His Voice Was More of a Storm Than a Man

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anani-kaike/episodes/Bonus-episode-His-Voice-Was-More-of-a-Storm-Than-a-Man-remembering-and-reflecting-on-Don-Pedro-Albizu-Campos-130-years-after-his-birth-e26aioe Listen here Inspiration doesn't strike on demand and poems do not appear just because you want them to. This one is no exception. Over the past few years I yearned to write a poem about Don Pedro Albizu Campos, I even wrote a few that were reasonably good. However none captured the essence of …

Continue reading His Voice Was More of a Storm Than a Man

Recipe for Disaster! A history of colonialism and environmental degradation has created tragedy in Puerto Rico

These photos are tragic and alarming, people have lost so much, their homes, their livelihoods and some have even lost their lives; to them, we send our deepest condolences.  However what concerns me very deeply is, Puerto Rico’s topsoil coloring the waters that raged throughout the island earlier this week. Those waters tell another story …

Continue reading Recipe for Disaster! A history of colonialism and environmental degradation has created tragedy in Puerto Rico

Featured

Don Pedro Albizu Campos; Genius revolutionary, Boricua Hero (second revised edition)

Many don't know his name. He was the president of the Partido Nationalista Puerto Rico. He called for armed revolution, simultaneous uprisings in towns around Puerto Rico, and an attack on La Fortaleza. But we have to ask, why? Why did he do these things? Was he a psychopath who tried to violently overthrow the United States? Or was this born from a profound need for extreme actions? We cannot fully understand him or his valiant fight for independence without understanding the circumstances from which he evolved. Some call him a terrorist, and others call him a hero. This is the story of Pedro Albizu Campos, known affectionately by many as Don Pedro.

Luis Muñoz Marin: Puerto Rico’s Parasitic Governor

Luis Munoz Marin rose from being, in all estimations, one big failure to being a senator and later the governor of Puerto Rico. It was quite a feat, but what he did with his newly acquired power was another story. Marin declared martial law to quell the 1950 Nationalist uprisings, had two towns in Puerto …

Continue reading Luis Muñoz Marin: Puerto Rico’s Parasitic Governor

Don Pedro Albizu Campos; a genius revolutionary (revised version with podcast)

Listen to my podcast about Don Pedro here: https://anchor.fm/anani-kaike/embed/episodes/Remembering-A-Revolutionary-Genius-e1dmg3j https://anchor.fm/anani-kaike/episodes/Remembering-A-Revolutionary-Genius-e1dmg3j Please note the blog post goes into more detail on the topics discussed on the podcast. Each generation has to gather the ashes of their elders. Those who do not revere the ashes of their elders are truly dead; the ones who are extinguished in …

Continue reading Don Pedro Albizu Campos; a genius revolutionary (revised version with podcast)

The Story of ‘El Aguilar Blanca’

José Maldonado Román Many don’t know the story of José Maldonado Román, known as ’El Aguilar Blanca’ (The White Eagle) by his supporters. He was billed a ”bandit” by the Spanish and US governments and was one of those who fought in La Intentona de Yauco. Maldonado was also the original founder of Salon Boricua, …

Continue reading The Story of ‘El Aguilar Blanca’

Las Carpetas: How the FBI spied on over 100,000 Puerto Ricans

Carpetas, started by governor Blanton Whinship in the 1930's, were used to systematically spy on thousands of Puerto Ricans from the 1930's to the 1980's. It was so widespread it even became a verb in Puerto Rico, te carpetearon. Carpetas contained secret police dossiers that included a realm of personal information. Calls would be tapped, …

Continue reading Las Carpetas: How the FBI spied on over 100,000 Puerto Ricans