american conquest divided nation wiseupdt

In the small town square, a mostly Black congregation listens to a Catholic church service delivered in Latin as Irizarry, her teenage daughter and Delgado look on through the open doors.ĭown an alleyway draped with bougainvillea, Irizarry stops at the house of painter and sculptor Samuel Lind, who’s dedicated his career to capturing the daily lives, struggles, beauty and Black cultural pride of Loíza’s residents. Despite the horrors their enslaved ancestors faced, locals believe they’re cradled by nature because of the distinctive location - and watched over by the Lord above. Irizarry strikes a pose at the edge of one of the rivers, opening her arms wide. Loíza sits between two rivers that spill into the sea. The 62-year-old gives us a tour of her city, which was founded in the late 1800s by freed African slaves who migrated to this side of the island from sugar plantations in the west. She says becoming a state would waste valuable resources for an island still climbing back from the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. For the past two years Ive been suffering with it. Modesta Irizarry, a Loíza community leader who’s been helping to distribute food aid during the COVID-19 pandemic, is a mentor to Delgado. in urban dwellers to high-density, sub-divided accommodation. Hi All- Ive been living overseas in China for several years now which has been spent with a a stock H-P pavillion inheritied from a friend who went home. “In a democracy that preaches justice and freedom for all,” Delgado says, “why should I have to ask for something that is my birthright?”Īnd yet, even as Delgado yearns for statehood, he’s begun to reexamine his own identity as a Puerto Rican and to reflect on the ways that racism and inequality in the territory mirror the divisions he sees on the mainland. He and many others in his territory hope that even with a host of other priorities competing for attention in Washington, sympathetic Democrats who now control the White House and Congress will finally show them that they truly belong by allowing Puerto Rico to become a state. This is part of an ongoing series we’re calling “My Country.” Join me as I explore the things that bind us, make sense of the things that tear us apart and search for signs of healing. Now, more than any time in recent history, the nation seems divided over this enduring contradiction as we confront the distance between aspiration and reality. As a Black man in America, I’ve always struggled to embrace a country that promotes the ideals of justice and equality but never fully owns up to its dark history of bigotry, inequality and injustice.

American conquest divided nation wiseupdt