From www.remezcla.com
[NY-CITY]
Reflexiones Post-Parada
BY Nuria Net | PUBLISHED: Tuesday, June 19th, 2007

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“O te emboricueas o te abochornas!” Así lo resumió mi amiga María T. Laboy y así fue: we came, we saw, we conquered, gozamos y nos emboricuamos. Acá algunos de nuestras reflexiones después de ir a la Parada Puertorriqueña el 10 de junio del 2007. Considérese Parte II del artículo que postée hace dos semanas, “Perspectivas de la Parada Puetorriqueña.” Tampoco se pierdan las excelentes fotos tomadas ese día en nuestra galería de fotos. Y a los que todavía no se atreven a ir, vayan preparándose para el año que viene, porque vamos corillo de verdad.

Empecemos con María que sentó la pauta del emboricueo.

Hay de todo para todos, en todos lados…En las pasadas semanas leí este foro y escuché de mis amigos miles de opiniones acerca de la Parada Puertorriqueña, del tipo de gente que va y de lo que ocurre allí. A raíz de esta retraíla de opiniones, decidí ir de conejillo de indias a la bendita parada y documentar de forma visceral lo que mis sentimientos recibieran. Lo que empezó como una curiosidad de última hora terminó siendo el shot boricua de mi semana.

Este año no tenía planes ni mucho menos interés en ir a la parada. Mi pasada experiencia me dejó muy mal sabor. Solo había ido una vez, el año pasado. Y como todo buen boricua de la isla me llene de “gríngolas”. Luego de nadar en un mar de cafretones de todas las naciones, policías hostiles y un hambre desquiciada en espera de la ausente comida autóctona, terminé grandemente decepcionada y quejándome de todo. Pero este año, boricua al fin, en busca de una excusa para el “bembé”, no fue difícil sonsacarme para el segundo “try” a la parada.

Indudablemente este año fue diferente, dejée las gríngolas a un lado y me llené de la humildad que deep down nos caracteriza a todos los puertorrros. Me dirigí a la parada bien tranquila, sin esperar nada en específico, con la mente bien abierta. Como a eso de las 12:30, una hora y media luego de empezada la parada, puse pié fuera del subway. De inmediato se veían los rastros de boricualidad por todos lados. A medida que me acercaba a la Quinta Avenida para encontrarme con amistades, un swing se me metía por dentro. Estaba empezando a emboricuarme! Le llamo así a una actitud especial que entiendo todos los puertorros pueden accesar si tienen suficientes ganas de pasarla bien, sin importar ocasión o clase social.

Nos espoteamos en la calle 70 con la Quinta Avenida. El mar de gente era tan impresionante como recordaba del año anterior. Un chorro de emociones pasaron por mi mente en las horas que estuvimos en aquella esquina de pie, viendo las carrozas de artistas pasar y la dinámica de la gente que me rodeaba. Sin embargo, la atracción mayor eran los personajes de boricuas bestiales que se veían pasar y sus formas tan creativas de llevar la monoestrellada. El momento se quedó marcado en mi mente con mil sentimientos encontrados, era muchas cosas a la vez, gracioso, interesante, insoportable, verdadero, musical, cultural, real. Inconscientemente me venía una sonrisita a la cara cada vez que miraba pa’l lado. Y esa sonrisa era la boricua bestial en mi, identificándose con el momento. La ricura del swing puertorro nos une, no importa que. Eso es estar emboricuao. Todos lo llevamos en la sangre, unos mas a flor de piel que otros.

Dichoso el que sé emboricuea sin problema, el que no se abochorna de ser mezcla de culturas, el que tiene un poquito de cafre, de comportado, de negro, de español y de indio taíno. Dichoso el que vive en libertad social. Así, que mi sugerencia para la parada del próximo año, es que acceses al boricua bestial que hay en ti y no te abochornes! Se siente bien!

Kit para emboricuarse en la Parada Puertorriqueña:

– Si eres boricua de la isla establecido en NY, llega temprano y espotéate en las calles de números altos de la 60th St. en adelante. Alli el gentío es manejable.

– Si crees que tu grado de boricualidad bestial es alto puedes caminar a las calles más abajo, mas cerca de la 42nd St.

– Vístete de ropa casual, no es mandatario vestirte con la bandera, no te vas a sentir fuera de grupo.

– Asegúrate de no ir en “denial”, pensando en que la gente que estará allí no son borricuas. Si lo son y son reales.

