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| Offensive photo on Page 8 of The New York Daily News |
“Yo soy Boricua, pa’que tú lo sepas,” (I am a Puerto Rican, so you
know it) seems to be the eternal chant of Puerto Ricans everywhere. And
year after year, that’s exactly what thousands of voluptuous Boricua
women sing while moving their buttocks in cadence with the upbeat
rhythms of ‘reggaeton,’ and salsa that mark the never-ending,
procession-like march down the Fifth Avenue in New York City known as
the National Puerto Rican Day Parade.
Women dressed in second-skin clothing adorned with the red, white and
blue colors of the single-star banner, or traditional “jíbaro”
costumes, wave small flags while wearing little crowns or baseball caps
and wave to the crowds as they dance on top of the floats sponsored by
such companies as Goya Foods, and Coors Light, is another hallmark of
the parade, something that for many symbolizes Puerto Rican heritage.
For others, the parade is a chance to be on TV or close to famous
Puerto Ricans including Benicio Del Toro, Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin
and Marc Antony. Politicians of Puerto Rican descent from both the island
and the mainland also attend as a means or remaining connected to the
community in a nationally broadcasted platform.
But, as has happened in the past, there has been controversy leading
up to the often
beleaguered Puerto Rican Day Parade, but instead of the
allegations of embezzlement or fraud that were alleged two years ago
and led to the dismissal of the board of directors by the Attorney
General, this controversy is about how one of the parade’s media
sponsors portrayed the event’s participants and the outrage and
humiliation that it’s garnered.
The controversy started when the New York Daily News‘ ran a
Page-eight photo featuring two topless, g-string-wearing women with “Puerto
Rico” and “Boricua” written on their buttocks in body paint with a
cutline of “Rear view of the parade”. While this picture was associated
with the June 14 parade by the Daily News, it turned out that the picture wasn’t even taken at the event.
So obviously, the community got pissed. There were massive protests
outside of the paper’s headquarters; complaints were quickly made public
in the New York Hispanic media — especially on radio and television —
and the hashtag #BastaYa (Enough) was promoted on social media.
Community leaders, elected officials and the board of directors of
the parade demanded a public apology on the newspaper’s front page, but
the paper did not comply.
It was not the first time that the New York Daily News has
published images or comments that have been offensive to the Puerto
Rican community without issuing an apology. In 2014, they published a
humiliating cartoon that promoted negative stereotypes.
In this case, Puerto Ricans were offended not only for the
newspaper’s intention to downplay the political and cultural importance
of the parade for the community, but also by the fact that the models
they used in the photo were not themselves Puerto Rican. According
National Puerto Rican Day Parade chairperson of the parade, Lorraine
Cortes-Vazquez, the Daily News admitted that the picture was
taken in Times Square, and the women were two strippers – Colombian Gaby
Santos, 26, and Venezuelan Diana Pena, 22, who pose topless for tips.
After a week of protests and controversy, the New York Daily News published an apology in
an editorial on its website June 20, where it admitted it was a mistake
to publish the image. As a result, the board decided to end it’s
25-year-long relationship with the paper.
“We recognize that everyone makes mistakes, and work with partners
who have the strength of character to recognize and correct;
particularly when such errors are harmful to families and communities,”
parade organizers said. “Because the Daily News has chosen to do otherwise, we will not associate us with the newspaper, now and in the future.”
Was it an overreaction?
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| 2015 Parade |
But did parade organizers overreact? Who says that Puerto Ricans
can’t be carnal and sensual? After all, Iris Chacon’s curves ruled the
Latin world in the 1980s when she was “La Vedette de América”
(“America’s Showgirl”), dancing and singing while wearing a g-strings
and feathers. Jennifer Lopez, undoubtedly one of the most recognized
entertainers in the world, has been compared to Chacon.
But the exploitation of the female body was not the problem. The
issue that angered Puerto Rican communities was the fact that the New York Daily News
chose to display this image of bare rear ends that were not even in the
parade to lead its coverage of an event that has struggled to improve
itself over the years.
This year in particular, the parade featured Academy-Award winner
Rita Moreno as grand marshal, and organizers tried to turn away from the
commercialism to focus on community-based organizations.
The National Puerto Rican Day Parade is more than just a march. It’s
one of the largest events of its type nationwide. Which is why
organizers were so angry with what the Daily News did.
“Journalism has the power to affect and touch many people’s lives.
When false information is published and left un-rectified, others, who
are not aware that the reporting was inaccurate, perceive misleading and
erroneous news reporting as `truth.’ The New York Daily News
editorial team’s irresponsible actions, which can be deemed as yellow
journalism, are damaging to our communities and to our Parade,”
Cortés-Vázquez said in a letter to the CEO of the New York Daily News.
