El Sol Latino | February 2018 | 14.3

February 2018

Volume 14 No. 3

Un Periódico Diferente / A Different Kind of Newspaper

A Nation of

Immigrants

“Give me your tired, Your poor, Your huddled masses Yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of Your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, Tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp Beside the golden door!”

Un Periódico Diferente / A Different Kind of Newspaper

Un Periódico Diferente / A Different Kind of Newspaper

Un Periódico Diferente / A Different Kind of Newspaper

“The New Colossus” Emma Lazarus 1883

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Editorial / Editorial

A Puerto Rican Newspaper in the Trump Era In mid-January Robert Weissman wrote an excellent article published in Common Dreams entitled One Year of America’s First White President. Weissman begins his piece by making the following statements, It matters when the president of the United States says hateful and racist and bigoted things. Donald Trump deserves all the condemnation he is receiving for his “shithole” comment, and more. But it matters even more when the president takes hateful and racist and bigoted actions. He deserves even more condemnation – and more pushback – for those.

Weissman goes on to summarize one by one the most important actions and policies taken by the Trump administration to Make America Great

(White) Again. These actions and policies are not only racist, anti-poor, and anti people of color, they are advocate of white supremacy and white privilege. In addition Weissman quotes Ta-Nehisi Coates’ argument that Trump was elected both as a beneficiary of white privilege and as an advocate of white supremacy. In his view, Trump’s election as America’s First White President negates the black president who preceded him.

In this current anti-minority political climate, it is imperative that Puerto Rican journalists continue to tell and highlight Puerto Rican stories and those of other marginalized American citizens.

Our point of view needs to be part of the general political discourse more than ever.

Foto del Mes/Photo of the Month

Homar Gómez Nuevo Concejal en Easthampton Barbara La Bombard, City Clerk de la ciudad de Easthampton, juramenta al puertorriqueño Homar Gómez. La ceremonia se llevó a cabo el 2 de enero de 2018.

contents

2 Editorial / Editorial A Puerto Rican Newspaper in the Trump Era 3 Portada / Front Page One Year of America’s First White President 4 College Bound Fair held at Holyoke High School Tinta Caliente / Hot Ink 5 Sanctuary Spanish Classes Provide Financial Assistance to Lucio Pérez and his Family 6 Nuestras Raíces’ accomplishments in 2017 7 Holyoke Community College ‘an economic powerhouse’ 8 Naomi Klein en Puerto Rico: “No es shock, es el trauma lo que se ha estado explotando” 10 Opinión / Opinion Taxes, the Military and the Assault on the Poor 11 The Politics of Kicking the DACA Can Down the Road 12 Colonial Reparations for Puerto Rico: A Framework for a Post-Colonial Transition 14 Libros / Books Eva: una aventura de Lorenzo Falcó 15 Ciencias / Science What can we do about Climate Change?

Founded in 2004 n Volume 14, No. 3 n February 2018

Cita del Mes/Quote of the Month

The colonial status of Puerto Rico requires reparations by the US “The economic implications of all three status alternatives: [(1) independence, (2) non-assimilationist statehood, and (3) a constitutional bilateral form of free association] involve expenditures by the colonial power, the United States, to compensate the colonized people, the Puerto Ricans. These payments are essential both for the construction of local political power for Puerto Ricans, and to create a viable Puerto Rican economy that supports real equal opportunity for puertorriqueñas y puerlorriqueños, thus repairing the legacy of political, economic, and psychological colonization by the United States.”

Pedro A. Malavet “Reparations Theory and Postcolonial Puerto Rico: Some Preliminary Thoughts.”

Berkeley La Raza Law Journal - Volume 13 Number 2 (2002).

Editor Manuel Frau Ramos manuelfrau@gmail.com 413-320-3826 Assistant Editor Ingrid Estrany-Frau Managing Editor Diosdado López

Art Director Tennessee Media Design Business Address El Sol Latino P.O Box 572 Amherst, MA 01004-0572

Editorial Policy El Sol Latino acepta colaboraciones tanto en español como en inglés.

Nos comprometemos a examinarlas, pero no necesariamente a publicarlas. Nos reservamos el derecho de editar los textos y hacer correcciones por razones de espacio y/o estilo. Las colaboraciones pueden ser enviadas a nuestra dirección postal o a través de correo electrónico a: info@elsollatino.net.

El Sol Latino welcomes submissions in either English or Spanish.

We consider and review all submissions but reserve the right to not publish them. We reserve the right to edit texts and make corrections for reasons of space and/or style. Submissions may be sent to our postal address or via electronic mail to: info@elsollatino.net.

El Sol Latino is published monthly by Coquí Media Group.

El Sol Latino es publicado mensualmente por Coquí Media Group, P.O Box 572, Amherst, MA 01004-0572.

Portada / Front Page

El Sol Latino February 2018

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One Year of America’s First White President by ROBERT WEISSMAN | Published by Common Dreams | January 16, 2018 – into prison needlessly, sabotaging their life chances and increasing postrelease criminality. Earlier this month, Sessions doubled down on this stupid and counterproductive approach, announcing that the government will prosecute federal marijuana laws, even in states that have legalized the drug.

