Cuba – ED MORALES

Daymé Arocena’s Afro-Cuban Alchemy

SAN JUAN, PR–Running her fingers through her dreadlocks in an outdoor cafe overlooking San Juan’s grittily trendy Calle Loiza strip, Daymé Arocena reflected wistfully on an old flame. “There’s a song on the album, ‘American Boy,’ that I wrote 10 years ago,” she said, discussing a track from her latest LP, “Alkemi,” due on Feb. […]

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

Republican Plan to Address PR Debt Crisis Is a Disaster

Okay let’s get this straight. Last week Obama free-styled on the White House lawn, apparently said he had the Oscar López Rivera matter “on his desk,” then took off for Havana, where he watched a baseball game and then on to Argentina to throw down with some tango dancers. Prominent members of the Puerto Rican/diaspora […]

Urban/Global Politics

A View From Puerto Rico on Cuba’s Opening: The Hard Questions of Obam-apertura

Cuba y Puerto Rico son/Cuba and Puerto Rico are De un pájaro dos alas/Two wings of the same bird Reciben flores y balas/They receive flowers and bullets Sobre el mismo corazón/With the same heart –Lola Rodríguez de Tío The “momentous” yet seemingly long-planned announcement that the US and Cuba have agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations […]