Fiesta Boricua Trailer 2011

Todos los años, durante el mes de septiembre, la comunidad puertorriqueña de Chicago celebra en el Paseo Boricua (Division Street entre la Avenida California y la Western) la Fiesta Boricua. Esta fiesta es una celebración de la puertorriqueñidad. Una de las últimas oportunidades o excusas para los boricuas y solidarios de juntarse y celebrarla antes de que empiece a bajar el termómetro en esta ciudad de inviernos crudos.
Desde el año pasado, la organización de la Fiesta Boricua rinde homenaje en la misma a un municipio isleño con el fin de crear alianzas entre la comunidad puertorriqueña de Chicago y el municipio homenajeado. Entre los criterios para escoger a un pueblo en específico están las iniciativas culturales y de turismo que hayan desarrollado recientemente.
Según ha explicado La Voz del Paseo Boricua anteriormente, bajo el lema Lo mejor de nuestro Pueblo, la Fiesta Boricua ha incorporado una serie de eventos para mostrar lo mejor de los elementos culturales de uno de los 78 municipios de Puerto Rico. El primer pueblo homenajeado fue Comerío, el año pasado, de donde llegaron más de 200 comerieños a Chicago para ser parte de la celebración.
Hormigueros ha sido el municipio escogido este año por la comunidad de Paseo Boricua para que rendirle homenaje en esta celebración. El alcalde, Honorable Pedro García Figueroa (PPD) expresó su emoción de recibir el mismo de esta comunidad en la diáspora.
“Siento un orgullo extraordinario de cómo la nacionalidad puertorriqueña se mantiene tan vibrante en la ciudad de Chicago. Nosotros vivimos la puertorriqueñidad todos los días pero no con la intensidad que la vive la diáspora, nuestros hermanos. Siempre he entendido que, los de aquí y los de allá, somos un solo pueblo,” abundó el alcalde estadolibrista, quien vino acompañado de una delegación de decenas de personas, además de un grupo musical de jóvenes de Hormigueros que presentaron su repertorio de música típica. Además, añadió que “la única unión permanente entre Puerto Rico y los Estados Unidos son los puertorriqueños que habitan en los Estados Unidos.”
Antonio Martorell, artista invitado del IPRAC (Institute of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture), expresó en la apertura de la fiesta que la arquitectura de nuestra patria la tienen que hacer los puertorriqueños y las puertorriqueñas de aquí y de allá. “Todos juntos creamos nuestra casa nacional. Da la casualidad que fue en Hormigueros donde se asesinó vilmente a Filiberto Ojeda Ríos. Yo quiero honrar a ese patriota y a los patriotas de Hormigueros, y saber que la memoria de ese crimen va a transformarse, a formarse, a erigir la casa nacional en Hormigueros.”
La Fiesta Boricua 2011 tuvo lugar del viernes, 2 de septiembre en la tarde con una visita guiada por el maestro Martorell a su exposición en el IPRAC (Institute of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture) y además, con una recepción de bienvenida a la delegación del municipio de Hormigueros al domingo, 4 de septiembre con música y actividades para la familia.
“Cuando me explicaron de esta fiesta hace unos meses, yo me comprometí que aquí íbamos a estar. Ayer hicimos una misa jíbara y cargamos a la Virgen de la Monserrate en hombros por la Division. Entre nuestra delegación hay artesanos e historiadores.” Entre los historiadores se encontraba el Profesor Mario Cancel que ofreció una conferencia en el IPRAC sobre Segundo Ruiz Belvis.
Los grupos musicales que participaron este año fueron: Orquesta de Guiro, Bompleneras, Africaribe, Pura Cepa, Orquesta Leal, Bakeré, Orquesta NDS, Angel Meléndez 911 con tributo a Héctor Lavoe, entre otros.

by Vanesa Baerga

Feature Photo by Geno Rodriguez

We are from “allá afuera.” As such, we inhabit a nebulous and intangible world in the imagination of those who have not trekked beyond their Caribbean waters (and in even those who have). It is as if, in the insular colonial imagery, we dwell upon the heavens, sitting on top fragile clouds or lurking behind the stars, out of touch with humanity. But celestial beings we are not. Our existence, on Earth, is obscured. We are deemed a throw-away people, cultural pollutants, who were never suppose to return, never to witness the island of our forebearers. “Tú no eres Boricua” can be the most spiteful slander an islander can bestow upon us, not so much because of an innate insecurity, but the acknowledgment of our difference.

