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“Marco would much rather wait, buy his mother a lovely house and then bring Isabela to visit, allowing his poverty to take on a romantic tinge, something from the past, roots safely buried.”
― Margarita Barresi, A Delicate Marriage

“This is your heritage,' he said, as if from this dance we could know about his own childhood, about the flavor and grit of tenement buildings in Spanish Harlem, and projects in Red Hook, and dance halls, and city parks, and about his own Paps, how he beat him, how he taught him to dance, as if we could hear Spanish in his movements, as if Puerto Rico was a man in a bathrobe, grabbing another beer from the fridge and raising it to drink, his head back, still dancing, still steeping and snapping perfectly in time.”
― Justin Torres, We the Animals

“Puerto Rico depende de tu vida y tu nombre,
colgando en ti van millones de esperanzas
para resucitar en lo que nos fue robado
y hacer valer de nuevo el honor de la Patria.

Puerto Rico depends on your life and your name,
resting on you are millions of hopes
to be resurrected in what was stolen from us
and to renew the worth of the Nation's honor.

(Puerto Rico está en tí / Puerto Rico Is in You)”
― Julia de Burgos

“There is nothing more harmful to the success of an endeavor than timidity and doubt. This type of cowardice that I believe only the lazy possess. I do not believe anything to be impossible; nor am I amazed by any invention or discovery, which is why I do not find any idea utopian. What is essential is that the idea be
put into practice. Begin! The rest is weakness and an erroneous concept of human power.
Wanting is doing!”
― Luisa Capetillo, A Nation Of Women: An Early Feminist Speaks Out / Mi opinión sobre las libertades, derechos y deberes de la mujer

“At its best, the Young Lords offered revolutionary ideals and examples of movement-building strategies and tactics, and tough, hard-hitting, and painful lessons from its setbacks and failures.”
― Iris Morales, Through the Eyes of Rebel Women: The Young Lords, 1969-1976

“We believed that the women’s struggle for equality was the ‘revolution within the revolution.”
― Iris Morales, Through the Eyes of Rebel Women: The Young Lords, 1969-1976

“The demands of the Young Lords could have been written today. We believed in the power of the people and in community and personal transformation. We demanded the redistribution of economic and social resources. We fought for racial justice and the equality of women. As internationalists, we condemned all political, economic, and military intervention by one nation against another. We battled proudly against exploitation, social injustice, and colonial domination. It was a call for revolution!”
― Iris Morales, Through the Eyes of Rebel Women: The Young Lords, 1969-1976

“Where is the voice of freedom, / freedom to laugh, / to move / without the heavy phantom of despair?

(From "Farewell from Welfare Island")”
― Julia de Burgos

“Both Chicano and Puerto Rican activists continually stressed the importance of community control of local institutions, arguing that oppression and inequality would never end until Chicanos and Puerto Ricans controlled the institutions that directly affected community life.”
― Cristina Beltrán, The Trouble with Unity: Latino Politics and the Creation of Identity

“Poetry such as "Puerto Rican Obituary" highlights another significant aspect of movement thought: the shift from cultural shame to ethnic pride. Unlike earlier critiques of prejudice and discrimination, movement rhetoric and writings often focused on the emotional and psychic damage of racism, exploring the need to overcome internalized shame and self-hate.”
― Cristina Beltrán, The Trouble with Unity: Latino Politics and the Creation of Identity

“The Puerto Rican movement of the 1960s and 1970s can be defined by its consistent calls for a radical transformation of U.S. society while simultaneously promoting the independence of Puerto Rico. Known as El Nuevo Despertar, this "New Awakening" of Puerto Rican radicalism was inspired and shaped by the growing militancy abroad and at home. Black Power, youth unrest (particularly against the Vietnam War), the War on Poverty, national liberation struggles in the Third World, Chicano and Native American militancy, gay and lesbian rights, and second-wave feminism are all part of the context that shaped the movement.”
― Cristina Beltrán, The Trouble with Unity: Latino Politics and the Creation of Identity

“The movement's institutional legacy can also be seen in the realm of higher education: Chicano and Puerto Rican studies programs are the product of these movements and continue to play a key role in providing Latinos with a "civic education" that both politicizes and produces particular conceptions of Latino identity and subjectivity.”
― Cristina Beltrán, The Trouble with Unity: Latino Politics and the Creation of Identity