– Escucha tres CD’s de salsa y reggaeton antes de ir, como para activar a al boricua pachanguero que hay en ti.

– Una vez termine la parada es un “must” terminar el día comiendo criollo. Vete al restaurante El Deportivo que queda en la 48th St. y la Novena Avenida….te puedes encontar desde Ivy Queen hasta el mismísimo Gobernador de Puerto Rico, y más bestial que eso….

Nuria escribió:

Yo era la primera abochorná de la parada, pero este año fui y me la gocé completita. Mandé un email a mis amigos diciendo que la parada estaba hasta menos cafre este año, y varios me dijeron…no serás tú la cafre? Pues quizás sí, soy cafre y qué? O tal vez fue las tres horas de sueño despues de nacotearme con los mexicanos de nacotheque, o al estar familiarizada con cada reggaetonero y artista trepado en las carrozas (mi conocimiento de cultura pop aumenta con los años, quién diría) pero me lo gocé de lo lindo.

También igual de divertido fue estar con celular casi sin batería y tratando de reunir corillo en medio del rebolú. Me relamí los labios al ver a mis amigas experimentar la Parada por primera vez, al reírnos cuando pasaban políticos de la isla (Eduardo Bhatia, que haces por aquí?) que no pintan nada en Nueva York y nadie acá saben quienes son, al ver la corroza de Loíza Aldea con todo y doña de Piñones con su varita de lechón (sí, recrearon eso en una carroza, y me parece haber visto bacalaítos también.) Llegó un punto que no me pude aguantar y gasté $3 en una bandera…con todo y dibujo de coquí para completar la bandera adulterada jamás no poder. Levanté la bandera, la tongonée y le dije a mis panas, con satisfacción y certeza, aunque medio incrédula “se siente bien! Se siente bien!”

Familias enteras armadas con neveritas y sillitas de playas, con sus pinchos de pollo y su pan, jamón y queso. Señores, es igual de puertorriqueño que estar en la feria Bacardí, en las Fiestas Patronales de Naranjito o esperando afuera de Plaza Las Américas al amanecer de Dios un viernes después de Thanksgiving.

Puerto Rico no tiene fiesta nacional, de independencia….y pues nos vamos a quedar con los brazos cruzados? No, tenían que ser los Nuyoricans, acá, los que se pueden dejar de politiquerías y dejar la vergüenza isleña y tirarse este tostón de celebrar ser boricua por la Quinta Avenida. Sólo por que sí.

Ya lo decidimos, allá comiéndonos unos mofongos de camarones en el Deportivo. El año que viene vamos a traer el Funky Float, para representar otro lado de ser puertorriqueño, la música rock y ponernos las telas. El Funky Float ideal tendría a Circo de banda principal, Remezcla sponsoring, todos con vestidos de gala, Ednita Nazario, Yolandita y Dagmarita y Loubrielito. Más sugerencias bienvenidas.

Damian se atrevió a ir otra vez, y aunque no está 100% convencido, también gozó:

Si fui y la encontre menos cafre!! Por lo menos en cuanto a la gente, estaban más en “celebration mode” que en “cafre mode,” todo el mundo se llevaba bien.

Pero que conste, llegué tarde, como a las 4pm y recorrí el tramo sur de la Quinta Avenida hasta la 59 y hasta alli llegamos. Siempre que habia ido antes iba a el area de Central Park…

Mariel, quien no pudo ir este año, escribió:

Me estaba preparando para empezar en Seattle (ya regresé a nyc), otherwise I would’ve jumped in. Pero para mi fue un poco come le fue a Johanna — last year I even took Raúl, just the two of us, we got there early, got a GREAT spot, and the rumberos that set up right in front of us le enseñaron como tocar las congas a Raúl. Bailamos, comimos, saw Juelz Santana with Don Omar…it was AWESOME.

My first time I was visiting as a kid and I was a little overwhelmed. But my whole family ganged up and in the middle of that usual Jr. high identity crisis I was touched. Then, for years I thought it was ghetto and corny, now I think its beautiful and to hell with the haters. Especially when you pay close attention to the news on St Patrick’s Day (their parade is by far much drunker than ours)!

Any time you get thousands of people from the same place gathered in some other place, there will be drama. Though of course its clear that brown folks are profiled and targeted, oftentimes by our own…

By Geraldo Rivera
Fox News Latino (May 26, 2011)

Everyone who has ever watched the telecast of a Puerto Rican Day parade or, better, participated in one, knows we have an exuberant, joyful way of showing off Puerto Rican pride.

