austerity in Puerto Rico

Some $40 billion of the island’s debt could be illegal—so why is the government shutting down the audit commission? Aurora Muriente Pastrana, who is both a law-school student and adjunct professor in the humanities department at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), had come to the steps of Puerto Rico’s capitol building on April 18 with […]

America and Race, Globalization, Hemispheric Identity, Puerto Rico's Colonial Status, Urban/Global Politics, US Intervention in Latin America

Oscar López Rivera and the Colonial Truth of Puerto Rico

The campaign to free Puerto Rican nationalist Oscar López Rivera, a political prisoner confined in a US federal penitentiary since 1981, has dominated various sectors of Puerto Rican activism for the last decade. The demonstrators behind 34 Mujeres Por Oscar has been a fixture at Union Squre Park and other locations around New York for […]

America and Race, Hemispheric Identity, Latinos and Race, Puerto Rico's Colonial Status, Urban/Global Politics, US Intervention in Latin America

Why POTUS Needs to Set Oscar Free: An Interview with José López

On December 4th I interviewed José López, whose brother Oscar López Rivera is a Puerto Rican political prisoner in the U.S, for Living in Spanglish Radio. He has been held over 35 years and over 100,000 have signed a petition asking President Obama to pardon him before the end of his term in office. José […]

America and Race, Globalization, Hemispheric Identity, Latinos and Race, Puerto Rico's Colonial Status, Republican Party politics, The Western Subject, Urban/Global Politics, US Intervention in Latin America

A Nuyorican View of Castro’s Legacy

There are two dominant narratives of Fidel Castro: He’s a nationalist symbol of triumph over the U.S.’s dominant influence and control over the Western Hemisphere, and he’s a controlling autocrat who changed his island nation so drastically that his people are divided into cubanos and exiliados —with the latter group often charging him with creating […]

America and Race, Globalization, Latin Music, Latinos and Race, Latinos in Media, Puerto Rico's Colonial Status, Republican Party politics, right populism, The Western Subject, Urban/Global Politics, US Intervention in Latin America

Living in Spanglish Radio: Not My President Edition

I woke up Wednesday with a hole in my head. It was a large enough hole that I decided we can’t let this happen. This sudden emergence of America’s long-brewing racist undercurrent brought on by a relentless process of worldwide wealth inequality that its creators have decided must be mitigated by violent conflict between marginalized […]

America and Race, Globalization, Hemispheric Identity, Latinos and Race, Puerto Rico's Colonial Status, Republican Party politics, Urban/Global Politics, US Intervention in Latin America

My Interview With Economist Ian Seda-Irizarry on the Supply Side Puerto Rico Junta

In this interview with economist Ian Seda-Irizarry about the Puerto Rico Debt Crisis on Living in Spanglish radio broadcast on September 8th, we explore the new fiscal oversight board known mandated by the PROMESA bill passed by Congress. We reveal the conflict of interests that some members bring to the board, analyze the collaboration between […]

America and Race, Globalization, Hemispheric Identity, Latinos and Race, Latinos in Media, Puerto Rico's Colonial Status, Republican Party politics, right populism, Urban/Global Politics, US Intervention in Latin America

How the Trump Clown Show Obscures Mexico and Puerto Rico’s Big Political Picture

The dominant narrative about Latinxs in the U.S. goes like this: A rapidly growing segment of the population, Latin(o)(a)s are a force to be reckoned with, and now that Donald J. Trump has continually demonstrated that he really is an unrestrained bigot preparing to unleash a deportation brigade on a sanctuary city near you, he […]

America and Race, Globalization, Hemispheric Identity, Latinos and Race, Puerto Rico's Colonial Status, Urban/Global Politics, US Intervention in Latin America

The Annotated “Surreal Life on the Precipice in Puerto Rico”

In the past I’ve published critiques of articles that appear in the mainstream press about Puerto Rico. Today’s publication by The New York Times of “A Surreal Life on the Precipice in Puerto Rico” affords another prime opportunity. The article, which features as its main theme the now-clichéd idea that Latin American life is “surreal” a la […]