One Puerto Rican’s quest for statehood leads to a racial awakening

Kemuel Delgado rolls his eyes as he drives down a highway and sees a sculpture featuring Christopher Columbus, called “Birth of the New World, ” looming over the Atlantic coastline. It stands taller than the Statue of Liberty. This tribute to the explorer who landed in Puerto Rico in 1493 is just another reminder of how Delgado’s people endured 400 years of Spanish rule before the U. S. took control in 1898, treating islanders as colonial subjects in its own way.“As someone who has lived colonialism, ” says Delgado, 23, “I’ve never known freedom. ”Though granted U. citizenship in 1917, Puerto Ricans who reside in the island territory aren’t allowed to cast ballots for president, and they’re denied voting representatives in the U. House and Senate. Delgado says it’s hard to live with the humiliation of having “one foot in and one foot out” of your own country. In that sense, he feels a kinship with the millions of activists and other citizens across the U. who since George Floyd’s murder in 2020 have sparked a national conversation about the different ways Americans of color are made to feel that they’re undeserving of respect. He and many others in his territory hope that even with a host of other priorities competing for attention in Washington, sympathetic Democrats who now control the White House and Congress will finally show them that they truly belong by allowing Puerto Rico to become a state.“In a democracy that preaches justice and freedom for all, ” Delgado says, “why should I have to ask for something that is my birthright? ”And yet, even as Delgado yearns for statehood, he’s begun to reexamine his own identity as a Puerto Rican and to reflect on the ways that racism and inequality in the territory mirror the divisions he sees on the mainland. The island’s former glory as a vital transit point for captive Africans flowing into the Americas — and for gold and silver flowing back to Europe — is evident from the moment the cannon towers and hulking ramparts of Old San Juan come into view on the descent into the city’s airport. Imposing walls encircling the old town took 200 years to build, mostly using the forced labor of slaves. By a clifftop lighthouse, children now fly kites in the trade winds that once ushered in ships loaded with human cargo. While shopping recently in a store in Old San Juan, Delgado came across a yellowing newspaper with frayed edges that helped him connect Puerto Rico’s struggles to the broader movement for racial justice. It’s a copy of a pro-independence publication from the 1960s, filled with articles lashing out at attempts by lawmakers at home and in Washington to prevent Puerto Ricans from flying the island’s flag or determining their own future. Delgado unfolds the paper to reveal the front-page headline that had caught his attention, printed in big, bold type: “PUERTO RICO: TERRITORIO ESCLAVO DE AMERICA. ”Puerto Rico: America’s slave territory. Delgado is slender, soft-spoken and exceedingly polite. All data is taken from the source: http://latimes.com Article Link: https://www.latimes.com/politics/stor... #delgado #newscast #kingworldnews #newstodayupdate #newsworldfox #cnnnewstoday #