by Loaiza Rivera – New York City
I went because I wanted to see and feel for myself the vibe and
frequency of my people. Unlike other marches that took place today, this unity march allowed and actually welcomed me and
the flag I chose to carry. A special thank you to the people of Los Sures,
Brooklyn who sponsored the bus I travelled on and who asked me to be front and
center in our group photo when they saw me raise my black flag of resistance.
Yes, it is true that we have so much work to do in
order to decolonize our island, our people, and our minds. As an old friend
used to say, "We need to change the FREQUENCY of our people". This
unity march was the perfect opportunity for that. The energy was ripe for those
of a nacionalista mentality like myself to change the dialogue that took place.
But the opportunity was lost because the biggest
challenge our people face IS unity! Yes, the Hispanic federation and the
Hamilton foundation are not of a nacionalista mentality from what I can tell
but at THIS march, there were MANY viewpoints expressed throughout the entire
march including both stages. And I am glad to see that the nationalist
perspective was at least one of them. But we could have done so much more to
turn the tide!!!
I
counted 4 other resistance flags - one made of posterboard❤, a fabric one like mine, and one
on a t-shirt; there was also one other black resistance flag flown just like
mines by William
Nogueras - but I know I would have seen 100 more if
people knew "where to get one" as countless people asked me. In
addition to that, you can see many flags with the original blue. So we can't
say that this march was all for statehood, or that it was all vendepatrias - it
wasn't. It was a relatively accurate representation of our Puerto Rican people
- a mixture of people, some lost, some uneducated, many brainwashed, many
colonized, and many whose first time it was marching, protesting, and demonstrating.
But we ALL showed love, passion, and genuine interest for Puerto Rico and our
people which is what really matters.
The question remains, what does it take to unite the
Puerto Rican people? What needs to happen for us to stop acting like crabs in a
bucket? I have been told that twisted story about the Puerto Rican crabs like 3
or 4 times since hurricane Maria which marked the start of when these
newly-inspired "activistas" came out of the woodwork. It mostly goes
like this with variations: there's a fisherman selling crabs in three buckets.
Two of them have lids, one doesn't. Someone asks the fisherman why the first
two buckets have lids but the third bucket has no lid and isn't he worried
they'll escape. The fisherman answers, "The first two are Cuban crabs and
Dominican crabs. But the ones without a lid are Puerto Rican crabs. They will
never escape because as soon as one reaches the top, the rest pull him
down". And this is coming out the mouth of Puerto Ricans at different
events I've attended!
So is that true? Even among my fellow comrades, I see
so much conflict. This inability on a larger scale to accept each other, have
an open dialogue, or give each other the chance to express our different
sentiments on what will happen with our island.
This year's boycott of the plebiscite shows us our
reality: we rather stay home and angry than come out and vote for independence.
Yes, I know that last statement is going to ruffle more than a few feathers,
and yes I am very well aware that our vote means nothing until it's validated
by Congress, but it's the truth. We are spiteful, selfish people, like rats
backed into a corner, like crabs in a bucket, like a people suffering from over
half a millennium of colonialism and occupation...
So again I ask, let's imagine we
are in a bucket, or better yet to make this analogy clearer, we are on a
stranded island, both figuratively and literally, and on this island are all of
the 8+ million Puerto Ricans that make up our extended family. How do we work
together to build a better island? How do we unite for everyone's prosperity,
safety, well-being, abundance, betterment, and health? How do we talk and learn
from each other? How do help each other? How do we overcome the Puerto Rican
condition? How do we build a nation?