“i want to go back to puerto rico,
but i wonder if my kink could live
in ponce, mayagüez and carolina”
(Tato Laviera)

According to the 2010 United States census, there are, for the first time in our history, more Puerto Ricans living in the U.S. than on the island; 4.6 million to 3.7 million to be exact. As time continues, less and less the children of Borinquen reside on our tragic Eden, despite the conviction that it remains our communal ‘home.’ The question why is important, but what characterizes our exiled existence as a hint to new collective directions is even more intriguing.
As stated by Boricua theorist Juan Flores, the root definition of Diaspora means a “scattering or of sowing seeds (-sperien) across space (dia-)”, a suitable metaphor for the construction of Puerto Rican enclaves; from a minute bud to a growing vine germinating nuances in identity and community-building. For Flores, a Diaspora is not just about people moving to a new place, but the unraveling of a consciousness about the place they are in and the place they left. In the aftermath of the first Great Migration of the late 1940s to early 1960s, we forged emblems of our “inherited cultural backgrounds” in institutions, cultural festivities, literature, music, and political organizations, but with a palette of distinct “ruptures and innovations” detailing, exalting, and even lamenting our cultural aberration from those on the island. Like that of nations, our community is imagined, because although we could never know all the members of such a disparate Diaspora, it is a communion in which our connection is internally recognized and a camaraderie eternally yearned for.
With controversial origins and often critiqued markers like ‘Chi-Rican’ or ‘Nuyorican’, we are united by a reference point and a new location, but of also disturbing social ills. As an au courant exodus out of our island unfolds before our tired eyes, we continue to face high levels of poverty and low levels of formal education, exacerbated by the destruction and displacement of our historic centers and a psyche of inferiority. Moreover, the cultural and political institutions we have created throughout the decades are decaying because there are those among us who submit to the pressure to homogenize our experiences and unique historical memories under a “latino umbrella” and thus render any affirmed puertorriqueñidad as taboo and separatist. And even worse, those of us who obtain any sort of money or education, leave our life-centers, detach and disassociate themselves from ‘those in the ghetto’ and produce offspring with a sort of Du Boisian triple-consciousness – never accepted by a racist world and never truly accepted by one’s own people on both sides of the Atlantic. We are here, but less cohesive and pronounced, persistently misrepresented and misunderstood by the islander, the greater U.S. society, and by some in our flock.
The leaking faucet of our tropical kin continues to flow and detrimental social forces endure in a masquerade around our unmarked tombstones. We are at the crossroads of possibilities stretching from a path of great historical and contemporary resilient feats, but jointly, across the cities and towns of our presence, something is lacking, the earth-shattering urgency remains nonexistent. With the effort of producing and amplifying safe spaces of in-depth dialogue on such socio-political conundrums and subsequently courses of direct action, can we approach the horizon with a profoundly inspiring, renewed, and reinvigorated vision for our people in the Diaspora. But the challenge has so few recruits while any semblance of our existence continues to erode. We are full of possibilities, but in a deep slumber we continue to lay.