“Tallying the devastation wreaked by the Trump administration is a depressing enterprise.”

(Photo: Lorie Shaull/flickr/cc)

It matters when the president of the United States says hateful and racist and bigoted things. Donald Trump deserves all the condemnation he is receiving for his “shithole” comment, and more.

But it matters even more when the president takes hateful and racist and bigoted actions. He deserves even more condemnation – and more pushback – for those.

Some of these actions have been high profile, others less so. In some cases, the racism is overt or practically so; in others, racially motivated but facially colorblind policies disproportionately and harmfully impact communities of color. In some cases, the policies are just anti-poor. These anti-poor policies disproportionately hurt black and brown people, and are enabled, facilitated and rationalized by underlying racial animus.

One year into the Trump administration, it’s worth reviewing the racist record of Trump, his administration, and his collaborators. Ta-Nehisi Coates has brilliantly argued that Trump was elected to be America’s First White President, a man elected to the highest office in the land not just as the beneficiary of white privilege but as an advocate of white supremacy and as the negation of the black president who preceded him.

As Trump campaigned, so too has he governed: • The Muslim Ban. Days after his inauguration, Trump signed an executive order denying visas to people from seven overwhelmingly Muslim countries.

Federal courts blocked the ban as unconstitutional, after which the Trump administration issued a second. When the courts blocked that, they issued a third. The Supreme Court has permitted that ban to take effect while litigation continues. But while the litigation continues, the basic truth is obvious: the ban has zero to do with national security and is motivated exclusively by anti-Muslim animus.

• Suppressing the Votes of People of Color. Trump created the PenceKobach Commission on Election Integrity – now disbanded thanks to pressure and lawsuits – to intimidate voters of color and develop a national system of voter suppression. The Justice Department has reversed its prior position in ongoing voting rights litigation, just days ago urging the Supreme Court to uphold an Ohio law that had the plain intent of knocking people of color off the voting rolls, part of an ongoing series of reversals that now put the Justice Department on the wrong side of voting rights.

• Criminal Justice Anti-Reform. Under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Justice Department is reversing modest measures to stop the criminalization of young people of color. Where the Obama administration aimed to ratchet down sentencing and prosecutions of low-level, nonviolent offenses – disproportionately affecting minority populations – Sessions has decreed that low-level offenders should be hit with the most serious charges possible. The Sessions approach will throw thousands of people – especially Americans from communities of color or with low-incomes

• Crushing the Dream. Last fall, Sessions announced the administration would end DACA – the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which curbed enforcement of immigration laws against immigrants without documentation who came to the United States as children. About 800,000 Dreamers are enrolled in DACA and facing deportation – in many cases to countries they do not know – unless the program is rescued by Congress in the next couple months. The Trump pretext for ending DACA was the administration’s profound respect for constitutional separation of powers, but a federal judge spoke more truthfully last week, finding “a plausible inference that racial animus towards Mexicans and Latinos was a motivating factor in the decision to end DACA.” Or in the simpler words of a Politico headline: “Trump racism may have been key to ending DACA.” • Medicaid Work Requirements. Last week, the administration announced that it will permit states to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients.

This move is stupid, cruel, illegal – and racist. It denies that health care is a right and will lead to needless death and suffering. It will worsen public health problems, including by complicating the availability of opioid treatment.

It violates the law by contravening Medicaid’s purpose to expand health coverage. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma has condescendingly talked about combating the “soft bigotry” of low expectations for Medicaid recipients. What she is in fact doing is promoting the hard bigotry of animus against poor people – the hard and shameful bigotry of health care denial based on wealth. This is a bigotry also against people of color, who comprise about half of adult Medicaid recipients.

• Tax Policy is Race Policy. The horrendous tax scam legislation effectively constituted a trillion-and-a-half dollar gift to the super rich, with the largest tax cuts going to corporations, which one way or another will pass almost all of their savings on to shareholders. Shareholders are, by and large, white. Whites are two times more likely than African Americans or Latinos to own stocks. White financial assets are, on average, twelve or more times greater than African American or Latino financial assets (just among those who have such assets). But even that jaw-dropping figure understates the problem. The top five percent of households control about two thirds of financial assets – and they are virtually all white. Demos calculates that 90 percent of wealth is owned by whites. The tax cut, in short, was basically a tax cut for whites. Exacerbating the disparity, Republicans already are seeking to use the tax cut’s deficit worsening to justify government spending cuts (excluding the military) that will disproportionately impact communities of color. So, yes, it is fair to say that people of color will be forced to pay for the tax cut for the white super rich.

• Deporting People of Color. Trump is ending Temporary Protective Status for Haitians, Nicaraguans, Salvadorans and Sudanese. This means hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have effectively permanently relocated to the United States in the wake of natural disasters and other emergencies in their home countries will be forced to return to nations that do not have the capacity to absorb them and where they may face violence.

