About half of all Latinos in Connecticut have ties to Puerto Rico — that’s nearly 300,000 residents.
Now, a special collaboration between Connecticut Public and GFR Media in Puerto Rico is underway, to tell stories that connect the Puerto Rican diaspora in Connecticut and the island. It’s coming together with funding from the Knight Foundation.
Over the last few months, Connecticut Public’s Puerto Rican Communities Reporter Rachel Iacovone has been working closely with her counterpart, Itzel Rivera of El Nuevo Dia newspaper near San Juan.
Rivera made her first trip to Connecticut just in time for the last — and largest — of the annual Boricua cultural celebrations: the Greater Hartford Puerto Rican Day Parade and Festival.
Puerto Rican pride transcends borders
Rivera, once she was past the shock of just how many Puerto Ricans there are per capita here, said it warmed her heart seeing such pride in the culture from members of the diaspora. They hoisted flags and wore the bandera on shirts, shorts and bandanas. Even dogs were decked out at the parade.
“Puerto Ricans here are more Puerto Rican than Puerto Ricans on the island,” she said. “You know, they're very loud, and that's funny. They feel it so hard that it actually gets me, like, emotional.”
Rivera had an overall celebratory introduction to our state. The day before, she spent her first night in Connecticut reporting from a Bad Bunny watch party for his concert livestream at Matty D’s in Hartford.
Connecting with the diaspora
It’s particularly easy to stay isolated on an island.
Rivera first realized this when she became part of the diaspora, with a move to Madrid, Spain for her master’s program.
“I just feel like Puerto Ricans on the island live, including myself … in a bubble. We're not aware of what's happening outside the island,” she said.
Being in Connecticut has been a reminder of that personal experience. One, Rivera said, she would be taking home with her to Puerto Rico.
“I think we as Puerto Ricans, living on the island, should get to know our diaspora — because they need us,” she said. “And, as well, you know, the diaspora should get to know the Puerto Ricans on the island, because we complement each other.”
Stories to tell
Already, the partnership between Connecticut Public and GFR Media has brought to both audiences stories like the outgoing Hartford superintendent and the continuing New Haven superintendent. Both are Puerto Rican women who moved to Connecticut as children, attending the same schools they would one day lead without speaking a word of English at the time.
But what’s next?
Rivera said she is most excited to tell the story of a Puerto Rican family grocery shopping in our modern, expensive times.
While Rivera shops for staple ingredients on the island, Iacovone will be doing the same here, and then comparing — both the prices and the costs of living that determines the real cost of the sticker prices on a household.
“We are really interested in what it takes to buy Puerto Rican ingredients when you're maybe at CTown here or you're at your local grocery store on the island,” Iacovone said. “How does it compare to buy your rice, your meat for pernil, and our habichuelas, things like that?”
Learn more
See more of Iacovone and Rivera’s stories in both English and Spanish at ctpublic.org/latino.
