Room Eight New York Politics (www.r8ny.com) is the blog site where one of my Puerto-Rican brothers in activism (Manny Burgos) promised an early response to my last column on the Puerto Rican situation -relative to its future relationship with the USA. A good thing I didn’t hold my breath. So while Mr. Burgos tries to (re)fashion and (re)shape his arguments for Puerto Rico becoming the 51st state of these (dis)United States, let me give him some more to think about.

Whenever you ask Hispanics about the current PR situation (as a ward of the USA), I invariably get an apology of sorts. No matter where the person originated (Caribbean, Europe or Latin America), I will hear similar things like: “Well what else can they do?” “They don’t have natural resources of any significance to fall back on”. “They need the USA; otherwise they will be worse off than any of the many backward(s) 3rd world countries in Africa”. “You want another Haiti in the Caribbean Sea?” “The people will suffer; there will be even greater poverty”. And so on, and so on.  read more »

Look, I wasn’t born on the island of Puerto Rico, or on one of those little islands situated nearby (like Vieques for example); so one can say I have no standing on this matter of PR’s relationship with the USA: and that’s fine with me. However, like most things political in nature, I do have a healthy opinion; and the last time I looked, I have a constitutional right to express that opinion: so afford me that luxury here folks.  read more »

Can't. Stop. Smiling.

Go Sonia Sotomayor, GO!