in partnership with the Center for Puerto Rican Studies (CENTRO) at Hunter College


The State of Puerto Rican Politics: Aquí y Allá
Presented by Amílcar Barreto and Angelo Falcon
 
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PR AND STATESIDE PUERTO RICANS RELATIONS

Looking at the relationship of the statehood party to Puerto Ricans here, there's an interesting story that not enough people talk about. And that is that before Rose-yo or Rosel-lo came in , there was a very different politics in terms of how the government of Puerto Rico looked at Puerto Ricans here.

After much struggle we had gotten the Hernández Colon administration to finally recognize something we thought was obvious but they were having trouble with. And that is that the potential of the Puerto Rican voters here to be a lobby almost for Puerto Rico on many issues. As a result of a lot of work people did, Hernandez Colon decided to develop a cabinet level department of Puerto Rican Affairs in the United States and the first and only secretary he appointed to head that post was Nydia Velázquez who eventually became our congresswoman.

What happened is the recognition of Puerto Ricans here as a political force that might be able work with the island on all sorts of issues. Their approach was a kind of community empowerment approach. It had an "Atrevete" voter registration campaign, help with social services. A lot of things like that going back to a tradition that was started in '48 when they opened up the migration office here. Now that was interesting in terms of the recognition of the relationship between Puerto Ricans here and Puerto Ricans on the island. You even had Hernández Colon talking about us being one nation. It started giving me flashbacks from the old debates with the Young Lords y esa gente about the national question. I don't remember that stuff. A lot of nightmares, if any of you remember.



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