The New Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico is ...

a) a state?

b) a colony?

c)just the home of J-Low and Reggeaton?

While spending time here in the most "Latino" land inside the jurisdiction of the United States, the one of the topics that gets a strong reaction from people is, "Statehood or Independence?"

While to an outsider, like myself, the answer to that question to lays in the semantics and subtle nuances of English. Even Obama has said that the definition of this island and its role in relation to the United States needs to be clarified and defined.

So should it become a state-- In which it would be the state with the 3rd highest recipients of WIC. It would also be the state that "exports" the highest number of people into the US military.

As a common wealth, they have no need for their own military, but also don't have a vote in Federal elections or in congress. The average Boricua doesn't need to pay federal taxes. and their island offers tourist a trip to Latin America, without having to exchange money, knowing the language and also eases the fear of their American rights being trampled on.

I shouldn't have a vote in this, I don't live here, but I as a American Citizen am affected by what the outcome will be. Do need to pack a passport to visit or can I complain about the high rates of unemployment and it's drain on our bankrupt economy?

This island should have been made into the cultural reception hall for Latin America and the United States. They stand in the liminal space between continents, cultures, and represent the changing world.

The indigenous people are gone from this island, pushed to extinction by slavery, disease and the exploitation that capitalism brings. Yet, they are still here in the hybrid Boricua--a mixture of Latino, Africano, Gringo and with sprinklings of other people. They are the new world. Not defined, by family heritage lineage, but their history it simply gives them shapes, colors and ryhtims that have come to repersent these people.

It's a new world, very few people are "pure" anything anymore. Socially liberal and fiscally conservative. Second generation Mexican-American Chicano. A Mac with Windows installed.

We are all this mixture or ideas, and philosophies that have crossed oceans, and barriers man made and natural. We all fight to not be defined by our past, and we don't need to hide from it, but should use it as a internal road map to tell us not where we are going, but where we have started our individual and communal journeys.

I am not Puerto Rican. I don't live here. I should not have much say in what is decided for this common wealth, but what is decided for this island does give insight to myself.

Do I need to stand alone? Do I need someone to look out for me? I'm not sure, and perhaps with sometime and reflection, I take a stand and leave this liminal transitional space and find that nothing changes or everything changes. Until then I still have bad J-Low movies and Pitbull's- "I know you want me (Calle Ocho)"!