Next Part: The New Boricua: A Renewed Vision

References:
1. Laviera, Tato. (1992). my graduation speech. la carreta made a u-turn (pp. 17). Houston: Arte Público Press.
2. United States Census Bureau. (May 26, 2011). 2010 Census Shows Nation’s Hispanic Population Grew Four Times Faster Than Total U.S. Population. Retrieved from http://2010.census.gov/news/releases/operations/cb11-cn146.html
3. Flores, Juan. (2009). The Diaspora Strikes Back: Caribeño Tales of Learning and Turning (pp. 16-17). New York: Taylor & Francis Group.
5. Anderson, Benedict (2006). Imagined Communities. New York: Verso.
6. Du Bois. W.E.B. (1903). Of Our Spiritual Strivings. In The Souls of Black Folk. The Health Anthology of American Literature: Volume D Modern Period 1910-1945 (pp. 897-902). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

by Xavier Burgos

Para fotos del 18va Fiesta Boricua:18va Fiesta Boricua 2011

Aquí estamos nuevamente, al pie de la 18va Fiesta Boricua de Bandera a Bandera. Otra vez el Paseo Boricua se viste de fiesta para celebrar la cultura, la tradición, la raza, la identidad puertorriqueña. Nosotros, los que estamos acá, en la isla, pero que nos sentimos parte del Paseo Boricua y valoramos y respetamos tanta lucha, tanto afán, tanta conciencia y tanto fervor permanente en esta extraordinaria comunidad boricua en Chicago, también estamos de fiesta. Celebramos con ustedes, nos abrazamos con ustedes y nos quitamos el sombrero en señal de respeto por un trabajo bien hecho.

En la última semana de agosto, cuando ya nos preparábamos emocionalmente para volar al Paseo Boricua, la isla fue azotada por la tormenta tropical nombrada Irene. Nos dio duro; mucha lluvia, mucho viento. En un país desorganizado, con mala planificación y atacado despiadadamente en el corazón de su naturaleza por la construcción desmedida y “a lo loco”, los efectos de un evento natural, como esa tormenta, se multiplican.

Desde esta isla desolada y maltratada por el hombre, más que por la tormenta, les escribo estas letras. La lluvia cae incesantemente, el viento sopla con fuerza, los rayos iluminan el espacio y los truenos retumban por todas las esquinas. Sin embargo, pensar y sentir a esa comunidad puertorriqueña del Paseo Boricua que tanto quiero me alienta, me calma. Bajo estas condiciones siento la Fiesta Boricua que se prende, que sopla como un gran huracán cultural puertorriqueño.
Este año vuelve “Lo mejor de nuestros pueblos”, con mucha alegría. La 18va Fiesta Boricua se le dedica al pueblo de Hormigueros. Desde allí viene un grupo de hermanos puertorriqueños, desde una esquinita del oeste de la isla. Hormigueros es un pueblo de hermosas tradiciones, de una profunda fe cristiana y de un gran arraigo cultural. También, con un doloroso recuerdo. En el barrio Plan Bonito de ese municipio cayó abatido el patriota Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, bajo el fuego del FBI.

Hormigueros viene representado por una legión de buenos puertorriqueños y puerto rriqueñas y con su líder máximo, el Hon. Pedro J. García Figueroa, Alcalde. Vienen a traernos lo mejor de su pueblo. Démosle una gran bienvenida. Vamos a darle un caluroso abrazo con el corazón boricua de esta comunidad puertorriqueña de Chicago, fundido y defendido con tanta voluntad, orgullo, patriotismo, valor y sacrificio. ¡Bienvenido, Hormigueros, a esta Fiesta Boricua de Bandera a Bandera! Estamos seguros que vamos a disfrutar de lo mejor de su pueblo.

On Saturday, June 18, 2011 in the midst of preparation for the Puerto Rican festivities, including the downtown parade and the Puerto Rican People’s Parade, a select group of Puerto Rican leaders where invited by Senator Durbin, through the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, to join him in welcoming Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to Chicago.
Senator Durbin had extended an invitation to the Justice – the first Puerto Rican and first Latina to serve on the US Supreme Court- to join him for a baseball game between the Chicago Cubs and the New York Yankees.

