Lamento Borincano, indeed.

So....I'm as Puerto Rican as they get. The flag and all derivations of it can be found plastered across my apartment; I wear a replica of an original Puerto Rican stamp around my neck on a chain; the quotes in my email signature usually relate to the island in some way, shape or form; I rock a P.R. bucket hat and gleaming flag in my back pocket when the parade (and since I'm from NYC you know which one I'm talking about) comes around even though I don't always attend. I'm fiercely nationalistic to say the least.

This being said, I'm not culturally insecure. I don't just wave my flag without knowing anything about my history. I wave it with the full knowledge and understanding of our wack-ass political situation, our internal racism, our classism, our apathy--in other words all of the flaws and fine lines that define who we are. I also know about our abolitionist movement, our origination of several genre's of music, our breathtaking artwork, our unique language, our award winning literature, our resistence against oppression. I know that we are an idealistic "rainbow people" whose culture is a blend of African, Indigenous and European (and I say this because so many of us have European, not necessarily Spanish). I know enough about the good, the bad and the ugly to unconditionally take pride when as I wave my flag.

Well as I sit here and listen to one of my favorite songs "Preciosa" (the Marc Anthony version) because it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, forms a lump in my throat and brings tears to my eyes. The country's unofficial anthem is a gorgeous proclomation of pride, an affirmation of our culture and history. It was written in the late 1930s and speaks to the P.R.'s isolation and struggle with immgration and longing for his homeland.

Them issues sure are older than dirt huh? But back to the regularly scheduled rant...

So I'm listening to the words and it hits me that one of the lines BLATANTLY omits our African heritage. Que, que? One of the stanzas which describes the island's multi-ethnic roots mentions the Spanish and the Indios but not the Africans.

"Y tienes la noble hidalguía de la Madre España. Y el fiero cantío del Indio bravío lo tienes también."
(And you have the noblility of Mother Spain and the savagness of the wild Indian as well).

Granted, it's not all that flattering to the Tainos on the island either, but WTF?!? How do you mention 2 and not the other? A complete omission and avoidance, like always, of our roots. It's also an incomplete portrait of who and what we really are. We, Boricuas/Puerto Ricans/Puerto Rocks/Puerto Riquenos, are a result of this tri-level mixture. Without 1, we are incomplete, not whole. Are we so stuck on color that we can't acknowledge the third root of our beings?

The irony of it all? The author of the song, Rafael Hernandez, was a black Puerto Rican. Someone explain to me how a man who so clearly had African blood running through his veins, negated part of his own heritage? It reminds me that our racism is so deeply rooted and internalized that even the island's black children will not acknowledge the obvious. "Preciosa sera sin bandera, sin laros, ni gloria. Preciosa, preciosa, te llaman los hijos de la libertad." We might be precious and unforgettable, but none of us, La Perla's children, are really free.