My Writing on Puerto Rico in 2024
A few years ago I started a little personal end-of-year tradition: an X/Twitter thread with all my essays, op-eds, and podcast appearances about Puerto Rico. As we get ready to say goodbye to 2024, I thought I’d also publish a version of that yearly roundup here.
So read on and, hopefully, read on!
In April, it was a pleasure and a privilege to make a longform argument for Puerto Rican independence in Current Affairs, a fantastic leftist magazine that deserves your eyeballs and your support.
Few other publications would devote 3,000+ words to Puerto Rico. Fewer still would publish two pieces on Puerto Rico in as many months! The March/April print issue of Current Affairs featured my short play/dialogue dramatizing how the United States has denied Puerto Rico statehood for 126 years. The piece was later published online at the link above.
I want to thank editors Nathan Robinson, Lily Sánchez, and everyone at Current Affairs for basically having the reaction all Americans should have to Puerto Rico: “Oh shit, Puerto Rico’s 126-year-old colonial status is a massive ongoing injustice — let’s shine a light on it!”
Sometimes I talk about Puerto Rico instead of writing! In March, I was back on the Diaspórica podcast to talk about the influx of wealthy Americans moving to Puerto Rico to avoid paying taxes, which is causing gentrification and displacement.
And in May I went on Rakeem Shabazz’s Wise the Dome TV podcast to talk about some of the darkest episodes in the history of U.S. colonial rule over Puerto Rico, like the persecution of pro-independence activists and the sterilization of Puerto Rican women.
In June, I self-published this essay on why organizations like Boricuas Unidos en la Diáspora, which I help lead, must continue to advocate for independence at the United Nations, despite that institution’s obvious failure to address colonialism in Puerto Rico — and so many other injustices.
On July 4 (temporal pun not intended), I published my first piece in The Latino Newsletter, on how the Republican Party is now explicitly and stridently opposed to Puerto Rico statehood.
(I’ll note that the original title of the piece was “Republicans Once Pretended to Support Puerto Rico Statehood…” which I think is a more accurate description, though admittedly a longer one!)
It was great to write for Julio Ricardo Varela again, who first published my work at the now defunct Latino Rebels. The Latino Newsletter is, in many ways, its spiritual successor.
In fact, though less than a year old, The Latino Newsletter is already an indispensable outlet for Puerto Rican stories and voices. So in August I published a second essay there, on how Denver’s Flamboyán Theatre, a Puerto Rican theater company that has staged productions of plays about Julia de Burgos and the Cerro Maravilla murders of independence activists, is revolutionary in more ways than one.
In September, I was on the excellent Archipiélago Histórico podcast discussing Boricuas Unidos en la Diáspora’s work and the role of the Puerto Rican diaspora more broadly in Puerto Rico’s fight for decolonization.
The surge in support for Juan Dalmau Ramírez, the Puerto Rican Independence Party, and its electoral Alianza was the story of 2024 in Puerto Rico. While Dalmau ultimately fell short of a victory in the island’s gubernatorial race, in this essay I outlined some of the developments that lead to this political moment, and what a victory for a pro-independence candidate could mean for Puerto Rico’s future.
In October, I also wrote about the rise in support for Puerto Rican sovereignty in The Progressive Magazine. A few weeks later, two sovereign status options (full independence and sovereign free association) combined for 43% of the vote in Puerto Rico.
It was the joke heard around the world, and there was no shortage of think pieces after a pro-Trump comedian called Puerto Rico garbage.
But the GOP’s racism wasn’t the only story, and I’m grateful that The Latino Newsletter also let me shine a light on Democrats’ neglect and failures on Puerto Rico.
I had one more thing to say about the reaction to Puerto Rico being called garbage, which elicited a predictable retort of “Puerto Ricans are Americans!” from well-meaning, would-be allies.
But insisting on Puerto Ricans’ ‘Americanness’ erases our nationhood, and implies that our dignity depends on the citizenship imposed by our colonizers.
Finally, on the day after the 2024 elections, I was back on the pages of my hometown paper El Nuevo Día arguing that Donald Trump’s victory in the United States, and the growth in support for sovereignty on the island, signal one thing: the eventual inevitability of Puerto Rican independence.
I’m grateful to the editors and podcast hosts at Current Affairs, The Latino Newsletter, The Progressive, El Nuevo Día, Diaspórica, Wise the Dome, and Archipiélago Histórico for publishing my work and/or having me on their shows to talk about it.
All of them make the unenviable task of trying to raise awareness of Puerto Rico’s colonial status possible.
I’m also grateful to everyone who read and shared one of my articles. Writing is a lonely exercise, and pitching stories about Puerto Rico to mostly uninterested U.S. media outlets means facing either constant rejection or the deafening silence of unanswered emails.
Knowing there’s appreciative readers on the other side of it means a lot and keeps me going.
Finally, if you want to support the work of raising awareness and spurring action on Puerto Rico’s colonial status, please consider making an end-of-year donation to Boricuas Unidos en la Diáspora — the only national political organization in the U.S. that explicitly organizes and advocates for Puerto Rico’s independence.
None of that money goes to me! But it will support the work to turn words into action through much-needed political mobilization and advocacy.
There’s one more thing you can do to support me and to support Puerto Rico: Join me as a vocal advocate for independence!
Whether you are Puerto Rican, American, or something else entirely, I hope that we can agree on one thing: 126 years of U.S. colonial rule over Puerto Rico is 126 years too long. And statehood, even if if were a just and moral outcome, is nowhere on the horizon.
Only sovereignty will end colonialism, and only the explicit support of millions will create the political conditions to make independence possible. Anything less, including well-meaning neutrality, will only perpetuate this unjust political condition for years or decades to come.
Thanks for reading. And see you in 2025!
