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Puerto Ricans are already very Americanized except for the language aspect. They watch American movies (with Spanish subtitles), eat at the same fast food restaurants, use the same currency, serve in the same military, watch the same TV shows, use the same passports etc ... they are already Americans for all intents and purposes.
It's not like we marched in and took over yesterday ....
Pretty much. PRs just want to keep some sense of nationality, even though we consume a LOT of American products. Language is one of those things that most PRs thing is still our own and to push for a 100% bilingual Puerto Rico is just an Americanization scheme.
This is actually pushing the island back. Having two languages is very convenient and gives you a lot more flexibility of where to work and how to live. Bilingualism would only give a person a perfect tool for his/her career. I don't really know why people are still fighting it.
Sometimes I think it's because PR never had any real independence. First PR as a colony for Spain and now its a US territory. Anexation as a state would only mean that PRs are giving in instead of agreeing to the anexation.
Keep in mind that this is coming from a born and raised 32 year old PR. Personally, I feel American first. I feel Puerto Rican the same way someone from Texas feels Texan.
In spite of what you want to believe in the lower 48, the majority of people DON'T want statehood here, sorry. It's not as simple a thing as you make it out to be, language being a large part of it but certainly not the whole story. Posting about how easy and beneficial statehood for PR is going to be on every thread isn't going to change anything.
In spite of what you want to believe in the lower 48, the majority of people DON'T want statehood here, sorry. It's not as simple a thing as you make it out to be, language being a large part of it but certainly not the whole story. Posting about how easy and beneficial statehood for PR is going to be on every thread isn't going to change anything.
Then how do we please the 90% of Puerto Ricans who want irrevocable US citizenship and permanent union with the United States?
You don't want statehood, you don't want independence, and the PDP proposed "enhanced commonwealth" is unconstitutional so that will never happen either. What do you want that is viable? You can't have both the present level of autonomy and all the benefits and privileges of statehood at the same time. It just doesent work that way. The PDP needs to stop bamboozling people with their "best of both worlds" proposals.
Oh and btw Hawaii, Louisiana, and New Mexico have languages other than English as an official language (just like Puerto Rico does). Louisiana, like Puerto Rico, also retains aspects of the Napoleonic Code in it's Civil Law. And in all honesty, Miss Puerto Rico will probably beat all the other state contestants anyways so by default you will still get to have Miss Puerto Rico
My grandmother was slapped in the face for using French in rural Louisiana classrooms. We have our food and our music and all that but to think that our culture is "intact" is a total joke. Cajuns were made to hate themselves for decades and now that it is "cool" again because of tourism and Louisiana's opening to the world people think we've been allowed to just keep going in a different direction this entire time. Puerto Ricans are an actual ethnicity, Kansans and Californians and New Mexicans are not. The only state which has a somewhat similar original situation to PR would be Hawaii. Ask some native Hawaiians if statehood is working for them, statistics don't seem to indicate that.
I don't have the answers for the status problem I am only going on the numbers which have not drastically shifted-- statehood is not on the horizon here. Half of my friends still think I live somewhere in Central or South America and that I must live here on a work visa. Surely you have not forgotten about the masses of people who don't want the United States to get more Latino than its getting, and/or have no earthly idea that PR is American soil. Why would a majority-Republican Congress ever think to approve a place whose votes would never shift from solid Democrat, and whose third parties and labor movements and intellectuals are farther on the left than any U.S. state or territory? What does the U.S. gain from adding PR as a state?
I agree that much of what the politicians in the PDP push is basura, sure. The system is definitely two-faced at times and very flawed, but it's not going anywhere. In a place where people have to struggle for good news this system offers relatively stability in a shaky little island where the unknown can be terrifying and distant. I don't want to push one side or another too much but please don't think statehood is a simple transition that is inevitable. I just don't see it happening, due to factors here and ESPECIALLY in Washington.
I agree, the ignorance on the mainland is sicking. In all honesty though most Americans arent taught about Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the US Virgin Islands, or the Northern Mariana Islands. Most Americans can't even find their own state on a map muchless know that Puerto Rico is a US territory and it's residents natural born US citizens.
IMO Puerto Ricans proved that they were worthy Americans in the hills of Korea and the jungles of Vietnam. That's good enough for me and it should be good enough for everyone else ... but ignorance and racism prevails
I went to public school in PR, but my English is slightly better than my Spanish. I'm a country girl from the city of Arecibo, not some snobby rich girl from Guaynabo city. I also partially grew in North Carolina due to my dad's military duties but my parents made sure that my brother and I learned English and Spanish simultaneously. To this day, I can switch back and forth languages like if it was nothing.
As a kid, my parents were always insisting that most of the TV we watch (including VHS movies) to be in English and no subtitles. Also, my dad's mom is from New Mexico and she always insisted in talking in English to all of us.
It worked very good.
As for the public school English classes? Every time there is a "red" as the governor, he/she doesn't want to emphasize the use of the English language in the schools. However, when a "blue" is in charge, is the opposite.
In spite of what you want to believe in the lower 48, the majority of people DON'T want statehood here, sorry. It's not as simple a thing as you make it out to be, language being a large part of it but certainly not the whole story. Posting about how easy and beneficial statehood for PR is going to be on every thread isn't going to change anything.
I don't know where you are getting the facts, but more than 50% want statehood here in PR, you just have to wait to 2012 and when the referendum takes place, we will see if statehood is wanted or not...the part that US don't want us to became a state well... all the congress has to do is eliminate the 600 law and PR will become independent... de un plumazo...why they don't do it???
Puerto Ricans will be only latinos with no country and still is (I seen how some Dominicans or other Latinos make fun of PRicans of not having their own country, and yet they do... dont even turned into a state will regret later, believe me) and become slowly dying nation, this is why I'm against the idea!
Puerto Ricans will be only latinos with no country and still is (I seen how some Dominicans or other Latinos make fun of PRicans of not having their own country, and yet they do... dont even turned into a state will regret later, believe me) and become slowly dying nation, this is why I'm against the idea!
If the DR is so great then why are they all trying to sneak across the Mona Passage?
Why are all the Mexicans, Salvadorans, Hondurans, Guatemalans, etc trying to cross the Mexican border?
False national bravado doesent put food on the table and money in wallets.
Puerto Ricans will be only latinos with no country and still is (I seen how some Dominicans or other Latinos make fun of PRicans of not having their own country, and yet they do... dont even turned into a state will regret later, believe me) and become slowly dying nation, this is why I'm against the idea!
As underlined above, I too have heard or read other Latinos jesting or mocking Boricuas because we've not sought independence. I respond to their jesting and mocking by pointing to the obvious advantages afforded to those of us from Puerto Rico. For example:
- We are U.S. Citizens and do not have to be concerned about entering the USA ILLEGALLY or carrying green cards, like most of those who tend to mock us do.
- Puerto Rico's currency is the U.S. dollar which is the main reason why those who mock us enter the USA ILLEGALLY.
- Last I heard, Puerto Rico has the highest per capita income amongst all Spanish speaking countries in the Americas.
- I've stated to those who've mocked, "my homeland is a territory of a first world country. Your homeland is an independent republic and a third world country. I'll take my first world territory over your third world country any day!"
- There's a good reason why people from many of Latin America's third world countries flock to Puerto Rico and not the other way around.
Need I say more?
I know that sounds rude and arrogant. But, if you're gonna dish it, you better be prepared to take it!
Last edited by chacho_keva; 12-15-2011 at 10:50 AM..
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