The Trump administration line is that it is doing nothing more than ending haven for people who were supposed to be in the United States for a limited

continued on page 4

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Portada / Front Page

El Sol Latino February 2018

One Year of America’s First White President continued from page 3 period only, long expired. That pretense hardly seems worth rebutting after the “shithole” remark.

• Budgetary Cruelty. Happily, the Trump administration has not managed to have much influence over the budget. But its budgetary proposal called for the eradication or massive scaling back of an array of programs to benefit poor people – food stamps, Medicaid, home heating assistance, legal services for the poor, low-income housing programs and much more.

Many more white people would be hurt by these cuts than, say, AfricanAmericans, but the cuts would disproportionately affect people of color.

• Undermining Fair Housing. The Trump administration is pursuing a fullfledged assault on fair housing rules. Ben Carson’s Department of Housing and Urban Development has sought to delay Obama era fair housing rules that would enable lower-income persons with vouchers (through the program formerly known as Section 8) to access a broader range of housing opportunity (a lawsuit blocked the delay) and just announced plans to delay another key fair housing rule. Appallingly, it is seeking to gut the landmark Community Reinvestment Act, which requires mortgage lenders to make loans available in low-income communities.

• Fraudulent Count. The preparatory work for the 2020 U.S. Census is going on now, and the Trump team is doing all the wrong things – by design.

To head the census, Trump is expected to nominate a political science professor who authored a book with the subtitle: “Why Competitive Elections are Bad for America.” And the administration is pushing for a question about citizenship on the census questionnaire – guaranteed to massively diminish response rates from Latinos and other recent immigrants. This is no archaic issue. An accurate count of America’s population is important to enforce an array of civil rights, social justice and democracy protections.

As the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights notes, “The collection of accurate, comprehensive race and ethnicity data in the census is central to implementing, monitoring, and evaluating a vast range of civil rights laws and policies, from fair political representation and voting reforms, to equal opportunity and access across all economic and social sectors of society, including housing, education, health care, and the job market.”

The list could go on and on. The Justice Department, the federal defender of civil rights in modern times, is now aggressively working to advance

OT TINTNAT E H INK CALIE por MANUEL

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FRAU RAMO

policies injurious to communities of color. These range from aiming to end consent decrees with police departments aiming to alleviate police brutality and mistreatment of people of color, to directing the department’s civil rights division to attack affirmative action programs at colleges and universities.

And, the nominee to run the department’s storied civil rights division has a record of working against the very rights the division is supposed to uphold.

And, again, the underlying hostility to communities of color is not just expressed through civil rights policy. Policies disproportionately and adversely affecting communities of color run the gamut from the rollback of Net Neutrality, to forced arbitration provisions, supported by the administration, that prevent class action employment discrimination claims; from clean air rollbacks and anti-environment policies that will poison communities of color, to an array of anti-union and anti-worker rules – including one undermining workers’ leverage over fast-food and hotel chains.

Tallying the devastation wreaked by the Trump administration is a depressing enterprise. Recognizing the contempt for core constitutional values and the reversal of the historic racial justice gains of the last half century is even more depressing. There’s no point in sugarcoating what Trump and his collaborators are doing.

Yet the resistance has been inspiring and, in many key instances, successful. Litigation and popular opposition defeated the first two Muslim bans. The voter suppression commission disbanded amidst widespread defiance. A lawsuit stopped Ben Carson’s effort to undo a key fair housing rule. Trump’s budget never got off the ground, in significant part because of its unmitigated cruelty. And, perhaps most inspiringly, the mobilization against Trump’s racism may be improving overall attitudes in America, with researchers finding that anti- Muslim ban protests may have reduced antiMuslim sentiment.

Robert Weissman is the president of Public Citizen. Weissman was formerly director of Essential Action, editor of Multinational Monitor, a magazine that tracks corporate actions worldwide, and a public interest attorney at the Center for Study of Responsive Law. He was a leader in organizing the 2000 IMF and World Bank protests in D.C. and helped make HIV drugs available to the developing world.

In Massachusetts... we have a BIG inequality problem. According to an article published by USA Today on January 19, 2018, “by a number of socioeconomic measures - poverty, income, educational attainment, unemployment, and incarceration - the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has the worst inequality between its white and Hispanic residents of any state.“

En Massachusetts…tenemos un GRAN problema de desigualdad. De acuerdo a un artículo publicado en USA Today el 19 de enero de 2018, “tomando en cuenta un número de medidas socioeconómicas – pobreza, ingreso, grado de escolaridad, desempleo, y encarcelamiento - Massachusetts tiene la peor desigualdad entre sus residentes blancos e hispanos de cualquier estado.”

