Borikén: A Puerto Rican Podcast

Crisis en Vieques y Culebra, pero el gobernador de Puerto Rico, Pedro Pierluisi responde con arrestos de protestantes que piden y demandan atención a la falta de transportación accesible. Transportación para estas islas municipales es esencial - no un lujo. Esperamos que el gobierno de Puerto Rico responda con acción y soluciones, en vez de arrestos y mas excusas. En este episodio escuchan la voz de una residente de Vieques que esta peleando junto a su pueblo, para algo tan básico y esencial: Transportación - Algo que el gobierno de Puerto Rico les niega uno y otra vez. Gracias Andrea por tu trabajo y dar tu tiempo. Andrea nos cuanta cosas que no se ven en los medios: de pescadores que hacen el trabajo que le pertenece al gobierno, de embarcaciones que no deben ser usadas en el mar y presentan peligrosos, de un gobierno fuera de contacto con la realidad. Y un pueblo que no se quita. Vieques y Culebra - estamos contigo.

Hawaiʻi and Borikén are connected in struggle. I wanted to take a moment with my sisters across the world, to share and to hold space on issues that only we understand fully. It is a rare moment when you can look someone in the eye and they understand the type of oppression you both struggle with.  It is important to ask why demanding freedom is labeled "radical." Spiritually, physically and mentally we have been affected by the policies of ownership of indigenous lands and bodies that continue to be "normalized." Those in power cannot continue to dictate the terms. You do not tell those that you oppress, how you will stop oppressing them, and this is why more conversations like these are needed. In this episode I sit down with two inspiring women, MYKIE & IHILANI, to talk about history and to talk about what real freedom would look like. More importantly, to say aloud to each other and to all of you that we must fight for a future where are free. Books: A Nation Rising by Noelani Goodyear-Kaʻōpua, From A Native Daughter by Haunani-Kay Trask, Fighting the Battle of Double Colonization by Haunani-Kay Trask,  'Native Hawaiian Law: A Treatise' edited by University of Hawaiʻi law professors Melody MacKenzie, Susan Serrano, and Kapua Sproat, Islanders in the Empire: Filipino and Puerto Rican Laborers in Hawaiʻi’ by JoAnna Poblete Instagram accounts to follow: @Kanaeokana @Puuhuluhulu @ProtectMaunakea Bios: Ihilani Lasconia is a Kānaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) poet, student, and organizer from Waimānalo Oʻahu. ʻIhilani is currently a senior at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa majoring in Ethnic Studies. She is also a first-year master's candidate in Education Administration. ʻIhilani is a part of  Kia'i Ke Kahaukani which is a student group that advocates for the protection of Maunakea. ʻIhilani is a strong supporter of Native Hawaiian self-determination and the deoccupation of Hawaiʻi. She believes that political education is essential to liberation and that all struggles are interconnected. Mykie Ozoa-Aglugub is a Filipina-Boricua anti-imperialist feminist organizer in the illegally occupied Kingdom of Hawai‘i. She is a founding member of AF3IRM Hawai‘i, the local chapter of a transnational feminist organization, with 10 chapters across the US and in Hawai‘i and Borikén. Mykie is an expert in anti-gender violence advocacy and training and she holds a law degree from the UH Mānoa William S. Richardson School of Law.

Es como pelear con el viento / Like fighting the wind Nosotros tenemos un problema en Vieques. Bueno - hay muchos, pero uso "nosotros" porque la diaspora y Boricuas por toda las islas están uniéndose al movimiento contra la directora Mara Peréz quien es responsable en parte - por la crisis de Vieques. En estos momentos muchos Viequenses se encuentran con transportación no segura ni confiable, aunque es su derecho tenerlo. Se encuentran sin gasolina, sin comida  - todo porque hay una persona que no quiere dejar su puesto - ya que el pueblo dice que ha fallado en su deber en esa posición. Y preguntamos también, a los representantes en Puerto Rico, porque se usa la Policía como TAXI. En este episodio escucharan a Andrea Del Mar Bonilla, quien vive en Vieques hablar sobre su experiencia, y también de como fue que su video se convirtió en un momento de acción e indignación. Vamos todos a visibilizar la lucha en Vieques. We have a problem on Vieques. Well - there are many, but I use "we" because the diaspora and Boricuas all over the islands are joining the movement against director Mara Peréz who is partly responsible for the Vieques crisis. At this time, many Viequenses find transportation unsafe and unreliable, although it is their right to have it. They find themselves without gas, without food - and are demanding the resignation of the Director of Transportation to Vieques. And we also ask why Puerto Rican representatives are using Police as TAXI to get to the island of Vieques. In this episode, you'll listen to Andrea Bonilla, who lives in Vieques, talk about her experience and how her video became a moment of action and outrage. Let's bring light to the struggle of Vieques. (As of this episode's publishing -  Mara Perez - the Director of ATM has RESIGNED!) #PuertoRico #Vieques #MaraRenuncia #Boriken

