Giannina Braschi on Puerto Rico

“When I was a girl, my parents would say, "Puerto Rico can't be free because we would be poor like Haiti or Cuba." It turns out that out of the fear of being poor, we didn't dare to become free. Then Hurricane Maria comes, devastates everything, and maybe we are now as poor as Haiti and Cuba, and not free.”

“Puerto Rico will be the first half-and-half banana republic state incorporated that will secede from the union. Then will come Liberty Island, then Mississippi Burning, Texas BBQ, Kentucky Fried Chicken—all of them—New York Yankees, Jersey Devils-you name it—will want to break apart—and demand a separation—a divorce.”

“If I were Joan of Arc de Bonaparte I would become governor of Puerto Rico and make my island a state—and then become president of the United States of Banana—and head south to conquer all of Latin America and the Caribbean—and swoop back north to take over Canada. I could do all that—if only I could decide between three options: Wishy, Wishy-Washy, and Washy.”

“Soy boricua. In spite of my family and in spite of my country, I’m writing the process of the Puerto Rican mind—taking it out of context as a native and a foreigner-expressing it through Spanish, Spanglish, and English—Independencia, Estado Libre Asociado, and Estadidad—from the position of a nation, a colony, and a state—Wishy, Wishy-Washy, and Washy—not as one political party that is parted into piddley parts and partied out.”