Portada / Front Page

El Sol Latino February 2018

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Sanctuary Spanish Classes Provide Financial Assistance to Lucio Pérez and his Family

by LISSA PIERCE BONIFAZ | lissapiercebonifaz@gmail.com Starting up Spanish classes in the dead of winter is no small feat, but when all proceeds go to support Lucio Pérez - a Guatemalan who took sanctuary October 18th, 2017 at the First Congregational Church of Amherst— the show of solidarity has kept us afloat. I organize the teaching of grammar and Lucio invokes the conversation, while the Pioneer Valley Workers Committee (PVWC) works behind the scenes to publicize and register potential students.

There are the thin obstacles that get in the way of winter classes: finding my car door frozen; my engine coughing; or my fingers inept when dialing security. Yet, when a woman with grey locks leads me through five doors to get to Lucio, I realize how my burdens pale in comparison to what he bears every day. Lucio must adjust to living apart from his family and they in turn struggle to make ends meet without him. Thanks to the income generated from the Spanish classes, however, he is able to contribute to the well-being of his family of five living in Springfield.

When I arrive in the classroom, Lucio is just finishing an individual Spanish session with the Pastor Vicki Kemper. He stands up and greets me, “Dios le bendiga Leeza.” He reaches out to lighten the load of my books, while I return the greeting in Spanish, “May God bless you too, Lucio.” It isn’t customary in my Anglo-Saxon upbringing to greet someone with God’s blessing, but Lucio has convinced me that this greeting acknowledges the goodness in each person no matter the faith. I see Lucio is in his best form this morning: his khakis are pressed, his dress shoes polished, a buttondown shirt is tucked neatly under a collegiate sweater, his thick hair is combed back with one rebellious curl bouncing back. The ice crystals that formed in the corners of my eyes melt as I embrace him and the Pastor. I am warmed from the inside out.

Life has not been easy for Lucio, although he would never describe it this way. He focuses on his blessings, not the threat of deportation. He was born in San Marcos, Guatemala in 1981 in the midst of a 36-year Civil War. He tells me how his mother boiled coffee over an open hearth, but never talks about the genocide that ripped through the countryside of his youth. He tells me how grateful he was to get jobs that would help him raise a family. He doesn’t discuss why he left school at fifth grade or how little he was paid picking coffee. He tells me how God kept him strong in the face of humiliations at a poultry processing plant in Delaware, but he doesn’t tell me about his journey there from Guatemala. He smiles talking about the camaraderie he felt with his boss while working in landscaping in

Connecticut, but he doesn’t tell me how much he and his family miss the paychecks he used to bring home. Instead, Lucio and I focus on the present and what we can do with our students.

I sit down at the large table before the students come into class. Lucio brings me a hot cup of Dean’s Beans -thanks to a generous contribution of coffee- and we discuss the plan for our Wednesday 10:00am -11:30am Basic Spanish class. I have brought a children’s book, Martin’s Big Words

by Doreen Rapport about the life and teaching of Dr. Martin Luther King.

Lucio has heard of him, but our students elaborate further as active members of the sanctuary movement. Accessing students’ prior knowledge is a good place to start with any lesson, yet teaching content such as this in a Basic Spanish Class means it must be done carefully. We start with a brainstorm of vocabulary where I connect bubbles on chart paper. Then we take turns reading quotes I translated into Spanish from Dr. King’s speeches. Lucio chimes in when a translation doesn’t sound right or when he feels inspired to tell the students stories of his own experience.

He uses the verb “humillar” and the students look to me to translate. I explain humiliate in Spanish using all the simple words and gestures I can think of until they guess what it means. On a whim, we conjugate the verb “humillar” as a “regular-ar-verb-in-the-present-tense” and use it with different persons (i.e. I, you, she, we and they). One student claims she hasn’t ever used the verb “humiliate” in English before.

I tell the class that this verb is all too common in Lucio’s descriptions of his work experience. A pregnant pause follows. Lucio takes it in stride and tells us about something that happened earlier that morning. He had looked for the verb “humillar” with the Pastor Vicki Kemper and when they could not find it in the “501 Spanish Verbs”, she exclaimed, “¡Hay carrumba!”(Oh, my stars!). I chuckled that at least she didn’t use “The Lord’s name” in vain!

Everyone laughed and we moved on to using El Sol Latino to find words that started with each letter in the alphabet. I encouraged the students to use our free community newspaper to learn Spanish and find out about cultural events happening in the Pioneer Valley. One student found the “Cita del Mes” as a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King which brought our class nicely to a close. It goes without saying that we draw inspiration not merely from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., but also from Lucio Perez, our hero in residence.

During these icy months of sanctuary, these Basic Spanish classes create the kind of comradery that kindles our strength.

(To register for classes, see: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/spanish-practicesessions-with-lucio-tickets-41954145980.)

Senator Markey heard Lucio’s story and came to meet with him and his family ahead of a town hall discussion in Amherst in late January 2018.

Lucio Perez has been living at the First Congregational Church for 103 days.

Perez has been in the United States since 1999 with his wife and his children who were born here. After living in the US for almost two decades, the Trump administration and immigration officials are trying to deport him.

