“Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner in Congress Jenniffer González yesterday resorted to attacking Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez by referring to her as a ‘so-called Puerto Rican’ who doesn’t have the right to challenge the anti-democratic Puerto Rico Status Act (H.R. 8393).
“As someone who has supported white supremacists and election deniers, we understand that Commissioner González would feel threatened by any attempts to bring transparency, fairness and inclusion to an issue as monumental as the decolonization of Puerto Rico. We also clearly see the classic divide playbook she is applying by trying to question Ocasio-Cortez’s Puerto Ricanness and delegitimize her standing on Puerto Rico issues. It’s cynical, low, hypocritical, and we –as a united transnational community and Caribbean nation– loudly reject it.
“Since the 1800s, the Puerto Rican diaspora has worked in support of our homeland from which U.S. colonialism exported us. We’ve stood for the Puerto Rican flag and our national identity when it was gagged on the archipelago of Puerto Rico, and we were arrested en masse for protesting the U.S. Navy’s bombing of Vieques. No one gets to determine the Puerto Ricanness of the daughters and sons of Borikén, especially someone who has actively endorsed and supported white supremacist leaders here and in the Island.”
Boricuas Unidos en la Diáspora
Carmen Yulín Cruz Soto, former Mayor of San Juan
Carlos Cardona, leader and advocate, New Hampshire
CASA
Florida Immigrant Coalition
Melissa Mark-Viverito, former Speaker, New York City Council
New York City Council Member Alexa Avilés
New York City Council Member Tiffany Cabán
Open Society Policy Center
Power 4 Puerto Rico Coalition
Puerto Rican Cultural Center
Representative Elect Maria Isa Pérez-Vega
State Senator Adam Gómez, Massachusetts
State Senator Gustavo Rivera, New York
VAMOS, Puerto Rico