This is not to suggest that those rooted in Ireland, Italy, Israel or other nations are shirkers when it comes to celebrating their heritage.

But in this veteran observer’s admittedly chauvinistic opinion, none match the unfettered ebullience of ‘Orgullo Boricua.’ And that pulsing, effervescent Puerto Rican pride will be on vivid display in June when Barack Obama becomes the first president to make an official visit to the Commonwealth since John F. Kennedy stopped by in December 1961.

That JFK visit 50 years ago was a sensation. The young and gracious 35th president was the first Catholic in the Oval Office. And the then mostly Catholic island fell in love and didn’t hesitate to express that unbounded affection when the president stepped off the plane at San Juan Airport.

In those days, Latin America was a Cold War battlefield. The disastrous CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion of neighboring Cuba had failed to oust Fidel Castro just a few months before; the Cuban missile crisis was a few months in the future; and Puerto Rico bristled with important military bases to protect the Panama Canal against Soviet encroachment.

To cement the strategic dominance of the U.S. in Latin America, JFK was working hand in hand with legendary governor Luis Muñoz Marín to sell his Alliance for Progress – an initiative that gave aid to countries that joined in the fight against communism – to the region.

Puerto Rico no longer has either the military bases or the strategic importance it did during those turbulent times. The canal no longer belongs to us, relations with Cuba are gradually thawing, and bases like Roosevelt Roads and the island of Vieques are gone.

Puerto Rico is a strategic backwater now. It does, however, retain something of great value to a president seeking re-election.

Although the island’s four million residents are citizens, they cannot vote in U.S. elections. But there are another four million Puerto Rican stateside residents who can. About 725,000 of them now live in the key election battleground of Florida, and President Obama needs those voters if he is to retain the Sunshine State in 2012.

“With his visit, the president makes good on the promise he made during the presidential primaries in 2008 that he would return to Puerto Rico as president,” said the island’s Republican governor Luis Fortuño in the statement announcing the official visit slated for June. “Since the beginning of my administration, we have been working in close collaboration with the president and his administration to make this historic visit a reality.”

I have no doubt that the reception the president will receive will be far better than candidate Obama got during the 2008 Democratic primary in Puerto Rico, when he was soundly beaten by Hillary Clinton, a fact diplomatically unmentioned in the governor’s statement.

And if you think the rousing Irish welcome Mr. Obama received when he drank that pint of Guinness was impressive, wait until he dons a guayabera, eats arroz con pollo, washes it down with a splash of Puerto Rican rum, and salsas with the first lady.

He’ll have Florida in the bag.

Geraldo Rivera is Senior Columnist for Fox News Latino.

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By Jim Newton | jim.newton@latimes.com
Los Angeles Times (May 16, 2011)
By Jim Newton

Imagine if today’s Los Angeles were governed by a white mayor and an all-white City Council. And then imagine if that anomaly was protected by city election rules that virtually guaranteed no Latino candidate could land a spot in elected office. The civil rights community would be apoplectic and the public justifiably enraged.

Now consider Compton, a city that’s about two-thirds Latino but in which no Latino has ever held elected office. Instead, thanks in part to the kind of voting rules that were challenged and abandoned in many cities long ago, an all-black City Council and a black mayor maintain a firm hold on public office.

In Compton, City Council members run in citywide elections, which means all voters can vote in all races. If instead, as happens in Los Angeles, council members represented specific geographic areas and were voted on only by residents of those areas, heavily Latino neighborhoods would have a better chance of electing Latino council members. And then, having cracked the city’s closed politics, a group of experienced officeholders who could vie for mayor and other citywide offices would develop.

Compton’s commitment to at-large voting, which has been challenged in a lawsuit alleging violations of the California Voting Act, is the manifestation of a particularly noxious brand of racial politics that plays out in schools, elections and even civic events. The conflicts are neither new nor deniable. To take just one example: In 1994, when Californians voted on Proposition 187, exit polling found that 64% of Compton’s non-Latino voters supported it; less than 1% of its Latino voters did so. One expert who analyzed Compton’s voting patterns said the evidence of racial balloting was “clear and convincing.”

Meanwhile, the city’s demographics are rapidly changing and apparent everywhere. Barbecue and soul-food restaurants still have their place in the 10-square-mile city of 95,000 residents, but they now stand alongside taco stands and Oaxacan cafes; Stella’s Beauty Salon caters to “hombres, mujeres y ninos.” Evangelical storefront churches draw a multiplicity of faiths, with the Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal M.E. sitting just down the block from Greater Zion Church Family. Rap music thumps from car radios, but so does ranchero. According to the census, more than half of Compton’s families speak Spanish at home.