Among those leaders where Ald. Roberto Maldonado (26th Ward), Marvin García, member of the Board of Trustees Northeastern Illinois University, Verónica Ocasio, Operations Director Bickerdike Corp, Paul Roldán, CEO of Hispanic Housing, José Rodríguez, CEO of Aspira, IL., Mr. & Mrs. Fernando Grillo, President of Board of Director of Aspira of Illinois, Dr. Lizzette Richardson, Associate Chancellor of City Colleges of Chicago, Matthew Rodríguez, Principal Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos H.S., Juan Calderón, Program Director of Vida/SIDA and José E. López Executive Director of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center.

On behalf of the Puerto Rican community José E. López presented the Justice with a gift basket containing artisanry, artifacts, films, and books of Puerto Ricans in Chicago.
The following is an personal account of that historic visit with Justice Sonia Sotomayor, by M. Lizzette Richardson, Associate Vice Chancellor for the City Colleges of Chicago.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor came accompanied by Judge Ann Williams from the federal bench.  Judge Williams and I serve on the board of the Just the Beginning Foundation which seeks to increase access of minority students to law school.

This was the highlight of my summer!  How often do you get the opportunity to meet a Supreme Court Justice and a Puerto Rican at that?  A humbling experience indeed.  She came in, greeted and spoke to each one of us individually, taking her time in a very personal way.  Imagine a Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx, humble beginnings, entering law school, a field dominated by white males, serving with distinction and becoming a Supreme Court Judge?  What an inspiration to all of us!
I took my Constitutional Law book from my days as a law school student hoping that she would sign it.   After she finished talking to each of us, the Puerto Rican Cultural Center presented a gift basket filled with items made by the Puerto Rican community;  she was thrilled.  Then, Senator Durbin indicated that I had brought the Constitutional Law book for her signature.  To my surprise, she signed it graciously!  A gesture and memory that I will forever treasure.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Puerto Rican Cultural Center and Senator Durbin for inviting me to this memorable event.  The memory will live with me forever.

This year’s 33rd annual Puerto Rican People’s Day Parade was dedicated to the greening of Humboldt Park. The theme “Verde Que Te Quiero Verde” drawn from the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, was intended on calling attention to the efforts of creating a sustainable green greater Humboldt Park community.
Gov. Pat Quinn and New York State Assemblyman José Rivera joined local leaders such as Ald. Roberto Maldonado, Angel “Tito” Medina, Casa Puertorriqueña, State Rep. Antonia “Toni” Berrios and State Rep. Luis Arroyo.
One of the most salient aspects of the parade itself was the paper mache likeness of Puerto Rican Political Prisoner Oscar López Rivera, which hovered over the float of the National Boricua Human Rights Network.

On April 8, 2011 an expanded Institute of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture (IPRAC) celebrated the opening of its new exhibition, “Lo Que Trajo el Barco,” by three, young Puerto Rican artists from three distinct locations but with intersecting narratives. The exhibition, which will be open to the public until June 2011, also served as a tribute to the living master of Puerto Rican art, Antonio Martorell, whose much-anticipated exhibit is scheduled to follow.

The artists, Miguel Luciano, Josué Pellot, and Ramón Miranda, live in places of great distance from one another: New York City, Chicago, and Puerto Rico, respectively. However, what they share in their art is a deep desire to grapple with and understand the Puerto Rican context. For these masters of their craft, Puerto Rico and its multiple socio-cultural and political productions serve as a reference point from which to begin the ever-important dialogue of our identity, but the discourse continues beyond the waters of the Caribbean. The question of who and what we are as a distinct, but disparate people, extend to and incorporate those very places in which we have settled and created community.

For a case in point, one of the pieces on display, “Machetero Air Force Ones/ Filiberto Ojeda Uptowns” by Miguel Luciano, may seem to be just another pair of fresh, white Nike shoes with spray-painted Puerto Rican flags – a common feature in the ghettos of the U.S. However, the colorful images of an assassinated pro-independence leader that stirred an uproar on the island and in the U.S. provide a compelling commentary on issues of materialism, cultural authenticity, the mass production of art and propaganda, collective memory, the synchronization of culture, and puertorriqueñidad in the Diaspora. It is no coincidence that the title of the exhibition is called “Lo Que Trajo el Barco” – “What was brought by the boat,” taken from a song by “El sonero mayor” Ismael Rivera. Migration not only moved half our people across the ocean, but also challenged our very definition of what it means to be Puerto Rican.

