Buenas buenas mis amores! It’s your friendly thirsty neighbor, Vico!
I am a few days away from doing my very first University Speaker presentation, which feels very much like a solo show!! There’s just less ‘cue-to-cue’ lights/music and more ‘press “next” on the pdf presentation’ hehe.
As I get ready, I wanna share and expand some of the stories and observations I’ll be doing for the presentation.
It’s important to note that I am Puerto Rican, born and raised and I’m also known as ‘Boricua’. My first language is Spanish (with some sprinkles of English and Taino words).
It is also important to note that the reason why Spanish is my first language it’s because Spain was the first colonizer in the island. Before Spain colonized Puerto Rico in the late 1400’s, the island was called Borikén by the Taino people, the natives who rightfully called the island their home. Since Spain’s colonization of the island, Spanish became the main language (among other things), however, a lot of words we use today (yesss even in English!) come directly from the Taino people.
Hamaca = Hammock
Barbacoa = BBQ/Barbecue
Huracán = Hurricane
Iguana = Lizard
Guava = yes, Guava that delicious fruit!
and of course, Boricua. The Taino people who grew up in Borikén.
Knowing that the word ‘Boricua’ has survived hundreds of years through mass colonization, ethnic cleansing, genocide and that folks still resonate with it as an identifier of either being born in the island or as descendant from someone who did, gives me chills to say the least.
When I hear “Yo soy Boricua! Pa’ que tu lo sepa!” meaning “I am Boricua! So you better know it!” I say it loud and I say it proud.
It’s a call and repeat to the ancestors that live and breathe through us. It’s an invitation to remember who we were before language accompanied with indoctrinations were forced upon us.
Fast forward almost 500yrs and the “United” States of America colonizes us in the late 1800’s. Since then they’ve tried to force English as the main language and erase our culture, along side a bunch of other colonial rules and policies.
Side note: After going to the Vancouver Museum and learning about the European colonization of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tlesil-Waututh, it feels similar to what the US colonization of Puerto Rico has felt like for many of us, mostly because it has been fairly recent. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough about the Spanish colonization from the perspective of the Taino people and while there still isn’t a lot from the perspective of Puerto Ricans with the colonization of the US (media coverage in the early 1900s until almost the 1980’s mostly painted us as terrorists), there’s more and more information now about the history of Boricuas all over the world from our own perspective. I digress tho… there’s so much here I can dive into but lemme re-focus to language!
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