Letras

Throughout the 20th century, from the birth of jazz to hip-hop, Puerto Ricans played a significant role in shaping the musical landscape of the United States, and to an extent, the rest of the world. Though they have not always received the credit. For example, eighteen of the musicians of the 369th Infantry Marching Band, nicknamed the Harlem Hellfighters, were Puerto Rican. These young men were...

William Carlos Williams referenced his medical background to describe the poet’s task of working “in the particular to discover the universal.” There’s a similar quote by James Joyce, though Nancy Mercado, famed Nuyorican poet and educator, only mentions the first. Perhaps this is the more appropriate of the two–Williams was half-Puerto Rican after all. Nancy is echoing the sentiment of the three...

In March of 2015, Roberto Rosa shared a poem on Facebook called “ Y nos llaman cobardes ,” the title of which was addressed to the people he felt were unfairly criticizing anyone leaving Puerto Rico. They were accusing fellow Puerto Ricans of essentially abandoning the island during its ongoing economic crisis. As U.S. citizens, it’s seen as the easy way out. Buy a one-way plane ticket, start...

It was the day before the Puerto Rican day parade and I needed a new pair of clave sticks. My old ones already had splinters spiking up from the rough patch in their middle where one wooden stick struck the other in a two bar, five note metronomic beat that kept the band on point. Years of “Pa, pa, pa, pause, Pa, pa,” had gradually worn away the center of the left stick, the wood splintered like...