To gain a better understanding of the exhibition, his art, and to explore the themes of identity and history in Puerto Rican art, we interviewed the humble and profound Miguel
Luciano, whose renowned work has been showcased in galleries and museums around the world. From Paris to Moscow, Brooklyn to Slovenia and even on cover of the scholarly Reggaetón: An Anthology, Luciano’s pieces are providing new insights and a playful rendition of our national character.

Where were you born and raised? Where did you study? Why did you decide to become an artist?

I was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and grew up in the United States from Seattle to Miami and I now live in New York City. I was always interested and had a passion for art and drawing ever since I was a kid. I was also interested in social justice and activism and I knew I could combine these things and make work that could contribute to social change; looking at artwork as a vehicle for social change.

In your presentation at the opening of your collaborative exhibition at IPRAC, you spoke about playing on the readings of Puerto Rican and Caribbean cultural signifiers and layering new mythologies. How do you decide which cultural signifiers are significant enough to present in your work? What is your purpose in using Puerto Rican cultural symbols?

I look at our visual history and how it is taught usually, and I look at the cultural signifiers that are often used to represent Puerto Rican culture and identity. I use these histories and cultural symbols in order to challenge and flip them and do the same to how we see ourselves [as Puerto Ricans].

Also, to re-inscribe them with new meaning and change essentialist ideas, with an attempt to see how we self-identity and how we were identified throughout history.

Why did you choose to present those three particular pieces of your work at IPRAC?

It started with a dialogue with the other artists [Josue Pellot and Ramón Miranda Beltrán] in order to see how our work could relate to each other and to find a common theme. The pieces at IPRAC, I’ve wanted to share with the Chicago audience, especially the Pure Plantanium Pendant and the Machetero  Air Force Ones. I wanted to show them for a while in Humboldt Park, since there is a vibrant youth presence in the community and I thought it would resonate in that context. For the Cosmic Taíno piece, it includes a figure of a Bohique, who was a spiritual sage in the indigenous community. This character is often used in children’s books in Puerto Rico and I use it to play with it and to talk about illumination and consciousness in a spiritual way. It also serves as a good contrast to Josue Pellot’s neon lights, which represents conquest and death, while my piece represents spirituality and life. Also, the title of the exhibit, “Lo Que Trajo el Barco,” speaks to a theme of colonialism.

Do you consider yourself a Puerto Rican artist or an artist that is Puerto Rican? What is the difference, if there is any?

I’m really not too concerned with that. I am Puerto Rican and an artist. My work has engaged Puerto Rican culture, history, and identity. The work also speaks to Latinos in general, but comes from the reference point that is Puerto Rican and that is where I’m from. And, I know who my
audience is and I don’t think of it as limiting. I don’t only show my artwork in the Puerto Rican community, but I’m very proud to show it in the community and that is a
priority for me. It is inspired by community and it makes sense to present it to the community. IPRAC, for example, doesn’t become an exclusive space that excludes the audience that I’m trying to get at, it provides a dialogue with a community.

Any special message you’d like to give to our readers and the Puerto Rican community in Chicago?

Go see the show and it is an honor to show my work in Chicago and in Humboldt Park.

For More Info go to: www.iprac.org

Podrán cortar todas las flores, pero no podrán detener la primavera. Con esta frase del poeta chileno Pablo Neruda el congresista por Chicago, Luis V. Gutiérrez, describió las determinaciones del actual gobierno de Puerto Rico en contra de todo lo que representa puertorriqueñidad y diferencia e intercambio de ideas en una conferencia de prensa ofrecida en el Colegio de Abogados de Puerto Rico (CAPR) el pasado 23 de marzo.

“La primavera llega todos los años, así como los puertorriqueños dicen lo que piensan todos los días y nadie, ni aún el hombre poderoso que duerme en La Fortaleza, podrá hacer algo para detenerlos.”

