Hundreds of Puerto Ricans and their allies gathered at the Connecticut State Capitol on Friday and Saturday for the University of Connecticut’s annual policy summit on the state’s largest group of Latinos.
The bilingual discussions covered everything from education to economic opportunity.
Connecticut Public’s Puerto Rican Communities Reporter Rachel Iacovone was there with reporter Itzel Rivera from our media partner on the island, El Nuevo Día.
Preliminary research shows Boricuas contribute 4% of Connecticut’s GDP
Rachel Iacovone: So, Itzel, you cover the Puerto Rican diaspora with me, but usually from the island. You traveled to Hartford from San Juan specifically for the summit. So, tell me: What at the event surprised you or interested you the most?
Itzel Rivera: Well, I was excited to come, first of all, because I wanted to see from residents here the perspective that they have on Puerto Rican topics. But what did surprise me the most and what I've been, for a few months now, looking into is about the Puerto Rican contribution and economic contribution to the state. So … between the panels, that was the most surprising thing — because we already know that it's a lot, the economic contribution in the USA due to the almost 6.5 million residents we have in the (mainland) United States, but Connecticut being the state with more Puerto Ricans proportionally. You know, you walk through the streets and you see Puerto Rican restaurants like every corner, supermarkets, they're everywhere. So, as the preliminary study that (UConn’s Luis Palomino) is working on shows, more than $11 billion and almost 4% of the state GDP is due to Puerto Ricans contribution to the economy.
Calling for an end to Puerto Rico’s federally-imposed financial oversight board
Iacovone: So Day 1 was all about what the Puerto Rican economy looks like right now through the Connecticut lens. So, UConn’s Puerto Rican Studies Initiative shared a lot of their data on Boruicuas here in CT, but there were also experts from the City University of New York equivalent, Centro, as well as the University of Puerto Rico. And many lawmakers, who took some time during the busy legislative session to swing by.
A big takeaway for me was even though Puerto Ricans were coming from different perspectives — Democrat, Republican, pro-statehood and pro-independence for PR — all of the data and anecdotes seem to be in support of the removal of the fiscal oversight board that's been in charge of Puerto Rico's economy since before Hurricane Maria, at the end of President Obama's last term. Itzel, are the different political parties as unified on the PROMESA (Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act) issue on the island?
Rivera: Well, PROMESA created the financial oversight and management board of Puerto Rico to manage Puerto Rico's fiscal crisis. But political support for keeping the board tends to fall along party lines. The New Progressive Party, which supports USA statehood, has generally been more supportive or open to cooperating with the board, but the Popular Democratic Party has been both of them. Sometimes, they have had mixed positions — sometimes opposing, sometimes working with it. Meanwhile, parties, like the Puerto Rican Independence Party, strongly oppose the board and want to eliminate it still to this day.
Pausing the 100-year-old law that hurts pocketbooks in Puerto Rico
Iacovone: We had breaking news last week just before the summit began, and it came up a lot with the gathered Puerto Ricans: The Jones Act has been waived for 60 days because of the situation right now with Iran. The short version of what the Jones Act does in PR is that everything imported from other countries cannot arrive in Puerto Rico directly. It has to go through the mainland U.S. and then come by American-flagged ships. Itzel, tell us: How big of a topic is the Jones Act for everyday people on the island? Do they complain about how it raises prices like Connecticut residents complain about, say, our state gasoline tax?
Rivera: Oh, well, yeah, but maybe not in that way. The Jones Act affects our daily life in Puerto Rico in ways that we feel. By that I mean, even if I don't mention the law by name, or people on the street don't mention the law by name, they do think about how when you're getting gas or getting groceries or getting basic necessities, the prices are going up. They're often experiencing the indirect effects of the law or the shipping restrictions, even though they don't mention the law.
The CT-PR Trade Commission is still getting off the ground
Iacovone: Really, Itzel, this is also just me teeing you up to talk about the latest with the Connecticut-Puerto Rico Trade Commission, which lawmakers passed last year.
Rivera: So that was another topic that I was kind of keeping my eye on at the summit because, when it started, everything seemed like it was going fast ... Actually, Eddie Charbonier, who's our representative and has been the right hand of Puerto Rican representatives here, has said that he was creating a committee on the island to help the representatives here. But nothing has happened. I mean, not yet, because the clerk wasn't assigned until recently. (Work) was supposed to start in 2025, (and) an annual report is due on Feb. 1, 2027. So, my question to them was if they were going to be able, when the meetings started, to do something with this trade commission before it ends. So we don't know what's going to be the priority.
A celebration of Puerto Rican pride
Iacovone: Besides the return to college lecture hall energy that we had this weekend, there was plenty of fun, of course, given our people. Itzel and I kept a tally of the number of Bad Bunny references people made, though some of that number was inflated by Itzel explaining her Vega Baja roots every time as “Bad Bunny's hometown.” What else did you notice when you were there, Itzel?
Rivera: We ate a lot of Puerto Rican food. So, this time, I did not go to a Puerto Rican (restaurant) outside the food we got at the summit, because it was like a big plate of arroz con habichuelas, pernil, very Christmas food for Puerto Ricans. And, yeah, I think that's about it.
Iacovone: The head of the Puerto Rican Studies Initiative at UConn, Charles Venator-Santiago, told us they plan to release a summary of the top issues raised at the summit within the next month, so we'll have more soon. Thanks so much, Itzel!
Rivera: Thank you, Rachel.
You can find more reporting from Rachel Iacovone and Itzel Rivera, plus other bilingual journalists, through our Somos CT landing page here.