What happens when the stories of us are told by us, with us? I wanted to ask the Director of the incredible documentary Landfall  many questions but at the heart of our conversation was a strong sense that community is really key in telling our stories. I hope you will share this really powerful interview with Cecilia Aldarondo because so much of what leads to healing from trauma comes through art and the dialogues we have together. Cecilia Aldarondois a documentary director-producer from the Puerto Rican diaspora who works at the intersection of poetics and politics. Her feature documentaries MEMORIES OF A PENITENT HEART (2016) and LANDFALL (2020) premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and were co-produced by the award-winning PBS series POV. LANDFALL's many awards include the 2020 DOC NYC Film Festival Viewfinders Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary, the 2021 Film Independent Truer than Fiction Spirit Award nomination, and a 2021 Cinema Eye Spotlight Award nomination. Among Aldarondo's fellowships and honors are the Guggenheim, a two-time MacDowell Colony Fellowship, the 2021 New America Fellowship, and Women at Sundance 2017. In 2019 she was named to DOC NYC's 40 Under 40 list and is one of 2015’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film. She teaches at Williams College. You can learn more about the documentary by following their social media @LandfallFilm and going to the website/ articles linked below: https://www.facebook.com/LandfallDoc [https://www.facebook.com/LandfallDoc] @landfallfilm (Instagram) @blackscrackle (Instagram) @Landfall_Doc (Twitter) @blackscrackle (Twitter) https://deadline.com/2021/01/landfall-director-cecilia-aldarondo-pbs-pov-documentary-interview-news-1234674738/ [https://deadline.com/2021/01/landfall-director-cecilia-aldarondo-pbs-pov-documentary-interview-news-1234674738/] https://fb.watch/3qwbkTgVqJ/ [https://fb.watch/3qwbkTgVqJ/] https://www.claridadpuertorico.com/maria-isaias-las-monjas-en-la-piedra-sobre-el-mar/ [https://www.claridadpuertorico.com/maria-isaias-las-monjas-en-la-piedra-sobre-el-mar/] https://www.80grados.net/pueblo-o-multitud-hegemonia-o-posthegemonia-ceiba-1999-san-juan-2019-vieques-2020/ [https://www.80grados.net/pueblo-o-multitud-hegemonia-o-posthegemonia-ceiba-1999-san-juan-2019-vieques-2020/]

This week, lets talk about race and racism. Let's talk about Cultural appropriation. Let's talk about why black lives matter, but many of the reactions around a recent case of appropriation left many Black Latinxs asking  - where is the solidarity in our community when it comes to black voices and black lives. I invited la Doctora Barbara Abadia-Rexauch to speak about an article published recently on another case of a white woman putting on the Latina costume. Something actual Latinxs are not able to do, and certainly with none of the privileges that this affords. The article published on Prism Reports by the journalist Tina Vazquez revealed that a prominent lawyer / activist in the New York community was actually not Puerto Rican and Colombian as she had presented, but instead a white woman from Georgia with Irish Italian and Russian ancestry. Recently, and due to the demand for accountability, this person has resigned from her position at the National Lawyers Guild and faces community accountability. Dr. Bárbara Abadía-Rexach is a communication scholar, sociocultural anthropologist, and Afro Puerto Rican feminist and antiracist leader. She received a BA in Public Communication and a MA in Theory and Research of Communication from the University of Puerto Rico, and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from The University of Texas at Austin. Abadía-Rexach is Assistant Professor of Afrolatinidades at the Latina/o Studies Department at San Francisco State University. Her academic work explores racialization from different cultural productions in Puerto Rico and its diasporas, and within the Latinx communities. She is the author of the book Musicalizando la raza. La racialización en Puerto Rico a través de la música (2012). Her recently published academic articles include: Summer 2019: The Great Racialized Puerto Rican Family Protesting in the Street Fearlessly (2020); Centro y periferia: Las identidades en el nuevo movimiento de la bomba puertorriqueña (2019) and The New Puerto Rican Bomba Movement (2016). She is one of Colectivo Ilé’ community organizers, and a member of the Black Latinas Know Collective. Abadía-Rexach produces and moderates the radio program NEGRAS at Cadena Radio Universidad de Puerto Rico. She is a collaborator of the Spanish digital platform Afroféminas, and the Puerto Rican feminist and solidarity journalist project Todas. Articles to read/share: https://www.prismreports.org/article/2021/1/7/the-national-lawyers-guilds-outgoing-latina-president-is-a-white-woman [https://www.prismreports.org/article/2021/1/7/the-national-lawyers-guilds-outgoing-latina-president-is-a-white-woman] https://www.prismreports.org/article/2021/1/14/attorney-who-posed-as-latina-resigns-and-faces-community-accountability [https://www.prismreports.org/article/2021/1/14/attorney-who-posed-as-latina-resigns-and-faces-community-accountability] https://www.blacklatinasknow.org/post/the-replay-white-passes-and-black-exclusions-in-latinidad?fbclid=IwAR2qe91ZUzkXZNhEWp9n0m0F0Jgy94hLKe6TzheeFIWtweXmNAzd8sSSSqw [https://www.blacklatinasknow.org/post/the-replay-white-passes-and-black-exclusions-in-latinidad?fbclid=IwAR2qe91ZUzkXZNhEWp9n0m0F0Jgy94hLKe6TzheeFIWtweXmNAzd8sSSSqw]