SOURCE Pioneer Valley Workers Center via their Facebook page

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El Sol Latino February 2018

Nuestras Raíces’ accomplishments in 2017 HOLYOKE (MA), January 25, 2018 - Even though the farming season has ended, Nuestras Raíces is still harvesting the lessons from this season and celebrating the bounty of our 25th anniversary as a leader in urban agriculture.

Margot Wise, Farm Production Manager at Nuestras Raíces stated that, “La Finca had an amazing year and produced more than 20 thousand pounds of produce, had close to 300 volunteers, and delivered 18 weeks of CSA’s to 25 families.”

Ms. Wise continued by talking about two of the greatest achievements of La Finca in 2017. “La Finca was at the Holyoke Farmers Market and was able to facilitate HIP and SNAP benefits which furthered the financial support of community members who brought fresh produce. 50% of the sales were HIP or SNAP transactions, and 25% consisted of WIC or senior coupons. The community also came to La Finca, as we hosted around 250 school children and more than 10 groups of educators, activists and college students that came to visit Nuestras Raíces’ Farm.”

Not too far from the farm’s productivity, Félix Machuca, Members and Gardens Coordinator at Nuestras Raíces expressed that, “Each year more than 100 families participate in our Community Gardens. Each family grows culturally appropriate fruits and vegetables for their own consumption and to share with friends and neighbors. Nuestras Raíces has gardens throughout the city of Holyoke, including some at schools and partnering community organizations.” Mr. Machuca is a great supporter of food access. He believes that community gardens are also one of the ways in which people can have access to healthy and fresh food. Mr. Machuca also exhorted the community to grow their own food for this new year, 2018.

Rafael Herrero, Farm Manager and Program Director of the New Farmers Training Program at Nuestras Raíces, was also very joyful to mention the graduation of the first 20 students of the New Farmers Training Program.

The graduation was this past October of 2017 it the patio of the main office of Nuestras Raíces. Mr. Herrero explained the program by saying: “The 100 Finqueros is a 100-hour program on organic farming and agricultural business planning where students learn all aspects of farm management for one full growing season, from planting seedlings to harvesting crops. We will start recruitment of our second class this coming February 2018.”

Nuestra Comida has continued to pursue shifts in the systems and policies that frame and perpetuate health and wealth disparities, most recently through racial justice work. Neftalí Durán, Manager of the Nuestra Comida Project at Nuestras Raíces, partnered with the Holyoke Community College.

NC hosted an important event this past May, the first annual Holyoke Food Justice Conference. This event brought together speakers from all over the country to discuss equitable food systems, systemic racism in our food system, the Farm Bill and the legacy of racist food policies, food chain workers’ rights, Puerto Rican crop history and development, indigenous rights and organizing at Standing Rock, and preserving traditional foodways.”

Mr. Durán mentioned that, “Food access is one of the greatest challenges our community faces, to the extent that of 11,300 Holyoke residents, more than 25% of the city’s population is considered low-income with low access to healthy food. To address this critical issue, NR applied for an MDAR grant and successfully built a Mobile Market, which will allow Nuestras Raíces to provide local food to the neighborhoods that are considered food deserts.

This will help us address the issue of food-related health issues that disproportionately affect the Latino community. The mobile market will not only serve as a platform for food distribution, but also for the distribution of nutrition information, accessible educational material, and food demonstrations, to make our approach to health intervention impactful on multiple levels.”

Hilda Roque, Executive Director of Nuestras Raeices was very excited of all the great work the organization did throughout 2017. Ms. Roque said, “In celebrating our 25th anniversary, we are so thankful to all of our community members, volunteers, collaborators and donors who have made this work possible. And, we will not stop this amazing work. Nuestras Raíces, will continue to advocate for the Latino community, and will continue to seek out ways to further the work of a more equitable food system and social justice in this 2018.”

Source: NUESTRAS RAÍCES

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Portada / Front Page

El Sol Latino February 2018

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Holyoke Community College ‘an economic powerhouse’ HOLYOKE (MA), January 23, 2018 — Students who graduate from Holyoke Community College with an associate degree will see an average increase in annual earnings of about $10,000 a year compared to those with only a high school diploma, according to a new report that calculates the total economic impact of HCC on the Pioneer Valley at nearly $215 million annually.

“By comparison,” the report says, “this contribution that the college provides on its own is almost as large as the entire Arts, Entertainment, & Recreation industry in this area.”

The analysis of HCC’s “economic value” was conducted by Emsi, an economic modeling firm whose clients include colleges and universities as well as some of the largest for-profit corporations in the U.S., such as Amazon and Coca-Cola. For this, Emsi based its conclusions on academic and financial reports from HCC, industry and employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau and other

construction projects and spending by students who relocate to the Pioneer Valley as well as spending by students who choose to remain in the area for college rather than go elsewhere. In FY 2015-2016, HCC served 8,243 credit students and 3,024 non-credit students.

The largest impact, though, comes from alumni — former students who continue to live and work in the region: $155.1 million, or enough to support 2,642 jobs, the report notes.