“During the late 1960s and 1970s, Mexican American and Puerto Rican activists put forward a politically charged critique of American politics. Bringing together a paradoxical mix of cultural nationalism, liberal reformism, radical critique, andromantic idealism, the Chicano and Puerto Rican movements created a new political vocabulary, one emphasizing resistance, recognition, cultural pride, authenticity, and fraternity (hermanidad). The movements-organizations, issues, and events left a profound legacy.”
― Cristina Beltrán, The Trouble with Unity: Latino Politics and the Creation of Identity

“Unlike the civil rights struggles of African Americans or the protest politics surrounding the Vietnam War, the Chicano and Puerto Rican movements represent a decidedly underexplored aspect of 1960s New Left radicalism. Outside of the communities themselves, the names, places, and events of these two movements are virtually unknown.”
― Cristina Beltrán, The Trouble with Unity: Latino Politics and the Creation of Identity

“Rather than speaking in terms of specific and distinct subgroups (Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, etc.) ‘Latinoâ€� and ‘Hispanicâ€� have become the shorthand designation of choice among journalists, politicians, advertising executives, academics, and other influential elites.”
― Cristina Beltrán, The Trouble with Unity: Latino Politics and the Creation of Identity

“Dícenme que mi abuelo fue el esclavo
por quien el amo dio trienta monedas.
Ay, ay, ay, que el esclavo fue mi abuelo
es mi pena, es mi pena.
Si hubiera sido el amo,
sería mi vergüenza;
que en los hombres, igual que en las naciones,
si el ser el siervo es no tener derechos,
el ser el amo es no tener conciencia.

They tell me that my grandfather was the slave
for whom the master paid thirty coins.
Ay, ay, ay, that the slave was my grandfather
is my sadness, is my sadness.
If he had been the master
it would be my shame:
that in men, as in nations,
if being the slave is having no rights
being the master is having no conscience.

(Ay, Ay, Ay de la grifa negra/Ay, Ay, Ay of the Kinky-Haired Negress)”
― Julia de Burgos

“Porque tengamos cerca de la muerte, un consuelo,
Puerto Rico, mi patria, te reclama en su suelo,
y por mi voz herida, se conduce hasta tí!

Because near to death we will have one consolation,
Puerto Rico, my homeland, clamors for you on its soil,
and through my wounded voice, conveys itself to you!

(A José Marti / To José Marti)”
― Julia de Burgos

“Vive América, Bolívar,
y también vive tu espada
mientras haya un solo esclavo que te ultraje
o un tirano que pretenda profanar la libertad.

Bolívar, America Lives!
and your sword also lives
so long as a single slave rapes your ideal
or a tyrant tries to profane liberty.

(From A Simon Bolívar / To Simon Bolívar)”
― Julia de Burgos

“¡Río Grande de Loíza!...Mi manantial, mi río,
desde que alzóme al mundo el pétalo materno;
contigo se bajaron desde las rudas cuestas,
a buscar nuevos surcos, mis pálidos anhelos;
y mi niñez fue toda un poema en el río,
y un río en el poema de mis primeros sueños.

Río Grande de Loíza!...My wellspring, my river
since the maternal petal lifted me to the world;
my pale desires came down in you from the craggy hills
to find new furrows;
and my childhood was all a poem in the river,
and a river in the poem of my first dreams.”
― Julia de Burgos

“Rio Grande de Loíza!... Río grande. LLanto grande.
El más grande de todos nuestros llantos isleños,
si no fuera mas grande el que de mí se sale
por los ojos del alma para mi esclavo pueblo.

