Down The "Rabbit Hole" We Call The Internet

I'll be the first to admit that I spend an unhealthy amount of time on the Internet. I'm addicted to it. Sometimes I'm productive: I look for scholarships and internships and I do homework online. But sometimes (well, most of the times), I simply watch movies and use Facebook. 

So when our English professor said we had to do online research regarding Puerto Rico, I was excited but also curious at how this was going to work. As it turns out, we had to work in groups in order to dive into the World Wide Web and find out what people were saying about Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans. 

This sparked a sort of internal journey for me. Here in Puerto Rico, we love to poke fun at ourselves, and sometimes we even go as far as to heavily criticize our nation.  Throughout my life, I'd been told a million different things about how other people viewed our island. "Other Latin Americans laugh at the way we speak!". "Americans are always so ignorant and racist!". "Spanish people hate our usage of Spanglish!" A couple of weeks ago I found myself thinking: how much of this is actually true? And how does it affect me and the view I have of myself as a Puerto Rican?

I did tons of online research with my group and ended up with an overwhelming amount of information. We analyzed and condensed it all into one presentation:

We presented our findings in a English conference, specifically during a panel titled "Perspectives of Puerto Rico: A Journey Through Cyberspace." One would think that I would've been less nervous than normal, considering that before this panel I had already spoken publicly and alone. This time, I would be working in a group. Easy, right?

However, this panel seemed to spark more controversy than the previous one. The identity essays lead to friendly discussions and various people sharing their opinions on themes like home and globalization. While we were presenting our online research, in contrast, one professor argued that we Puerto Ricans are hypocrites: that we live in denial about our situations and then "whine" or "complain" when someone else points out our flaws.

The presentation rant late, and we were unable to hold a Q&A portion after all of the presentations. It was a real shame, since I would have enjoyed talking about that particular subject with that professor, as well as my fellow classmates.

I guess I want to use this post as a way to express what I never got a chance to say. 

I disagree with what the professor was trying to say, although I do understand where she was coming from. Puerto Rico is not perfect. We call our land the Island of Enchantment. We take our pride wherever we go. We love talking about Puerto Rico to other people and trying to convince them to visit us. 

But I wouldn't go as far as to call ourselves hypocrites because of this. Yes, a lot of times we can manage to be surprisingly optimistic about our surroundings. But make no mistake: we Puerto Ricans know how and when to criticize, too. Nowadays, not a single week goes by when I don't hear my friends or my family members discuss politics and the economy. Think about it. We are constantly complaining about all the small and big things that are wrong, and what we do to fix them.

A open letter to that professor: In the end, as we had already mentioned in our presentation, it doesn't come down to what is said regarding Puerto Rico, as much as how it is said.

Americans talk about Puerto Rico and, in a lot of cases, have no idea what the historical, social, cultural, and political context of what they are saying. There remarks have xenophobic, racist, and classist undertones, as we saw in "Taki Mag".

Boricuas complain about the island in the same way we complain about a sibling, a family member or a friend: We know they're not perfect, but we wouldn't trade them for anything in the world.