The study also examined the economic benefits of HCC from a student’s perspective, noting that those who complete their associate degree could expect to earn an average of $9,600 more per year than those with only a high school diploma.

“In return for their investment,” the report says, “HCC’s students will receive a stream of higher future earnings that will continue to grow through their working lives.”

Put another way, for every $1 students invest in their education (out-of-pocket expenses, interest on loans, foregone income while in school), they will earn $3.2, an average return of 12.7 percent.

“This is an impressive return, especially when compared to the 30-year average 10.1 percent of the U.S. stock market,” the report says.

The report also concludes that HCC represents a “a solid investment” for taxpayers, generating more in tax revenue than it takes in through state and local funding, $54.6 million, compared to $31.6 million, or a benefit-cost ratio of 1.8, an average rate of return of 4.5 percent.

surveys related to education and social behavior. The study, commissioned by the college, looked at data from 2015-2016. “When you talk about our impact, most people don’t think about our economic impact,” said HCC president Christina Royal. “They think about HCC offering education and the impact the college has directly on students’ lives in terms of their academic studies and career pathways. I don’t think people realize that HCC is an economic powerhouse in this region. This study puts a numerical value on what we do every day.”

For fiscal year 2016, which ended June 30, 2016, the study found that the total economic impact of the college on the economy in the three counties of the Pioneer Valley (Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin) was $214.6 million, or about 0.7 percent of the region’s GRP (Gross Regional Product).

That number includes direct spending by the college’s 991 full-time and part-time employees as well as operational spending by the college itself and accounts for a multiplier effect, which measures how that money works its way through the regional economy. The total also includes short-term

Massachusetts also benefits as a whole from the presence of HCC in two major ways: increased prosperity from an expanding economic base and savings generated by the improved lifestyles of students, most notably in a reduction in medical costs through improved health, reduced crime and lower employer contributions toward unemployment.

“The results of this study demonstrate that HCC creates value from multiple perspectives,” Emsi concludes. “The college benefits local businesses by increasing consumer spending in the region and supplying a steady flow of qualified, trained workers into the workforce. It enriches the lives of students by raising their lifetime earnings and helping them achieve their individual potential. It benefits state and local taxpayers through increased tax receipts across the state and a reduced demand for government-supported social services. Finally, it benefits society as a whole in Massachusetts by creating a more prosperous economy and generating a variety of savings through the improved lifestyle of students.”

Source: HOLYOKE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

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El Sol Latino February 2018

Naomi Klein en Puerto Rico: “No es shock, es el trauma lo que se ha estado explotando” por JOEL CINTRÓN ARBASETTI | El Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI) | 26 de enero 2018 impacto de la contaminación ambiental. Es importante recordar que lo que tenemos ahora mismo es una injusticia climática extrema”, dijo Klein en entrevista con el Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI).

Foto por Leandro Fabrizi | Centro de Periodismo Investigativo. Naomi Klein en entrevista con el CPI en Santurce, Puerto Rico.

La periodista canadiense Naomi Klein, que ha estado en zonas que se han transformado en terreno fértil para el negocio de grandes empresas luego de crisis económicas, guerras o desastres naturales -como en Irak luego de la invasión de Estados Unidos o en New Orleans después del huracán Katrina- se encuentra en Puerto Rico para reportar sobre un nuevo capítulo de lo que ella apalabró como “la doctrina del shock”.

Es una teoría del poder que plantea que las élites políticas y económicas saben que solo pueden adelantar agendas impopulares si se declara algún tipo de estado de excepción o de emergencia. A su vez, Klein documenta cómo las crisis y los desastres naturales se utilizan, cada vez más, como una oportunidad para hacer negocios. A esto ella le llama “capitalismo del desastre”, un concepto que explica en profundidad en su libro The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, publicado en 2007 y que ha calado en importantes foros internacionales y se popularizó hasta convertirse en uno de los más vendidos de la lista de The New York Times.

Klein está en la Isla para hacer investigación para The Intercept, uno de los medios con los que trabaja, y para participó el viernes, 26 de enero a las 10:00 am de un foro público llamado De los Desastres del Capitalismo al Capitalismo del Desastre: Resistencias y Alternativas, organizado en el anfiteatro de Estudios Generales del Recinto de Río Piedras de la Universidad de Puerto Rico por el grupo Profesores Autoconvocados en Resistencia Solidaria (PAReS), la Facultad de Estudios Generales, la Climate Justice Alliance y The Intercept.

En 2014 Klein publicó el libro Esto lo cambia todo: el capitalismo contra el clima, y uno sus propósitos al visitar la Isla es buscar respuestas a la pregunta de “cómo respondemos al cambio climático de una manera justa, que refleje el hecho de que son las personas más pobres, las cuales han hecho lo mínimo para crear esta crisis, las que están sufriendo el peor

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“Los puertorriqueños han estado viviendo la doctrina del shock por mucho tiempo, y creo que ha habido diferentes maneras, diferentes escenarios. Pero efectivamente, desde la crisis económica, y ha habido varias crisis económicas que han sido explotadas en Puerto Rico, pero hablando de la más reciente, y en especialmente desde PROMESA, tienes un ejemplo concreto donde se ha declarado un estado de excepción y de emergencia que se convierte en la excusa para echar a un lado cualquier pretensión de gobierno propio, a la que se suma esta agenda de privatización y austeridad que se empieza a introducir”, dijo.

