Cross-Posted at VivirLatino
A poet friend of mine invited me to join a Facebook Group called , "AMERICA" is not U.S.A. AMERICA is the name for a whole continent". This US-centrism has been a peeve of mine for at least ten years now, specifically from when I lived in Chile and found myself in the very difficult position of defending my Latina/Puerto Rican identity (Yes, Kai I'm talking about being Rican again, sigh).
Now the idea of who is "America" comes up again against the context of The Summit of the Americas, which started yesterday in Trinidad. Love him or hate him, President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua raised a good point at the start of the Summit, saying:
“It is not of the Americas , because Cuba is missing, Puerto Rico is missing,”
So how can you have a Summit of the Americas without two nations facing important challenges rooted in colonialism?
Easy, you let the colonial power set the agenda.
Yes, I know I come off as sounding a little like Fidel Castro or Hugo Chavez here (by the way President Obama will not be meeting with President Chavez during the Summit). Pero love them or hate them, they too have a point.
It is no accident that President Obama made an announcement about changing certain travel and remittance regulations for Cuban-Americans before the Summit of the Americas. It is no accident that Ortega's comments were met with an announcement in Puerto Rico.
There was no immediate direct response from Washington to Ortega’s words, but the Resident Commissioner, Pedro Pierluisi, said that although the case of Puerto Rico is not on the agenda of the hemispheric meeting, any of the presidents could raise it, and “if our topic comes up, I will deal with it.” Pierluisi, who is part of a delegation of members of Congress who will accompany President Obama, also announced that in the middle of next month he will file in Washington the project to convene a process to resolve the political situation of Puerto Rico.
And what if Puerto Ricans themselves want to raise their nearly 111 year colonial status? They are arrested. A delegation of Puerto Rican activists, including Tito Kayak, were detained, had their materials on the colonial status of Puerto Rico confiscated, and were deported from Trinidad where they planned to attend the Fourth Peoples’ Summit happening at the same time as the Presidents' Summit. When their plane arrive in Puerto Rico following the deportation Homeland Security further detained the group, in a continuation of U.S. harassment of independence advocates in Puerto Rico.
President Obama has said that he would like to resolve Puerto Rico's staus issue. He also says that he wants to deal with immigration reform and yet, actions on his part have been reserved, to put it gently. While he treads lightly, inside the U.S., including the colonial border of Puerto Rico, people live in the shadows of the privilege of U.S. citizenship.
6 comments:
Hola La Mala:
A couple of thoughts: I thought that Cuba has maintained that it does not want to be part of the OAS (the Summit organizing body) since it was suspended in the 1960's -- and I don't think this has changed this year. And as for Puerto Rico, I understand that the vast majority of residents prefer US statehood (not independence). If that is the case, then they would not get a separate invitation to the OAS or related summits.
Aide from representation, as a gringo that has been corrected when saying that I am "americano" (a term I have no partiality to), I think what underlies the terminology gripe is more a peevishness at American exceptionalism -- an understandable issue, to be sure -- but counfouding that with terminology gripes tends to get tired quickly, in my humble opinion -- there are millions of innocent enough misnomers out there -- and I think most average Latin Americans are just as likely to refer to the US as "America" as us gringoes are.
Well, a couple of points.
Cuba is a dictatorship, therefore automatically excluded from a meeting of elected democracies. And, yeah, I know the US has been more than happy to support Latin American dictators in the past, so the US's position here is highly hypocritical. But that doesn't make the exclusion of dictators a bad idea on the face of it.
I have no trouble calling the USA "America", for two reasons. First, it's what the "A" in USA stands for. Second, no other country in the Western hemisphere has "America" as part of its name. If they cared so much about being called "Americans" this wouldn't be the case. So, really, can't we take about an issue that really matters?
As for Puerto Rico - Well, if the three people left on the island want to declare independence, I say let them.
Its the United States OF America.
America is a Continent.
The people in the US are no more "American" than those in Argentina.
Its kind of like "Semite". Although Jewish people have hoarded the term, Arabs among the other ME peoples are also Semites.
Its what happens when one group becomes so vain as to take for themselves what belongs to quite a few others.
BTW, Raul Castro was elected in 2008, not appointed.
Ricans should vote on whether to become a State or an independent country.
If PR becomes a State, at least it will have reps in Congress and gain full Constitutional rights.
JMB:
Wow! I see you've really drunk the Kool-Aid!
Just because "America" is also the name of a continent, doesn't mean it can't also be the name of a country, which it also happens to be! Moreover, Americans aren't doing anything to prevent, say, Paraguayans, from calling themselves "Americans". The whole premise of your criticism is false, therefore. Also, what should we call ourselves if not AMericans? Unitedstatesofamericanians? Ha ha ha.
As for Raul Castro: He was not freely elected in a democratic election. Elections in Cuba are about as free as they are in North Korea. Give me a break.
I'll be happy the day the OAS is gone. So far it has been the instrument for the U.S. to keep control of a region it sees as its backyard. It's so internalized its politicians still use the colonialist language (seeing nothing wrong with it) when referring to the rest of the Americas.
Also notice most of the posts here: the way they deal with US-LA relations is similar to the guys at CFR: namely, how do 'we' keep 'them' in our orbit? I'll give you a hint: respect their governments and don't try to order them around and you'll go a long way towards develop friendly relations. Also, all that talk about democracy and human rights coming from a country that has worked many times to suppress human rights in the region sounds hypocritical.
Pepito
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