Maricarmen Gutiérrez is the Senior Director of Membership at CASA, a proud boricua, and a long time organizer in Puerto Rico, Florida, and Pennsylvania. Following a major CASA action outside Congressman Steny Hoyer’s office in Maryland asking the powerful House Democrat to take action on Puerto Rican self-determination, Mariacarmen sat down to reflect on her feelings and the long, deep history of Puerto Rican struggle for justice.
While I have been an organizer for justice all my life, I don’t often have the chance to write my thoughts in this way. Finally sitting down to write about the feelings that come from knowing that you are part of a place that has been invaded twice and its inhabitants colonized is painful. It makes me angry. Yes, as a Puerto Rican, I live with anger, but it also gives me courage to fight on for my people.
In 1492 the Island of Borikén, as the Taíno Indians called Puerto Rico, was invaded by Spain. European invasions to western lands have been criticized, repudiated, and condemned for centuries, as they should be. What strikes me is, many who are perfectly willing to recognize the evils of European imperialism in past centuries display blindness and a total lack of condemnation towards the invasions that the United States has carried out on both sides of the planet. The silence is troubling.
In 1898, after almost a hundred years fighting against the Spanish empire, Puerto Ricans began to feel what it would mean to live in freedom. Imagine the joy of our patriots during the preparations towards the establishment of their own government by achieving the Autonomous Charter by Spain.
But unfortunately, the joy did not last long.
In July of that same year, US troops led by General Myles landed in the south of Puerto Rico to invade and take possession of our homeland. They changed our currency, established a military government, and appropriated our home. Rather than have our own country, we traded one set of colonial rulers for another with a different language and culture.
124 years have passed since that terrible moment for Puerto Ricans, and Puerto Rico continues to be occupied by the same empire that openly condemns attacks on sovereignty around the globe. Hypocrisy or ignorance? The destruction caused by bombs and missiles provokes the anger of all. The collapse of the spirit caused by colonization goes unnoticed, but it exists. We exist.
The leaders in the United States congress know that they are the ones who have the authority to decolonize Puerto Rico. While this fact should be grounds for shame and immediate action, the US political elite have the audacity and ego to think themselves a benevolent superior rather than an occupying force of a country that has no means to resist.
Puerto Rico is not the only colony of the United States. They own others: Guam, the Marshall Islands, the Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands. To these possessions are added more than 800 territories that are part of this empire. Do these people not deserve justice and autonomy too?
Even though slavery was abolished in the 19th century in the United States, it is dismaying to know that here in the 21st century, an entire country – my country – can be a possession of another country. That we can't decide our destiny. No matter how many local governments you choose, your sovereignty is kidnapped.
To our surprise, there is a bill in Congress, HR2070, to decolonize Puerto Rico. This bill binds Congress in that process. It is not a perfect bill, but it has achieved the approval of important sectors in Puerto Rico, including all the existing political parties. The United States Congress denies that Puerto Rico is a colony. The existence of such a project – a new law to be passed which would allow Puerto Ricans to control their own political destiny – exposes this lie. This bill gives us hope, but we’ve seen sparks of hope fail to catch fire before.
For my part, I will do everything in my power to get the bill passed so that we Puerto Ricans can finally have the authority to reach agreements with whomever we deem most convenient, with equity, without being subordinated to any empire. We are not less than anyone.