El caso de Puerto Rico luego del huracán María, sobre el que ya ha escrito para The Intercept, es tan peculiar que la ha hecho repensar el concepto con el que ha descrito tantos escenarios desde hace una década.

“Es una forma diferente, tal vez no es la doctrina del shock, tal vez sea algo más. A lo mejor tenga que re escribir o escribir un nuevo capítulo que se llame la doctrina del trauma, porque no es shock, es el trauma lo que se ha estado explotando y eso es diferente y sorprendente”, agregó Klein, quien adscribió el concepto a conversaciones con la antropóloga puertorriqueña Yarimar Bonilla, que planteó la propuesta de una secuela de Klein que se llame “La doctrina del trauma”. Bonilla es investigadora y profesora de Antropología y Estudios Caribeños en la Universidad de Rutgers, así como co-fundadora del proyecto Puerto Rico Syllabus, que recoge documentos importantes sobre la crisis de la deuda de Puerto Rico.

Según la periodista parte de este trauma ha sido causado por la lentitud de la respuesta de la administración del presidente Donald Trump, una figura que aborda en su último libro ‘No’ no es suficiente, en donde lo describe como “un monstruo de Frankenstein tejido con partes del cuerpo de todas las tendencias político económicas más peligrosas: el creciente poder de la riqueza privada sobre el sistema políticos, la imposición global del neoliberalismo usando frecuentemente el racismo y el miedo al ‘otro’ como una herramienta potente, el impacto dañino del libre mercado corporativo y la negación del cambio climático entre la derecha del espectro político”.

El ejemplo concreto de la doctrina del shock y el capitalismo del desastre en Puerto Rico: El lunes el gobernador Ricardo Rosselló anunció que comenzará el proceso de privatización de la Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica (AEE).

Aunque desde hace tiempo la idea de vender la corporación pública ha estado en boca de políticos de los partidos principales, de algunos economistas y comentaristas de los medios de comunicación, no es hasta ahora que se presenta el escenario perfecto para llevar a cabo la

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Portada / Front Page

El Sol Latino February 2018

9

Naomi Klein en Puerto Rico continued from page 8 privatización de la AEE. Es el momento más agudo de la crisis fiscal y económica, con las finanzas bajo dominio de una junta de control impuesta por el Congreso, en medio de un proceso de quiebra gubernamental, con la migración en su punto más alto en décadas, luego del golpe de dos huracanes consecutivos y mientras el país aún no se recupera del trauma causado por la catástrofe atmosférica.

“Nuestro pueblo ha enfrentado situaciones de grandes sacrificios y juntos, con gran esfuerzo, estamos superando los efectos que nos dejó el huracán María. Todavía nos falta mucho en el camino hacia la total recuperación, pero superando la adversidad, también se presentan grandes oportunidades para construir un nuevo Puerto Rico”, dijo Rosselló en su anuncio de la privatización de la AEE. Después de tantos años de observar la misma técnica del shock y los efectos del capitalismo del desastre, como en New Orleans, donde casi todo el sistema público de enseñanza fue sustituido por escuelas charter luego del huracán Katrina, hasta los agricultores de Sri Lanka que fueron expulsados de sus tierras luego de un tsunami en 2004 para construir un resort, Klein dice que ya es más que conocida la lista de deseos (el wishlist) de ciertos grupos políticos y económicos.

“Privatizar grandes partes de la economía de Puerto Rico, escuelas charter, privatizar la electricidad, los puertos. Todavía hay mucho para vender aquí y pudieron lograr parte de esa agenda. Pero también tuvieron tropiezos. Yo creo que la gran manifestación del 1 de mayo, de los maestros y padres organizándose para detener el cierre de escuelas, no les va a hacer tan fácil salirse con la suya. Así que creo que lo que veremos post-María es este volver a su trinchera y retomar, en este momento en que la gente está enfocada en lo que debería estar enfocada, que es su familia, su salud, su seguridad. Si viviéramos en un mundo decente, no estaríamos teniendo esta conversación”.

Klein estuvo acompañada en el foro por Ruth Santiago de la Iniciativa de Eco Desarrollo de Bahía de Jobos (IDEBAJO), Elizabeth Yeampierre de UPROSE y Climate Justice Alliance, Eva Prados Rodríguez del Frente Ciudadano por la Auditoría de la Deuda y Mariolga Reyes Cruz de PAReS. El evento fué transmitido por http://generales.uprrp.edu/.

