I attended the Young Lords 50th Anniversary conference in Chicago and man was I in awe at
the amount of information, legendary presence, and historical legacies I was absorbing. The keynote address alone, a conversation between Oscar López Rivera, a former political prisoner and adamant advocate for Puerto Rican independence, and Jose "Cha Cha" Jímenez, the founder of the Young Lords Organization, was enough to make me feel like this (see photo on left). Elaine Brown, former Captain of the Black Panther Party (BPP), Aaron Dixon, former Captain of the Seattle Chapter of the BPP, several of the original members of the Young Lords Organization (YLO) Central Committee, Hy Thurman, co-founder of the Young Patriots Organization, and many other legends were in attendance.
The keynote was especially interesting. During the Q&A portion of the keynote I asked, "In what ways did the Young Lords take indigineity and indigenous populations into consideration for the revolution? When the Young Lords branched into Puerto Rico, did they engage with the preservation of Taínxs?"
Aside from the fact that this question was coupled with one about rural solidarity, that the responses didn't exactly respond to my question, and that Elaine Brown made a comment the next day about Taínxs being extinct, Oscar made an interesting point that I had not thought about previously. He said this:
"When I was in prison, I would ask Puerto Ricans who were visiting if they have ever been in a Native American reservation. By having a historical appreciation of how the U.S. government, what it has done to the Native American population, and we can witness it better in the reservations... because we need to look, to have an appreciation, of what happens to a people who's land, culture, language, and their way of life is taken away from them, that is constantly being denied even to this day. If I were to go to the Navajo reservation right now I would see how the US government has done to the Native Americans and what it has done to Puerto Rico. We can look, as a Native people, [at] the reality that we are facing in Puerto Rico right now, which is [that] we are being replaced."
This connection of the erasure of indigenous populations and its resonance with the colonial and genocidal situation in Puerto Rico had never occurred to me. What is happening in Puerto Rico is the same recycled methods of destroying a people that has been reproduced for centuries. For Puerto Rico it has been especially repetitive. The San Narciso hurricane in October of 1867 had the same disastrous effects and negligent response from the Spanish empire as Hurricane Maria. The difference however is that a year later El Grito de Lares, the first anti-colonial revolt in Puerto Rico for independence, erupted. In my opinion, the colonial process of creating a Puerto Rican diaspora provides the disconnect to the island that doesn't allow for another Grito to happen just yet.
But what remains of Puerto Rico is in danger of the same fate that Native populations have been facing: relocation, having their land stolen and commodified, and (more severe) political voicelessness. Cha Cha said that, "We cannot make a revolution without the [indigenous] people. That's one of the reason that we want to organize our community, and that takes time. The revolution is a job." The connection that Puerto Rican folks, both on the island and in the diaspora, can make with the indigenous populations of the Americas are vital to the strengthening of the battle for revolution, especially if we can make such a remarkably similar contention of our histories and contemporary situation.
My question also sparked dialogue about what it means for Puerto Ricans to claim indigeneity. From what I understand, Puerto Rico, as a nation, is the source of identity that Puerto Ricans identify with. On several occasions Cha Cha explained that we need to protect our Puerto Rican nation. Yet, when we sing, "Que Bonita Bandera," it isn't meant to glorify economic interest or tyrannical government policies but to highlight how that flag represents a colonized people and a bloody history of repression. Puerto Ricans rally around the blood sweat and tears it takes to passionately embrace our Boricua lineage. Ever since 1493 Puerto Ricans have experienced an onslaught of genocide, repression, cultural erasure, emigration, gendered violence, democratic disengagement, racism, the list goes on. We identify with the Taínxs of pre-colonial times, the Jíbaro warriors of the 1860's and our many political prisoners. In response to my question Cha Cha proclaimed that, "Todos somos Jíbaros," not to romanticize the wielding machetes and harvesting sugar cane; its because Jíbaros provide the perfect imagery of Boricua resilience.
So maybe, by way of not only understanding but also being vehemently opposed to the centuries of oppression we Puerto Ricans have faced, we lay claim to a political form of "indigeneity" that aligns with historical cognizance. Here I am making connections to Mexican-Americans and the Chicanismx. This version of political identity is embodied in the recognition of lost time, land, identity, and ancestors. Understanding this as a method of coalition building is imperative if we are to oppose our coerced forms of lateral violence and build genuine solidarity.