Río Grande de Loíza!...Great river. Great flood of tears.
The greatest of all our island's tears
save those greater that come from the eyes
of my soul for my enslaved people.”
― Julia de Burgos

“they call themselves patriots and fathers of the homeland. What idea of the homeland can they have? One that is egotistical, which begins and ends with them. They are everything.”
― Luisa Capetillo, A Nation Of Women: An Early Feminist Speaks Out / Mi opinión sobre las libertades, derechos y deberes de la mujer

“The collective memory of every Latino people includes direct or indirect (neo-)colonialism, primarily by Spain or Portugal and later by the United States. Among Latinos, Mexicans in what we now call the Southwest have experienced US colonialism the longest and most directly, with Puerto Ricans not far behind”
― Elizabeth Martínez, De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views for a Multi-Colored Century

“The oppression and exploitation of Latinos (like Asians) have historical roots unknown to most Americans. People who learn at least a little about Black slavery remain totally ignorant about how the United States seized half of Mexico or how it has colonized Puerto Rico.”
― Elizabeth Martínez, De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views for a Multi-Colored Century

“The Puerto Rican Nation must continue. We must open our eyes to the oppressor's tricknology and refuse to be killed anymore. We must, in the tradition of Puerto Rican women like Lolita Lebrón, Blanca Canales, Carmen Pérez, and Antonia Martínez, join with our brothers and, together, as a nation of warriors, fight the genocide that is threatening to make us the last generation of Puerto Ricans.

(From 1970)”
― Iris Morales, Through the Eyes of Rebel Women: The Young Lords, 1969-1976

“Forty years ago, the Young Lords stepped to the forefront. They organized, advocated, took militant action to let the world know about the deplorable living conditions of Puerto Ricans and Latinos, they inspired Puerto Ricans and Latinos to organize and take to the streets in communities across the United States.

(2009 speech)”
― Iris Morales, Through the Eyes of Rebel Women: The Young Lords, 1969-1976

“Puerto Ricans don't like to talk about racism or admit that it exists among Puerto Ricans. Boricuas talk of an island free from racism, or they say that the amerikkkans brought it. Although the amerikkkans did make it worse, racism in Puerto Rico began with the Spanish. According to them, one drop of white blood meant you were white and better than your Black compatriot. Acceptance was given according to the "degree of whiteness."

(From 1970)”
― Iris Morales, Through the Eyes of Rebel Women: The Young Lords, 1969-1976

“My parents both arrived in New York City after World War II, at different times but for the same reason the search for work. They left a country they loved, but where they could not make a living. About half a million Puerto Ricans made the same journey fleeing economic despair, the result of the US colonization of the island. Government officials blamed the people for the disastrous economic situation claiming that the problem was "overpopulation." They promoted the mass exodus of Puerto Ricans and implemented policies that sterilized thousands of poor and working women. The Young Lords are the sons and daughters of this Great Migration. As young people growing up in the United States, we witnessed how our parents were exploited, degraded, and humiliated. We felt their suffering, and we too had experiences with poverty and racism. All of this propelled us into action to fight for justice.”
― Iris Morales, Through the Eyes of Rebel Women: The Young Lords, 1969-1976

“The massive damage to the electrical grids in Florida and Puerto Rico in 2022 created an ideal time to discuss electrical utility frauds and their flaky utility systems.”
― Steven Magee

“Lo cierto es que nos sobran, por mucho, los motivos para llorar, apasionadamente. No hay cuerpo que resista tanta absorción del mal que nos envuelve sin dar de sí. Habría que politizar la práctica cultural de las lloronas en los funerales, convirtiéndolas en manifestaciones que retomen el espacio público. Habría que refutar la abyección y feminización (entendida como subordinación) del llanto y reivindicarlo como una práctica política en oposición al régimen del Padre, de la raíz, de la tierra, de la posesión, de la frontera. Habría que echarse a llorar colectivamente y hacer circular el mar primigenio de la humanidad, a ver si echamos a andar entonces, desde el pensamiento de las vísceras, mejores maneras de habitar este planeta Agua, que no Tierra.”
― Beatriz Llenín Figueroa, Puerto Islas: Crónicas, crisis, amor

“Height of Human (The Sonnet)

Enter a hall with high
ceiling, and you feel small,
in a room with low ceiling
you feel like a giant.

The height of human
doesn't depend on numbers,
we judge our height
relative to the world around.

Bigots hate an inclusive world
not because it is unorthodox,
but because it reminds them,
how puny they are - how small.

Hence they lash out at an island
of people, as an island of garbage.
Only garbage are those calling others
as such - time 'tis to hand them sentence.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Humanitarian Dictator