The explosive and possibly history-making controversy involving Puerto Rico and former president Donald Trump came out of nowhere.
Late last Sunday, Erica and I were in a somber mood. We had just returned to our hotel from my sister Irene’s funeral in Saugerties in upstate New York near Woodstock. Although her illness was long deemed terminal, her death was still deeply upsetting.
From the hotel balcony, looking out at the lovely Hudson River Valley bedecked in red, orange and yellow fall foliage, we were remembering Irene.
To relieve the melancholy, I clicked on the television to watch a game or catch up on the presidential race on cable news. Instead, I was kicked in the gut by Trump’s militant closing campaign rally at Madison Square Garden. It featured an insult comic named Tony Hinchcliffe with whom I was unfamiliar.
For several minutes I listened to this punk grossly insult cheap Jews, tell a watermelon joke about Black voters and grotesquely, defame and insult Puerto Rico, my father’s homeland and the island we love.
I exploded on X.
“A floating island of garbage…?” Referring to Puerto Rico??? “Poisoning the blood of our nation…?” We have “murder in our genes….?” F**k these racists. Latino men of good will, have pride in yourselves and your ancestors. A vote for Trump is a vote against self-respect.
The tweet went viral, with millions of hits. I was furious, pounding away at my iPhone, posting,
Latino men, for the love of your parents and children, for your pride and your honor tell this little gringo s**t to go f**k himself.
Coming at the end of the long and contentious election race, former President Trump’s campaign tried to distance the candidate from the words of the foul-mouthed comedian, improbably insisting that,
Trump claims he knew nothing about the vile puke spewed at his rally, passing the buck, and blaming the comedian. Puerto Ricans don’t buy it. In the words of #BadBunny, (he’s the Puerto Rican Elvis) “Lo que pasa es que esta raza no es pendeja…The thing Is, This Breed is not stupid.”
Even as Trump asserted that he never heard of the comedian and that the campaign, which booked Hinchcliffe and put his act on the teleprompter, had nothing to do with it, the controversy spread through the Puerto Rican community and beyond. I pounded out more Tweets.
The Archbishop of San Juan, Roberto González Nieves is demanding an apology from Donald Trump for the blatantly racist remarks at the former president’s creepy MSG rally where the island commonwealth was called a “floating island of garbage.” “The comedian not only provoked sinister laughter, but hatred,” said the archbishop, adding that all the Island’s bishops were “dismayed and appalled.”
Finally, I concluded,
Trump doesn’t like to say he is sorry, but I guarantee you that his silence will be construed as a continuing insult. Why would any self-respecting Puerto Rican vote for someone who holds them in such contempt? If the insult was unintended as Trump’s staff claims, then just say you are sorry.
There is a significant cluster of Puerto Ricans living in the key swing state of Pennsylvania, with its 19 electoral votes. The Latino-eligible voter population is more than 620,000, about half of them Puerto Ricans in the Philadelphia metro area.
This controversy has awoken a sleeping giant. The bottom line is that no somos ninguna basura, we’re nobody’s garbage.
Vote for decency and a president who doesn’t unleash insults and nurture grievances. Vote for Kamala Harris for President.