La conferencia de prensa surge de las reacciones que sucitaron en el pueblo puertorriqueño, unos a favor y otros condenando, las denuncias que hizo ante el Congreso sobre las violaciones a los derechos civiles y humanos por parte del Gobierno de Puerto Rico a la población en general, los pasados 16 de febrero y 2 de marzo de 2011. Gutiérrez asegura que cuando acudió al hemiciclo lo hizo convencido de que la libertad y la democracia en Puerto Rico están amenazadas. Ante esto, el congresista demócrata dice que tenía que denunciar ésto, al ser la única persona en el Congreso de los Estados Unidos capaz de hacerlo.

Sus expresiones surgen debido a la ofensiva de la administración en contra de las instituciones que defiendan o representen la puertorriqueñidad, como es el caso de la Universidad de Puerto Rico y el Colegio de Abogados. El Colegio de Abogados ha sido más que una asociación profesional. Desde 1840, los abogados puertorriqueños han respondido al llamado de tener un fideicomiso público, lo que implica que éstos, además de su práctica privada, están al servicio de la sociedad puertorriqueña. Gutiérrez manifestó que el defender a los trabajadores y a los que no tienen poder a veces molesta a los poderosos, y que por esto el Senado de Puerto Rico (con mayoría del Partido Nuevo Progresista) y la administración de Fortuño lo censuraron. Añadió que a la gente que difiere de esta administración los tratan como a los estudiantes que protestan, los acusan de ser comunistas y agitadores.

Gutiérrez se mostró muy preocupado por el patrón de la actual administración de demonizar a los que difieren de sus propuestas en vez de discutir y comprometerse con el bien del país. “Este gobierno debería pensarlo dos veces antes de proferir sus palabras, y sobre cómo caracteriza a sus oponentes. Las palabras importan.”

Además, manifestó que las reacciones del partido en poder ante lo diferente amenazan al libre intercambio de ideas. A continuación algunas líneas del discurso de Luis Gutiérrez a los puertorriqueños y puertorriqueñas pronunciado en el CAPR:

El día que ustedes dejen de censurarme será el día que habré dejado de preocuparme por la libertad de palabra y por el futuro de Puerto Rico y ese día no llegará hasta  que tome mi último aliento.

Y, les tengo otro consejo: Ni su censura, ni su Fuerza de Choque, ni sus sesiones legislativas en el capitolio cerradas al público, ni acallar a ciertas voces en los medios noticiosos, ni remover los portones de la Universidad, nada de esto va a silenciar a sus oponentes.

Ni al Colegio de Abogados. Ni a los estudiantes. Ó a los reporteros, Ó a los ambientalistas. Ni a los líderes sindicales ó los miembros de los sindicatos. No van a silenciar a ningún puertorriqueño que desee decir lo que piensa.

Esta rabia, esta exigencia de que el partido dominante nunca sea retado, esta intolerancia a las ideas en competencia, este no es el Puerto Rico que yo conozco. Sencillamente, no reconozco a un Puerto Rico donde el Colegio de Abogados pueda ser visto como un enemigo de lo que es bueno, correcto y decente.

No reconozco a un Puerto Rico donde las vibrantes protestas estudiantiles se enfrenten con violencia armada y con palabras llenas de odio.

No reconozco a un Puerto Rico donde los ambientalistas y los líderes sindicales, las estaciones de radio y los periódicos son vistos como enemigos del estado.

No reconozco a un Puerto Rico donde los oficiales electos en posiciones de poder disparan palabras como “cobardes”, “sacarlos a patadas” “crápulas y garrapatas”, como si fueran personajes del “Show de Laura” y no como gente de estatura que deberían establecer el ejemplo.

Y, no reconozco a un Puerto Rico donde a un miembro del Congreso puede dar un discurso breve y que un gobierno de Puerto Rico le diga “siéntate y cállate”.