Yet the lingering problem here is the true meaning of self. It’s what
is and what is not a Puerto Rican, the images and stereotypes that the
community projects of themselves, the misrepresentation and the often
implicit — and sometimes explicit — racism in mainstream media toward
Latinos, as it appears to have happened in this case.
So for all those reasons the community agreed that the newspaper did
not report the story truthfully, used a derogatory and disproportionate
photo caption, and in other ways practiced bad journalism in this case.
But even if there was a clear intention to belittle the event, and
even if those women in the pictures do not represent the culture, it is
no less true that for a significant number of Puerto Ricans, this was a
non-issue. On the Island, the story was only touched on briefly and had
no impact.
The natives and the diaspora
It could be argued that the controversy didn’t matter for many
Boricuas because of the differences between those who live on the Island
and those in the diaspora.
There are more Puerto Ricans living around the world than in their
native country. Of the almost 8.5 million Boricuas, about 3 million live
on the island. And since immigration to the mainland increases every
year, it appears that these numbers will not change, according to a Pew
Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.
On the island, Puerto Ricans living in the diaspora are seen as a
convenience. When the local government needs to push its political
agenda, they remember the congressmen of Puerto Rican origin such as
Democrats Luis Gutierrez, Jose Serrano, Nydia Velazquez or Republican
Raul Labrador. When islanders wanted to showcase the struggle for the
release of political prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera, to whom the 2014
National Puerto Rican Day Parade was dedicated, they go to those on the
mainland.
Or perhaps the Nuyoricans are remembered because of their ties to
local politicians such as the friendship between New York City Speaker
Melissa Mark Viverito and San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz. At the end
of the day, there are clear distinctions between the island and the
diaspora, particularly with the the Nuyoricans.
“The image of Nuyoricans as immoral, violent, dirty, lazy,
welfare-dependent, drug-addicted felons was not restricted to the United
States; to this day, both countries produce media images that depict
stateside Puerto Ricans as overwhelmingly engaged in some type of
objectionable behavior,” stated Miriam Jiménez Román in her essay,
“Boricuas vs. Nuyoricans—Indeed!,” published by Harvard University.
As the anthropologist and historian Jorge Duany states in his book The Puerto Rican Nation on the Move: Identities on the Island and in the United States,
several studies have found that Island-born Puerto Ricans perceive
Nuyoricans as a different group, and Nuyoricans also tend to view
themselves distinctly from both Island-born Puerto Ricans and Americans.
They tend to share solidarity with African-Americans, whereas most
islanders deny and try to hide their African ancestry.
Most islanders tend to see themselves as a nation, whereas mainland
Puerto Ricans see themselves as a minority and an ethnic group in the
United States, something that illustrates some of the larger differences
between the two groups, according to Karina Borja-Freitag in Puerto Rican Identity: Differences between Island and Mainland Puerto Ricans.
As a result of those differences, many Puerto Ricans on both sides
chose to ignore the parade, claiming it does not represent the true
meaning of the culture. Part of the confusion comes from the very origin
of the political relationship between the Island and the mainland.
Puerto Rico is unique in that it is an autonomous Commonwealth of the
United States and all Puerto Ricans are considered American citizens at
birth. But there are crucial differences between those on the island
and on the mainland. Islanders have their own constitution and elect
their own bicameral legislature and governor, but are subject to U.S
executive authority and cannot vote for the President. Thus, what they
have in terms of United States citizenship is considered second class.
The various and seemingly contradictory differences in Puerto Rican
cultural identity are marked by how Puerto Ricans define themselves. And
the reasons for the different definitions are a direct result of
continuous assaults on Puerto Rican identity and character, said Nelson
Denis, author of the book War Against All Puerto Ricans. “The U.S. has twisted and steamrolled the Puerto Rican character for over 100 years,” he said.
But the truth is that the defense, preservation and struggle to
maintain the cultural and political heritage of the collective comes
from a historical defense and social advocacy from the diaspora. And any
attack on a Boricua anywhere, affects all.
As one the most recognized writers on the island, Luis Rafael Sánchez
says in his book “La importancia de llamarse Daniel Santos”(The
importance of being called Daniel Santos), “I left Puerto Rico, but
Puerto Rico has not left me. Is this another syndrome of the
colonized?…The song of my country seizes me.”
NOTE: This column was originally published on June 26, 2015 by All Digitocracy. http://alldigitocracy.org/yo-soy-boricua-paque-tu-lo-sepas/
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