You Are the Boricua You Ought to Be
We think that belonging means that we must meet a criteria everyone can agree on, and that usually means practicing a culture in a certain way — from the foods we eat to the references we share to our worldviews and temperament. Belonging often relies on expecting others to meet our tastes and validating them. This expectation is based on a logical fallacy — that any civilization or society is a static object with a clear definition.
As Puerto Ricans, we have always been defined externally, based on the standards of the countries that conquered and shaped us — Spain and the United States. Both countries have more in common than you’d think. We think of these countries as unified entities, but Spain is made up of former independent kingdoms who are regularly arguing for more autonomy and outright independence. While the British colonies that formed the United States were never kingdoms, they acted as independent states, and this struggle between unity and autonomy has been at the heart of conflicts as old as the Civil War and as recent as Texas wanting to secede. These are imaginary countries, held together by philosophies — Calvinist Capitalism for the US, Catholicism for Spain — which supersede any racial, ethnic, or class distinctions.
Spain and the United States, through historical chance, have played the role of dictating to other societies how those people should not only behave, but should see themselves, but how can artificial countries ever dictate real people? Puerto Ricans are not a fiction, and while we are a hybridized culture, that hybrid comes with its own well-defined history, which we continue to shape and modernize. Unlike Spain, there is no Andalusia or Catalonia or País Vasco itching to break free and not be dominated by Madrid. Unlike the US, there is no New England or Midwest or California or Texas which agitates against Washington and defines itself as American in its own nebulous way. Puerto Rico, from Mayagüez to Ponce to San Juan, is a single entity.
Yet that collective nationhood is composed of individuals who come in every shape, size, and color. Who are masters of industry, the arts, engineering, and philosophy. The Puerto Rican family famously contains multitudes. A blonde Boricua with green eyes can have a sister with hazelnut eyes and jet-black hair. We are shy and sweet as often as we are boisterous and intense. Our hybridization of African, Taino, and Spanish cultures speaks to a variety of humanity that is equaled by our expansive tastes, perspectives, and experiences. Like all island nations, we have been visited by travelers from every continent, and every visitor has left their mark. We are a crossroads of humanity, and yet we are defiantly, stubbornly, ourselves.
We cannot be defined by anyone else, and yet we submit to the judgment of others, especially from artificial countries masquerading as empires. To allow the United States, a country of less than 300 years, a blink in history’s eyes, to tell us we are nothing more than entertainers and lovers, is beneath us. We have existed as Puerto Ricans for over 500 years and as Borinqueños for over a thousand. We are adults who have allowed the child to rule the house.
How dare the United States and its media think it has the right to tell us who we are? Even moreso, how dare we allow ourselves to be brainwashed by this nonsense? Yet that is exactly what we have allowed. Recently, a series of articles were written about what it is to be “Latino enough”, especially in relation to one’s ability to speak Spanish. We have fallen so far in our self confidence that we indulge these absurd arguments that any language, any place of residence, any arbitrary superficial thing can ever tell you what your heart knows — to succumb to those arguments is an embarrassment.
We must reclaim ourselves and see that being Puerto Rican is beautiful. Brown and black love is beautiful. Black and brown excellence is beautiful. And the only person who can define us is ourselves. You are the Puerto Rican you were meant to be, wherever you were born, however you were raised, whatever you identify with, have interest in, and aspire to do, is an expression of puertorriqueñidad. We do not act Puerto Rican. We are Puerto Ricans who act, and act however we feel like.
What allows us to belong is our internal sense of self-worth. Genuine self-worth bothers lesser people, insecure people, the kind of people who mold themselves to appease gringos instead of appeasing their own heart’s desire.
You are Boricua in exactly the way you are meant to be. You cannot be a fraud if you are true to yourself. Insisting on being yourself when you are not a white person will scare off a lot of people, including other Latinos. So when you express your unapologetic Boricua nature, you may feel isolated at times. You may feel like you have no home, but you always do. The island itself is home, but the island you carry within you is home too, and the right travelers will visit your shores, and decide to stay. They will be your family, they will be your friends, and the person they love — You — should never compromise your self-love to accommodate others’ self-hate.