Tags
Boricuas, cyberbullying, Displacement, LinManuelMirand, love, PR Miss Universe, PuertoRico, socialmedia, Spanish
Dear readers, I haven’t been following all the drama going on related to the Puerto Rico’s Beauty Pageant because it’s not something I’m interested in. There is much more to worry about than who is “la reina de belleza” of whatever land in my humble opinion. Like why are we still using foam containers and to make it ever worse, IT’S LEGAL!
Now, what caught my interest was all the cyber bullying going on because Miss So and So, made a “fool” of herself trying to speak Spanish. Although what I think added a bit more grievance to it all was the fact that she voiced out something like “obviamente” Spanish is not my L1, can you please repeat? Jesus Christ, did that piss off all the “boricuas”.
Going back a bit, there is a couple of things we “los boricuas” should be worried about right now. First of all, this quite definetely raises a question we should be all asking ourselves, who are we?
Puerto Ricans safely nested in our Island don’t need to worry to much about cultural identity because we’re pretty much set. Instead if you were like me growing up, who happened to live in the States, BUT DID NOT BELONG there, or coming back to Puerto Rico, didn’t belong here either. Having been mainstreamed had caught us up in an identity crisis, can you believe that? To say the least, we were very confuuuuuused.
Now I know that what we suffered was something called displacement. Sometime ago I heard Lin Manuel Miranda talk about the same thing during an interview with our local newspaper. I’m no expert on our beauty pageant queen’s life, to tell you the truth I don’t even know her name, but nothing makes it right to utilize her poor judgment as an excuse to diminish who she is or what she may stand for.
Instead of worrying to much about if Miss So and So knows or does not know how to speak Spanish, we should think about who we are as Puerto Ricans and how we can become a community that welcomes all, even if language barriers come up in the equation. Our “boricua” culture is slowly fading away and a mixology of mainstream and island life is taking its place, let’s celebrate what we are without judgment.
I will be on the lookout to see if Miss So and So brings home once again the Miss Universe crown to see if people will care a bannana if she does or doesns’t speak Spanish at all.
Remember be kind to yourself and everyone who comes your way.
Hasta pronto!