Ese no es mi Puerto Rico.  Ese no es el lugar de debate y libertad y justicia que yo amo y por el cual voy a luchar dondequiera, en todo momento y por cualquier razón.

Porque, déjenme decirles esto hoy: nadie va decirme que no soy lo suficientemente puertorriqueño para que me importe lo que le está ocurriendo a nuestro pueblo.

Soy lo suficientemente puertorriqueño para saber que el debate y la discusión son elementos fundamentales de quiénes somos aquí en Puerto Rico.

Soy lo suficientemente puertorriqueño para saber que los ambientalistas que desean proteger nuestras playas y nuestros bosques, lo verde de nuestra patria, lo que destruiría el gasoducto, no son agitadores, son patriotas.

Soy lo suficientemente puertorriqueño para saber que el Colegio de abogados no está aquí para ser perro faldero de los poderosos, está aquí para ser el salvavidas de los que no tienen poder.

Soy lo suficientemente puertorriqueño para saber que los portones de la Universidad no son barreras para controlar y disciplinar, son símbolos del aprendizaje y del conocimiento.

Amidst the smell of freshly made sofrito, a historical moment was made, a green ribbon was cut, and the door leading to the rooftop greenhouse at Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Puerto Rican High School (PACHS) was opened. An idea spawned eight (8)  years ago from the minds of the leadership of the Juan Antonio
Corretjer Puerto Rican Cultural Center (PRCC) and reignited by students of the high school five years ago, was finally made a reality on the evening of Thursday, March 3, where over 150 people gathered to share this special victory for the Humboldt Park community.

The evening included PACHS student-led presentations on topics ranging from health issues resulting from a diet insufficient of fresh fruits and vegetables, such as diabetes and obesity, to the ways students are engaged with urban agriculture through classroom curriculum at PACHS.

As part of the ribbon cutting ceremony a group of community leaders addressed the crowd including PACHS Principal Matthew Rodríguez, Executive Director of the PRCC José E. López, Youth Connection Charter Schools Board President Linda Hanah, Alderman Roberto Maldonado, State Representative Cynthia Soto and New Life Pastor Wilfredo De Jesús.

Carlos De Jesús, Director of the Urban Agriculture Program at PACHS, was another one of the speakers that evening. Earlier in the week De Jesus reflected on an earlier memory of the greenhouse journey.

“The idea of building a rooftop greenhouse at the high school was created five years ago, while I was teaching Science class. Humboldt Park was labeled as a food desert and my students began to think of some ways we can make our community healthier,” said De Jesús. “Then we realized that by building our own greenhouse, we could provide residents access to fresh foods.”

Many residents are unaware that the Humboldt Park community is labeled as a “food desert,” or an area that has little to no access to fresh foods needed to maintain a healthy diet. “This area was not always a food desert,” De Jesus noted. “When a majority of the population was white, there were local supermarkets, such as Jewels and Dominick’s, giving the community easy access to fresh foods. As the ethnicity of the population began to switch to more Latinos and Blacks those supermarkets moved out of the area,” said De Jesús.

The community has suffered from this lack of access to healthy foods. Humboldt Park has one of the highest rates of obesity and diabetes in the country. There are a number of solutions in progress that will help improve this crisis. For the past year The 72 Block Humboldt Park Diabetes Initiative has been edúcating residents about diabetes and how to live healthy life-styles. Another community program that is working to improve health issues in Humboldt Park is Muévete, which provides free physical activities such as yoga, bike-riding and Zumba.

The PACHS rooftop greenhouse is the first greenhouse in the community. With the support of local politicians such as Alderman Maldonado and State Representative Cynthia Soto, the scope of community sustainability in Humboldt Park will expand with the construction of 20 more rooftop greenhouses in the near future. In addition PACHS has been granted access to four-tenths of an acre (approximately 18,000 square feet) of land in Humboldt Park, next to the Institute of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture, where plants that begin their development in the greenhouse will be transferred. Planting on this piece of land will begin April 25, said Carlos de Jesús.

