Puerto Ricans as a Subordinate Group in America

We were walking to church when mam told us to pray for a man named Harry Truman, el presidente de los Estados Unidos. He is going to let us finally become our knowledge country, mam explained. I had heard those stories before. Abuela liked to tell stories near how Puerto Rico had never been free. She verbalise that first Christopher capital of Ohio had come to the island and he had helped Spain to conquer los Tainos. Abuela always communicate about the great injustices Columbus and Spain had through to los Tainos she said her mother was a direct descendent of those early Puerto Ricans, which made us reference native Taino.Mam detest those stories. Her parents had come to Puerto Rico from Spain Puerto Rico was her home and she was always upset by the idea that her earliest ancestors major power become enslaved my fathers ancestors. She said to let the past stay in the past.At church, I prayed for Mr. Truman because my mother said to. I prayed for him because he was going to ma ke up for all the mistakes the Spanish had done to the country all those years ago. He was going to make us free again. Mam said that Mr. Truman was como un savior.We watch newspaper articles about the drafting of the new authorship. We were our own country, but we were non. We were part of the United States, while politic being Puerto Rico. We were protected, even while we were independent. Walking down the street, I could hear people talking about what commonwealth status could mean for Puerto Ricos future. Some were against it, others scene it was the better way. however the constitution did not solve everything stores closed down, houses became decrepit, knocker lost his job.Three years after the Puerto Rican constitution was signed, Pap said we were going to move to America. He had cousins who had gone and had found jobs immediately. He said that more and more people were leaving Puerto Rico for places like New York urban center. I had seen a picture of New York City once. It was beefed the Big Apple. I had never seen builds so tall I had always thought that the people who could call New York City were the luckiest people in the world. And soon, I would be one of them.We left in the midpoint of the dark. The ride was not long and I looked out the airplane window, watching the night sky. We landed in an airport outside(a) of New York and took a taxi in. We drove across a large link I could barely see the water. It looked like another sky with all the buildings and lights reflected in it. And then, we were inside the city. there were people walking around. I heard people talking to Spanish. There were stores with familiar names and aliments advertize in the windows.It was almost as though we had never left home.I couldnt sleep that night I was kept awake by the sound of taxis and car horns and people wawling from one building to the next. Mam tried to sing lullabies to me, the same songs she used to coo when I was a small child, but now , the songs did not induce sleep but kept my eyes more alert. I thought of home. I thought of palm trees. I thought of the ocean. I was afraid I would never see Puerto Rico again.But Puerto Rico came to me.More cousins and aunts and uncles and friends left the island for America. They did not only come to New York. They went to places like Texas, California, New Mexico, and Florida. My best friend, Juana, went to Texas on vacation. She sent me a postcard of a man riding a bull. He spoke Spanish to me, she wrote.After my Ta Felicia moved to Florida, she invited us to visit. I could see the oceans. I could see palm trees. It was warm. It was Puerto Rico in America. Felicia made tostones y arroz y pollo asado. I could have stayed in Florida forever but after two weeks, I was beginning to miss New York. I had grown used to the traffic. I was comfortable in Florida, listening to almost everyone speak Spanish and being able to understand them, but I couldnt help but want to be lynchpin i n the city, where I could walk from my neighborhood to Little Italy to China Town and eat something from every part of the world.Years later, I left New York for New Jersey to go to college. I had children. My economize was a Cuban man his family had moved to Puerto Rico shortly after his birth. We had Cuban and Puerto Rican flags hanging on the outside of our house. When the very first Puerto Rican Day parade was announced, my husband took the Puerto Rican flag down from the front of the house and give it to me. We left early in the morning, with our children. Flags were for sale at the many vendors lined along the street food was also being sold, and little pieces of jewelry with the Puerto Rican flags on them.Boricua, the crowd shouted in concert. I did not shout with them at first. My children stood on their toes to look over the shoulders of the people standing in front of them. They shouted with the crowd. My husband reached out and held my hand. I looked up and down the str eet, shocked by the thousands of Puerto Ricans gathered together. Spanish was mixed with face people danced together, music was being played from loudspeaker. I felt at home.I leaned against my husband together we screamed with the crowd, BoricuaReferencesU.S. Census Bureau American Fact Finder. (2004, April). Percent of People 5 Years andOver Who handle Spanish at Home 2005. Retrieved April 20, 2007 from factfinder.census.gov.U.S. Census Bureau American Fact Finder. (2004, April). Map of Spanish Speakers in theUnited States. Retrieved April 20, 2007 from factfinder.census.gov.CIA World Factbook. Puerto Rico. Retrieved April 20, 2007 from www.cia.gov.