So why hasn’t that meant an automatic transformation of Compton politics? Some of the city’s Latinos are in the country illegally and thus can’t vote; even those here legally may not be citizens or feel themselves ready to join the electorate. And many are too young to vote. Despite their demographic dominance, Latinos make up only about 44% of Compton’s voting-age population, so the city’s black leadership, by insisting on citywide elections, has been able to dilute Latino voting strength. If Compton were broken into geographic districts, voting-age Latinos would almost certainly be a majority in at least one, and perhaps more (depending on how the lines were drawn). This would give them, finally, a foothold of political influence.

In the civil rights movement of the 1950s, blacks relied on the Constitution and found an ally in the courts. Now, the black leadership of Compton is defending its system in the courts against three Latino plaintiffs seeking to replace Compton’s at-large council elections with district-by-district ballots.

So how do Compton officials explain their opposition to the very process that empowered so many African Americans in an earlier era? I first tried Mayor Eric J. Perrodin. His assistant has a pleasant voicemail message asking callers to leave a name, number and message. Calls, the message promises, will be “graciously returned.” Mine wasn’t.

I also tried asking the city clerk. She was out of town. Her office referred me to the city manager; that office forwarded me to City Atty. Craig J. Cornwell, who was more forthcoming.

In court filings, the city attorney has maintained that the challenge to Compton’s voting rules violates the city charter, which specifically calls for at-large elections and thus can be changed only by a vote. Moreover, he challenges the assumption that Latinos need districts to elect candidates, suggesting instead that boosting turnout would accomplish those ends.

In our conversation, Cornwell elaborated: “We don’t believe that it’s our system that’s the problem. We believe that Compton is plagued with low voter turnout of all ethnicities, including Latino voters.”

Royce Esters, a businessman and civil rights leader who has lived in Compton since 1956, put it more bluntly. Blacks in Compton, he said, “kept on it until we got elected…. Latinos just have to get out there and vote.”

But there’s more to it. Today, the very practices once employed by Southern whites – diluting the voting power of blacks, evading media inquiries, defending their political power against demographic trends – is now the province of Compton blacks. “It’s unfortunate,” said Joaquin G. Avila, executive director of the National Voting Rights Advocacy Initiative at Seattle University Law School and a lawyer in the Compton case. City leaders could open the city to political diversity, make it a model of inclusion. But they won’t. As Avila noted, “They’ve had plenty of opportunities.”

It is, he added a bit ruefully, an example of “one minority politically oppressing another minority.”

The judge in the voting rights case declined to order an immediate change in Compton elections as the plaintiffs requested. So, on June 7, Compton voters will go to the polls to select a new council member (one incumbent retained his seat in April by winning a majority of the votes cast in the first round). Voters in the election will pick between two black candidates. No Latino made the runoff.

Marlene Peralta
watching Black in Latin America on PBS
April 19 at 8:00pm via BlackBerry · Like ·

Dulce Mateo jajaj a I just posted the same thing
April 19 at 8:01pm · Like

David Betancourt Not coming on until 9 over here.
April 19 at 8:04pm · Like

Franklin Sanchez ‎30 minutes into the show and they have so many things wrong. At the beginning they present Son(Cuban) as Merengue. The other thing is that they want to “Americanize” the perception of being Black on another country making DR look like a country with racially unaware citizens.
April 19 at 8:34pm · Like

Marlene Peralta I agree on the inaccuracies Franklin but isn’t our country racially on denial? I mean I have to say that’s changing now but with inaccuracies and all he is on the right track
April 19 at 8:56pm · Like

Franklin Sanchez He has some valid points but he only dedicated 20 minutes( I timed him hehehe) to DR and the rest of the show was dedicated to Haiti. Furthermore, you cannot impose(Americanize) your belief of what black is on other people of a different co…
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April 19 at 9:28pm · Like · 1 person

Marlene Peralta Where does it aknowledge that Sanchez or Luperon were black? Yes they looked black on photos but was the racial factor discussed on history books?
April 19 at 9:33pm · Like

David Betancourt I know this from my mothers (black side) of the family. Heard it a zillion times from mis tias morenas americanas. They don’t like that some Dominicans don’t identify themselves as black. It’s like “if I’m black you gotta be black too”. To which I always say “yo soy boricua. Pq tu no sepas!”. Jajaja.
April 19 at 9:36pm · Like

