Did you know that Puerto Ricans cannot vote in the US presidential election?
Did you know that the US forced a fiscal committee on Puerto Rico (going against the majority vote) who now controls all our finances? Just in case you were wondering, they've shut down multiple schools and use taxpayer money to fund personal trips.
Did you know that the US acquired Puerto Rico violently? Slaughtering natives and trying to plant evidence on their corpses to claim self-defense?
Did you know that the US used to persecute and imprison anyone who flew the original Puerto Rican flag? My grandfather was arrested when he was just a boy.
Did you know that some of our most beautiful areas are inaccessible because they planted landmines during the war and just... didn't bother to pick them up? They're still there to this day.
Did you know that after WWII, when all the allied countries simultaneously agreed to give their colonies independence, the US merely gave us a new name (commonwealth) and changed absolutely nothing? We are still a colony.
Did you know that rich Americans are moving here for the tax incentive? Taking advantage of the cheap resources and siphoning money out of the island by the millions?
Did you know that rich Americans have been paying to destroy acres and acres federally-protected natural reserves to build luxury homes and condos?
Did you know that Americans are forcefully displacing natives from homes they've owned for decades? Offering no alternative to a majority elderly community, forcing them into homelessness?
Did you know that the US experimented with forced sterilization on Puerto Rican women?
Did you know that an American doctor experimented with cancerous cells, implanting them on Puerto Rican test subjects without their knowledge? Did you know he confessed to killing Puerto Ricans in his studies? Did you know that he went on to become a "leading symbol in cancer research" for Harvard?
Did you know?
Can't wait to become the next Hawai'i, only, without the benefits of statehood!
And let me be clear, tourism is not killing us. Your planned family trip to PR is not killing us. People who move for the tax incentives are killing us. Americans displacing Puerto Ricans are killing us. Americans destroying forests that have been untouched for thousands of years to build their million-dollar luxury home by the beach are killing us.
For legal reasons, I can't disclose who or where, but I recently had to watch bulldozers destroy areas that have been untouched by humans, taking down century-old trees and running over endangered turtle nests for the sake of development. It was heartbreaking, I couldn't stop crying. It was like straight out of a sci-fi film where you feel helpless but you think to yourself "no one would do this, no one would be this evil". I had to watch them dump gallons of waste and pesticides into a sacred river. I had to watch them destroy the landscape so some stupid American can have a better view of the ocean. And you know what's the worst part? These houses are empty most of the time. These people don't live here. They vacation here. Forests destroyed for a beautiful scenery that will be enjoyed by no one.