Puerto Rico

I strongly recommend that any who can see TV reruns of Rosie Perez's documentary on Puerto Rico, Yo Soy Boricua:

http://www.independentfilm.com/festivals/videogalleryfest/rosie-perez-yo-soy-boricua.shtml

It tells things as they are -- and were. How many Americans are aware that from 1937 through the 1970s roughly a third of Puerto Rican women were sterilized -- many without knowledge that this procedure was being carried out on them? I was familiar with this fact from a human rights seminar to which it was presented with the additional detail that women were obliged to be sterilized to keep their jobs in American factories situated there. Sadly, our drug companies during this time frame were using Puerto Rico as a testing ground for new drugs -- including those being designed to curb pregnancy.

And so things went with our commonwealth to the south. Sadly nearly 50% of Puerto Ricans would like it to become a state, but in the most recent referendum, a majority was not achieved -- and 50% voted none of the above with a small percentage also voting for independence.

Rosie is charming throughout and there is much to enjoy in addition to some of the grim history of American domination and exploitation there.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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