A confederate flag

Every day I drive the same monotonous ride.
SUV’s and road. Not much to see.

Then, this morning, like hearing a needle scratch a record, I saw a huge confederate flag flying on the side of the road.

When I mean huge, I mean f#$^ing huge!

As big as a bus!

It felt uncomfortable as if this was being imposed on me. Then again, so do the bill board ads advertising needle less and painless vasectomies. (I’m still wondering what Star Trek technology they used for this.)

The non profit group responsible for this flag says that it is part of a memorial to educate people about the civil war.

Maybe. Even though the place where the flag is being flown is not a civil war site.

I don’t see this flag as a sign of oppression either.

The confederate flag looked cool on the General Lee driven by the dukes of hazard. I still want that car! Some ignorant people used the confederate flag as a symbol of intolerance when in reality it represents a unifying symbol of a people (southerners) who disagreed with their government so strongly that they took arms and fought. That is to be respected. Lets not get into the slavery thing either…the south was for it everyone knows that, but the north although more tolerant was not too happy with having black people come over either. Slavery was not the primary reason for the civil war. Check your history.

Then again, there are thousands of Toyota Corollas running around Tampa with Puerto Rican flags “educating” people about the Puerto Rican status. As you can see the waiving of a flag doesn’t really bother me. Puerto Ricans have placed the Puerto Rican flag on every single object imaginable to man. The highlight for me was last year when during the Christmas season I went to the flea market and found nativity themed napkins with, you guessed it, a big Puerto Rican flag in the background. I didn’t know that Maria, Jose, Jesus, the wise men and even the animals were Puerto Rican. The only three items that I haven’t seen the Puerto Rican flag on are: condoms, tampons and toilet paper. I’m sure there is a loco thinking about placing the PR flag on one of these items right now.

However, there is a strong similarity between the confederate flag I mentioned and those Puerto Rican flags.

They are made in China.

The Primary en Puerto Rico

To think that the results of the Puerto Rican democratic primary are a reflection of the same processes that happen in the mainland and representative of the US latino vote is simply naïve.

a pendejismo.

Let me put it this way…

The vast majority of politicians in Puerto Rico come from well to do families and more than often are individuals (men) who enter the political arena out of a desire for power and prestige. True there are few who have ethics and think of governmental work as a priviledge or even a calling to serve el pueblo and la gente (the people). However, the vast majority don't. Puerto Rican political party identification is something that is very strong in Puerto Rican culture and would scare the average US mainland citizen. Its vocal, its rough its hardcore. This behaviors and views are passed on from generation to generation. Those in the population who are not very well educated or up to date in the issues are easily persuaded and manipulated.

Of 4+ million people living in the island only about 350,000 people voted on the primary and regardless of those votes, the delegates had made up their minds before the ballots were counted because for many of those delegates there are loyalties and connections that they could not walk away from. The “popular vote” is to give the appearance of an organized democratic process. The Obama campaign knew what was going on and lacked the connections that the Clinton campaign had. This gets lost and diluted on all the excitement of results.

The average person sees both candidates as politicians that come to the island, do their dog and pony show and then leave (oh, and they do raise money there too!) Puerto Rico, its status, its people and its economic reality is not really a worry. Why should they since Puerto Ricans themselves can figure out their own status.

Here is something to think about: In Puerto Rico there is not a single black politician in office. There are women in office, but no blacks. Its as if we bypassed the conversation of race altogether. I don’t remember, ever, having seen or heard of one black politician. Why would Puerto Ricans support a black candidate when they themselves have not done this at a local level? hmmm.

Unfortunately, these are cosas that we are not supposed to talk about.

Shhhhh!