The best thing about the folks of San Juan, Puerto Rico is their accent: a lot
of them sound like me. That is, they've got a New York accent. That changes
everything. In fact, Puerto Rico is practically unique across the Caribbean
for being an American territory with strong American connections but a culture
and history rooted in the Spanish empire as well, and an island that reflects
both.
Miguel took us across town in late morning. "Any earlier and the traffic
will kill you," he explained. "It's bad and getting worse" We
spent a good deal of time waiting to cross intersections anyway, gazing out at
architecture that looked kind of like South Florida, but – amazingly
– cleaner and better kept. But it was clear the island is struggling, ad
we read it in the papers too: to call Puerto Rico's current situation as a
'slump' would be an understatement. That would explain the continued
emigration to places like New York, where well over a million Puerto Ricans
join the 3 million that stayed behind. "New York's Puerto Rican community
is famous," Miguel explained, adding, "Know the other big center of
Puerto Rican emigration? Orlando." And then with a smile and a strategic
pause, " That's right: Mickey Mouse eats beans and rice"
That same sense of humor took us around the rest of the city. We popped into
the Congressional building to admire the architecture and to buy a raspado, the
shaved ice treats we know so well from Nicaragua too. Across the street, set
against the gorgeous, azure background of the Caribbean, was the statue of San
Juan (Saint John the Baptist), Puerto Rico's patron saint. "Nice
statue," said Miguel. "But check this out; we drive another bit down
the road, and ... look again!" Saint John's upraised arm took on a
different aspect from this view. "Looks like he's flipping Congress the
bird!" Miguel laughed. "Well, they deserve it!" That New York
accent.
I asked about the question of statehood, given the economy. Miguel shrugged.
"The old people prefer the status quo," he said. "They're not
sure there's anything to gain from statehood, and lots to lose. The young
people, on the other hand, prefer statehood and are tired of second class
status. They don't realize once you become a state you have to start paying
for things you'd been previously getting for free." I pushed, but Miguel
didn't want to commit one way or the other. Times were tight and there were no
obvious solutions: the situation of most countries I've visited or lived in
over the past twenty years. "You see, we're halfway in between,"
Miguel said. "Take units of measure. Back in the 70s the USA decided
they were going to move to the metric system. So we did too. Then the USA
gave up. But nobody frikkin told us! Now we're a mess:
We measure distance in miles but height in meters; we take our body
temperatures in Fahrenheit but measure the air temperature in Celcius. We buy
flour by the pound but cement by the kilo, and we buy milk by the liter but gas
by the gallon. Now what? Anywhere else, it would've sounded like a complaint.
In San Juan, it comes across with a sense of mirth, or as we say in New York,
"so waddayagonna do?"
