On Puerto Rico

For my own psychological wellbeing, I cling to the thought that I share very little in common with Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Mike Johnson, but I must admit that like him, I had never heard of Bad Bunny before Mr. … er … Bunny was named as the halftime headliner at the just-concluded Super Bowl.  (I have since learned that Mr. Bunny’s actual name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio. 😉)  As will come as no surprise to anyone who read a recent post in which I indicated in passing that my musical tastes are mostly confined to soft rock, Sinatra-type pop and jazz, I am not a particular fan of Latino music any more than I am of opera, classical, country, or rap.  At the same time, the political hullaballoo that had arisen over Mr. Martínez Ocasio’s selection and appearance made us tune in to watch his show (neither of us had any interest in the game; I haven’t watched a Super Bowl since the last Packers’ championship).  I admit that given reports of Mr. Martínez Ocasio’s clear denunciation of Trump Regime practices toward Latin Americans in his speech at the recent Grammy Awards, I had become a fan without having ever heard him, and was intrigued as to what approach he might take when performing during the world’s most-watched music performance segment.

[An aside:  although there haven’t been too many, it’s always fun to see an entity with more influence than the Trump Regime thumb its nose at the Regime.  The NFL doesn’t give a damn what the Regime thinks, because it can afford not to; its numbers keep growing.  As I recall, Costco continues its DEI program despite Regime pressure because its MAGA members continue to patronize the chain; Costco’s deals are too good (Costo is, of course, doing more to keep Americans’ costs down than the Regime).  Although Mr. Trump is now suing JPMorgan Chase & Co, the bank certainly has the resources to defend (with almost certainly more talented lawyers) what is arguably another Trump spite claim, and its CEO, Jamie Dimon, our nation’s most powerful banker, has made it clear tacitly if not explicitly that he is confident that after Mr. Trump passes from the scene, JPMorgan Chase – and he — will still be here.]

But back to the show, before getting into what this note is actually about.  Mr. Martínez Ocasio, obviously, did the entire show in Spanish.  I, of course – despite four college semesters of Spanish a thousand years ago – understand no Spanish beyond “gracias,” “agua,” and “aqui.”  I accordingly spent most of the performance — particularly at the points at which Mr. Martínez Ocasio was gesturing … er … downward – observing to TLOML, “I wonder whether he’s talking about unity or telling Trump to [well, you can fill in the rest 😉].”

Apparently, it was the former.  Certainly wiser 😊.

That said, the emotion I felt most strongly after the show was … shame.  Shame at the way we have ignored Puerto Rico, turned our back on it, let it down.  These are our people.

Two aspects of Mr. Martínez Ocasio’s show particularly caught my attention.  The first was the extras scaling power polls to remind us of the devastation and prolonged loss of electrical power that the island suffered following Hurricane Maria in 2017, the first year of the first Trump Administration.  Our response to our fellow citizens’ hardship was, by all accounts, pitiful.  (Most will recall that at one point Mr. Trump himself went down there and tossed rolls of paper towel or some such at Puerto Ricans, and then left.)  President George W. Bush’s clearly inadequate response to the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 put a dent in his popularity – not only in New Orleans, or in Louisiana, or in the South, but across the nation — from which he never fully recovered.  Granting that COVID, George Floyd’s murder, and Mr. Trump’s already-evident autocratic inclinations dominated the 2020 presidential race, I don’t remember the Trump Administration’s inadequate response to Hurricane Maria even being mentioned by any candidate during the campaign.  It certainly didn’t occur to me, nor, after a certain period following Maria’s assault, do I recall it being regularly addressed in the news outlets we employ.  (It’s a quick reminder that unless a situation or issue is personal to one, one moves on when the outlets one utilizes moves on.) 

One point I did consider in the weeks after Maria hit the island:  as reporters intoned that Puerto Rico’s terrain was making recovery efforts more difficult, it occurred to me that since we undoubtedly have Pentagon war plans to cover every conceivable scenario, if Cuba, Columbia, or Venezuela – all closer to Puerto Rico than Miami – had hypothetically invaded Puerto Rico, there would be no doubt that as we airlifted thousands of soldiers in to defend the island in a matter of hours, the difficult terrain would suddenly be a minor hurdle to establishing power and communications for a military that did so in South Pacific and Southeast Asian jungles and Middle Eastern deserts.  (To boot, those of MAGA tendencies – the ones seemingly most loudly offended by Mr. Martínez Ocasio’s Super Bowl appearance — would have been the first to vociferously seek to defend “our” island against the invasion.)

There was no invasion, only a hurricane.  So we ignored it.  We didn’t care.

The second aspect of Mr. Martínez Ocasio’s show catching my eye was his hoisting of a Puerto Rican flag with its star depicted on a light blue field, which I had learned before the performance is a symbol of a claim not for Puerto Rican statehood, but for Puerto Rican independence.  It has made me reflect.  I have long favored statehood for Puerto Rico; it is closer to the so-called mainland United States than either Hawaii or the main bulk of Alaska, and with a population exceeding 3 million, it has more people than 18 of our states [the majority “red” (including Alaska) but a significant number “blue” (including Hawaii), and the District of Columbia].  Admitting the island as our 51^st state has for years seemed to be a no-brainer held up only by politics.  Mr. Martínez Ocasio’s clear preference for Puerto Rican independence made me ponder my own parochialism.  I have always assumed – without doing any research – that the majority of Puerto Ricans wanted Puerto Rico to become a state.  (Until very recently, I literally knew more about Scots’ preferences toward their nation’s independence from the United Kingdom than I knew about my fellow American citizens’ view toward the sovereignty of their island.)  According to the now ever-present “AI Overview,” it does appear that close to 60% of Puerto Ricans do indeed favor Puerto Rico becoming a U.S. state over other alternatives, but a growing minority favors independence.  A dwindling minority favors retaining the island’s current “colonial” status. 

It is clear from the outcry in MAGA quarters about Mr. Martínez Ocasio’s performance that MAGA’s opposition to Puerto Rican statehood amounts is more than pure numbers (i.e., opposition to admittance of a state whose liberal-leaning citizens would select 2 U.S. Senators and approximately 4 U.S. House Representatives who would help thwart its retrogressive agenda).  It is racism.  Puerto Ricans are too brown, too Latin.

Since the majority of Puerto Ricans still favor a status of U.S. statehood over independence, I do as well.  But now – I will watch.  If the majority ever joins Mr. Martínez Ocasio in a preference for island independence, I’ll heartily support that position, and will expect every citizen of New Hampshire – one of our original 13, with currently less than half of Puerto Rico’s population, boasting the state motto, “Live Free or Die,” its citizens no longer satisfied 250 years ago to be a colony – to join me.  (Maybe MAGAs will favor Puerto Rican independence as well, since they clearly don’t consider Puerto Ricans “American” enough to be … Americans.)

But in the meantime — given the MAGA outrage that accompanied Mr. Martínez Ocasio’s performance, and its pathetic need for a “counterprogramming” “American” show – let us relish that in appearing before over 130 million people … the Bunny got their goat.  😊