NARRATOR Patria
Rodriguez
During
the 1960's and 70's, young Puerto Ricans organized for the empowerment
of their communities across the United States. Among the organizations
that emerged were the Movement Pro Independence, El Comite,
the Puerto Rican Student Union and The Young Lords.
IRIS
MORALES
On
the whole, we were first generation Puerto Ricans born and
or raised in this country, and we found as we started going
out into the world that the society was a very white society.
DENISE
OLIVER
And
the conditions in the community were dire, there were alot of
drugs, the housing was abdominable, the health care was none
existent.
MINERVA
SOLLA
It
was a struggle as I was growing up in this city, and I saw
alot in the communities, and I saw the system not helping
any of the people that I relate to everyday. I joined the Young
Lords out of anger.
JUAN
GONZALEZ
We
all had a tremendous sense that our people did not deserve the
kind of situation and the kind of condition that we were living
under. That our parents had worked just as hard as anyone else
to make a better life for us and for some reason we weren't
succeeding. And so we had that commitment that we were going
to change things and it didn't matter what had to be done but
that we were going to change things.
HISTORY
SEGMENT
IRIS
MORALES
We
started, I would say as a group, to begin to explore our history
and our identity.
ANA
CELIA ZENTELLA
We're
a mix of three great cultures. The Indian culture -- the Taino
group, the African culture representing many different countries
in Africa and also the European presence -the Spanish presence.
Those three groups are part of what contributed to our looks,
our music, our foods and also our deepest beliefs.
RICHIE
PEREZ
Once we started to understand that, why we had so many different
colors in our families, facial characteristics, hair textures
and came to peace with ourselves, and said, yo, that's
who we are, we're a multi-racial people.
NARRATOR/Patria
Rodriguez
The struggle for identity dates back to the 1800s when the
colony of Puerto Rico fought for independence from Spain.
The revolt in the town of Lares in 1868, is remembered as
the Grito de Lares, and the flag is a symbol of the independence
struggle.
But
Puerto Rico remained a Spanish colony until 1898. Using the
sinking of the U.S. battleship Maine as a pretext, the United
States embarked on a war against Spain.
ANA
CELIA ZENTELLA
Spain
itself wasn't invaded, but the Americans landed in Guanica
on the Southern Coast of Puerto Rico on July 25, 1898. Many
of the people were happy to see the Americans because they
thought their situation under Spain had been so terrible.
But many also expected to be free and independent. But the
United States imposed a military regime in Puerto Rico.
RICHIE
PEREZ
The United States takes the island as a prize of war, and then
moves to transform the economy of the island in favor of the
American corporations who want to use the land. In order
to use the land, they've got to rip it off from the Puerto
Rican people who live on the land as subsistence farmers.
ANA
CELIA ZENTELLA
The
economic situation in Puerto Rico got worse and worse the longer
the Americans stayed there. The crisis of the 1930s was a worldwide
economic crisis. Things were very bad in the United States,
in Puerto Rico they were much worse. People were earning six
cents an hour, many people had bad nutrition, were poorly housed,
very poor school system.
So
lots of Puerto Ricans came to the United States desperate
to change their situation, and, between the ten year period
after World War II between 1948 and 1958, some 53,000 Puerto
Ricans a year left the island of Puerto Rico and came mainly
to New York City. The oppressive social reality was the
basis for the political revolt that would follow.