Marlene Peralta LOL @David—-thats the response we tend to give when asked about race:” I’m dominican….a percent spanish, taino and some african…..when african is the heaviest influence we have
April 19 at 9:40pm · Like

Marlene Peralta ‎@Franklin…it doesn’t stop there….watch the one on Brazil…a country that has 130 categories of black tones, which I also interpret as a negation of their blackness
April 19 at 9:52pm · Like

Franklin Sanchez ‎@Marlene- Sanchez and Luperon’s background is clearly stated in black and white in Dominican history books. When you visit La Puntilla in Puerto Plata you can clearly see that Luperon’s statue looks nothing like a white nor black guy. The …
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April 19 at 10:06pm · Like

Marlene Peralta U and I r going to write a book here…..yes the statues were black but his point was people like you and I do not embrace we r black although we look like one….and yes the black experience differs country by country but that doesn’t take…
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April 19 at 10:13pm · Like

Franklin Sanchez Marlene- what can I embrace about being black? when you come into this world everything is pretty much predetermined. I did’nt get to choose culture, folklore or even geographical location of birth. As far as I know, the world population mu…
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April 19 at 10:32pm · Like

Marlene Peralta You r right…..we have both..that’s why we r a mixed culture predisposed to only celebrate half of who we r…..and Americans take advantage of that to again impose their views….the sad thing is they have a strong argument this time
April 19 at 10:37pm · Like

Franklin Sanchez Exactly, it’s all about who has the power to influence the masses. Like we say: “Para el gusto se hicieron los colores.” Let people be brown, chocolate or whatever they want to call it.
April 19 at 11:14pm · Like

Judith Escalona The Dominican Republic’s culture and history are given short shrift. Gates even slightly mocking as he frames this complex history through a simple, assymetrical American lens. This history awaits to be told outside the facile black and white binary. Indeed, where are the “indios” in all of this? Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t that salsa they were playing, not merengue.
April 20 at 11:39am · Like

Marlene Peralta it was “son” Judith
April 20 at 11:49am · Like
Judith Escalona hmm. thought it was guanguanco in a more fused salsa form–heavy brass. And the dancing, didn’t seem much a merengue either! In any case, a poor choice for Gates who was trying to exemplify the merengue. What was the name of the band?
April 20 at 12:03pm · Like

Judith Escalona I’d like to turn a Latin American lens on the U.S. and see what comes up.
April 20 at 12:12pm · Like

Franklin Sanchez ‎@Judith- I think we would see some interesting things. My point is that you can’t “export” the enclosed vision that Americans have towards color to other countries.
Blacks in DR have never suffered from law backed segregation, unlike African Americans who couldn’t even use the same bathrooms let alone sit where they wanted in a bus.
April 20 at 1:40pm · Like

Judith Escalona The point is to examine the two racial systems and how they functioned within their respective civil societies. Both you and Marlene are right. But if the history of these two systems are left out, you will be debating till you both turn blue. And, North Americans, especially Aftrican Americans, will continue to mock you out of the same ahistorical, asymmetrical perspective.
April 21 at 7:35am · Like

Judith Escalona Puerto Ricans had a similar experience in relation to African Americans in the sixties and till this day. I have personally experienced Aftrican Americans argue that all Puerto Ricans are black which is as absurd as saying all North America…
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April 21 at 7:43am · Like

Judith Escalona The complexity of the Spanish system can be seen in Casta paintings which the Spanish used to actually document the continuous mixtures in the “New World”: Spanish (the Spanish referred to “Spanish,” not “White,” at least in the early peri…
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April 21 at 8:01am · Like

Judith Escalona Enough said. Sorry, I didn’t break this up into paragraphs. Marlene, these early categories were part of the Spanish CENSUS taking. At the meeting Tuesday, I raised this idea but didn’t fully articulate it because it would have taken too long. Jeje.
April 21 at 8:05am · Like

Judith Escalona This is all a very painful and hurtful history. I researched this (not thoroughly but sufficiently) for a mini-series I collaborated in and believe me I cried frequently. And we were only looking at the areas that became the U.S.
April 21 at 8:20am · Like

Franklin Sanchez ‎@Judith- Sorry for the tardiness in replying, I’ve been disconnected for a while. Just wanted to say thank you for your contribution to this post.
4 hours ago · Like

Judith Escalona Thank you Franklin. I’m sure we each have much to relate. A recent reflection: The denial of being racially and culturally mixed encourages segregation and domination by one group or another.