A couple of weeks ago, many Americans were surprised to turn on the news and learn that protests had seemingly suddenly erupted on the island of Puerto Rico demanding the resignation of the governor. This went on for several days until the governor relented and stepped down and then the story all but vanished from American airwaves. Of course this wasn’t actually the beginning of the story… or the end. It’s just that the United States (and by extension much of the rest of the world) often seems to care little if anything about an island that many of its citizens don’t even realize is part of the country. Well, this week we want to fix that. Katya and Hannah are joined by Caribbean history scholar, Tony Rossodivito to discuss the history of Puerto Rico, its politics and culture, why it’s not a state, government corruption, the United States history of colonialism and empire, where this protest came from and why it is important to the rest of the nation and the world at large. Join us for what we hope is a very informative episode and let us know your thoughts!
Citations and Links:
- This episode’s Call for Comments
- The Puerto Rico syllabus
- “Are Puerto Ricans really American citizens?” by Charles R. Venator-Santiago
- Foreign in a Domestic Sense: Puerto Rico, American Expansion, and the Constitution by Christina Duffy Burnett and Burke Marshall,
- Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme
- Follow Hannah on Twitter: @hannahleerogers
- Follow Katya on Instagram: @justthatnerdkid
- Follow us on Twitter: @voxpopcast
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