The greenhouse opening at PACHS was part of a larger celebration of the anniversary of Juan Antonio Corretjer Puerto Rican Cultural Center. A reception held Thursday afternoon at Batey Urbano featured presentations on different programs of the PRCC including La Voz de Paseo Boricua, Vida/Sida, Batey Urbano, CO-OP Humboldt Park, Barrio Arts, Culture and Communications Academy (BACCA) and Humboldt Park No Se Vende.

Alexander Hernández and Marisol Rodríguez

“When they want to set boundaries they do so strategically. Fortuño just signed a bill providing funds to the Puerto Rican film industry to attract more Hollywood films. They are investing millions and, who do they bring to sign this law? Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony. They lay claim to the Diaspora when Obama named Sonia Sotomayor. The Diaspora works for some things and not others, “explains Dr. Aparicio. She adds that recognizing the legitimacy of the subject in the Diaspora is still very difficult in the case of Puerto Ricans. However, she emphasized, that the voices of the Diaspora must be legitimate because the Diaspora is involved in political struggles and conflicts of ideology.

In the wake of recent  comments by the Resident Commissioner, Pedro Pierluisi, questioning the Puerto Rican identity of Congressman Luis Gutiérrez and his credibility  to denounce anti-democratic events in Puerto Rico, La Voz del Paseo Boricua interviewed Dr. Frances Aparicio, director of the Latino Studies Program at Northwestern University, and Dr. Maura Toro Morn, a professor in the Latino Studies  Department at the State University of Illinois. Both academics agreed that the Puerto Rican identity is shared by eight million people, four million in Puerto Rico and four million out of Puerto Rico, but with close family, social and cultural ties on the island, plus a historical thread that binds them. The points raised by the Congress and the Resident Commissioner have promoted interesting debates on migration and transmigration. For Dr. Toro, Pierluisi has as much right, say and desire to set out his political ideas as does Gutiérrez. “To silence groups because they live in the Diaspora does not strengthen political dialogue, moreover, it separates, makes a dividing line. It seems a rather limited perspective when we really are all in the same political situation. “

For her part, Dr. Aparicio believes that Gutiérrez is the only person who would be willing to condemn the administration. “It’s not about who is allowed to. If the government is abusing its power it must be condemned. The current administration is an accomplice and agent of this violence. Pierluisi will not denounce the violence because it goes against his interests,” she explained.

Professor Toro argued that Puerto Rican society is very diverse and a politician can not claim to represent the voice of the Puerto Rican people, both on the island and in the Diaspora, and therefore, a leader can not be sufficiently comprehensive.

“A political leader who wants to be the only voice of the people of Puerto Rico is very narrow minded because the voice of the Puerto Rican people can not distilled into a single political voice. It seems a bit arrogant to want to silence a voice of the Puerto Rican community in the U.S. who has worked for the Puerto Rican people, both here and there. Any person who represents Puerto Rico has to understand the dynamics of the community in the Diaspora.

“ The nation has a geographical and political boundary established in Puerto Rico. Upon Puerto Ricans leaving, the nation as an ideology goes with them. Puerto Ricans in the U.S. (going on now for  a third generation) have never ceased to be Puerto Ricans. The nation can not be framed in the Island. The nation lives in the Diaspora.

Among the allegations that Gutiérrez made on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives last February 16th and March 2nd , appear the unethical and politicized determinations of the Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, José A. Fusté, imposing a gag order in a lawsuit against the Bar Association of Puerto Rico, which led to the imprisonment of the President of the Association, Osvaldo Toledo, due to his attempts to keep the members of the association informed. Gutiérrez also denounced the complicity of the New Progressive Party (PNP) administration in the violation the civil and human rights by the police of Puerto Rico against students and demonstrators at recent protests on the island. The violation of these rights have been characterized by the use of excessive force, including kicking, pepper spray, rubber bullets, sexual harassment by police officers, use of the Tactical Operations Division against unarmed demonstrators, violations of freedom of expression and association, among others.

Vanesa Baerga