POLITICS | BORIKEN
Thrilled to Vote in Puerto Rico’s 2024 Gubernatorial Elections
And yes, there was plenty of anguish along the way.
Tenemos que continuar aunque nos tome cien años.
En este momento, tengo 84 años de edad y me siento tan comprometida y firme como el mismo 30 de octubre de 1950.
~ Blanca Canales Torresola, Puerto Rican Freedom Fighter
Tears caressed my cheeks this past early Tuesday evening as a close friend (Samuel) and I listened to Jugando Pelota Dura (the Boricua version of Playing Hard Ball) as we sat in our camping chairs behind his SUV in the parking lot adjacent to one of our favorite eateries, Pollo Tropical in the northeastern municipality of Carolina.
Still working on his bongo bowl — a scrumptious meal of arroz blanco (white rice), pollo empanado (baked breaded chicken breast), plátano maduro (sweet plantains) and habichuelas negras (black beans) — he reached over to place his right hand on my left arm:
Pero no llores (“But, don’t cry”).
The salt of those tears reached my quivering lips and all I could think of was how desperately I wanted to scream out to those thousands of puertorriqueñas y puertorriqueños, y puertorriqueñes who wilfully ignore the truth of our twice colonial history — the ones who…