JOEL CINTRÓN ARBASETTI Comenzó su práctica periodística como fotógrafo y redactor para la revista de cultura urbana Noctámbulo. Luego fundó su blog “Post-Data”, donde cubría la escena de música y arte subterránea mientras hacía su bachillerato en Periodismo en la Universidad del Sagrado Corazón. Colaboró con el semanario Claridad y con Diálogo, donde trabajó mientras cursaba su maestría en Teoría de la Comunicación en la Escuela de Comunicación de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras. Escribió para la publicación El Rehén, ha colaborado con la Revista Cruce y fue parte del equipo de 80grados.net. En 2012 comenzó a trabajar con el Centro de Periodismo Investigativo. Síguelo en @JCArbasetti o escribe a jcintron@periodismoinvestigativo.com.

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Opinión / Opinion

El Sol Latino February 2018

Taxes, the Military and the Assault on the Poor by MIGUEL ARCE and WALTER MULLIN In January, President Trump signed the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act”, his first major legislative victory since his election. He initiated the bill claiming that tax burden, government regulations and social spending hamper the economy’s growth. The Senate passed the bill by a party-line vote of 51 to 48. No House Democrats supported the bill. According to CNN, the tax cuts decrease funding by $5 trillion over the next decade.

The federal government raises trillions of dollars in tax revenues each year.

Taxes fund government operations, including numerous programs that assist people who are living in poverty. With the new plan, taxes for corporations were reduced from 35 percent to 21 percent, thus dramatically reducing the amount of money available to the government. President Trump and others promoted their tax bill on the idea that when businesses profit, they pass along higher wages to their employees and create new jobs. The assumption is that this will ultimately assist people in poverty. Robert Reich former Secretary of Labor and current professor at the University of California at Berkeley, however, claims that the mega corporations who benefit from the tax law changes will not create more jobs and job creation will not “trickle down”. Others believe the tax cuts are nothing more than a money grab for the richest one percent who has 40 percent of the nation’s wealth.

The loss in tax revenue will be at the expense of dozens of federal programs.

Trump has already put the nation on notice that he plans to slash critical safety net programs. At same time, according to CNN, Trump will boost the military by 10% cutting non-defense spending at the State Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Environmental Protection Agency and dozens of other federal programs. According to the Congressional Budget Office, 13 million low income Americans will lose their health coverage as a result of the newly legislative tax law.

As Trump plans to cut social programs, he plans to dramatically increase military spending. One of the enduring myths in society is that wars are good for the economy. President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned the American public about the organization of the military industrial complex and the monetary and political gains offered by wars. “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” (Dwight D. Eisenhower, the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953). According to the National Priorities Project, in fiscal year 2018, military spending is projected to account for 54 percent of all federal discretionary spending. Military spending includes all regular activities of the Department of Defense; war spending; nuclear weapons spending; international military assistance; and other Pentagonrelated spending. One Virginia Class submarine, which cost $2.3 billion, would provide health insurance for 152,590 families’ health insurance. One B-2 Stealth bomber, which cost $1.01 billion, would buy health insurance for 67,007 families. One Abram tank cost $6,210,000 would buy health insurance for 412 families.

The war machine is booming. The United States has a long history of wartime taxation to finance military conflicts in the past. War is profitable.

There is an impact of the war economy on children. Trump is waging a war on children.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican, said that the new discretionary budget will not have enough money for “entitlements”, a common way of referring to social programs. Although he defines these programs as the problem, his statement highlights that in the Washington political arena, military spending and support for struggling Americans are pitted against one another. This minimizes children’s lives. In cutting

Dr. Walter Mullin, Professor of Social Work and Miguel Arce, Associate Professor of Social Work at Springfield College.

funds for Medicare and Medicaid, health insurance benefits for the poor, children’s health care will be limited. The rationale for these cuts is that health insurance is the responsibility of the individual, a way of thinking that might work for people with resources but does not work those without these resources.

This change in health care benefits was built into the new tax structure by a change in the “individual health care mandate” that previously required Americans to purchase health care. The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) supported 8.9 million children last year. Children who get adequate health care do better in life. They are more likely to live more productive lives. The tax give away to the wealth and the growing military budget have frighteningly high human and financial cost that cannot be measured. War does not benefit the economy. Military spending is opportunity lost for children. The war economy does not help the service economy. In fact, investment in submarines, planes or tanks take away from the long term development of children.

This guest opinion is one in a series on living in poverty. Dr. Walter Mullin (wmullin@springfieldcollege.edu), Professor of Social Work and Miguel Arce (marce@springfieldcollege.edu), Associate Professor of Social Work at Springfield College.

Opinión / Opinion

11 NiLP Commentary

El Sol Latino February 2018

The Politics of Kicking the DACA Can Down the Road

by ANGELO FALCÓN | The NiLP Report | January 23, 2018

The Democrats’ compromise to support the Continuing Resolution to end the government shutdown in exchange for a tenuous Mitch McConnell commitment to a February NiLP Commentary 8th DACA vote has been sharply criticized by immigrant rights advocates as yet another instance of the party caving to the Republicans on this issue. But did Senator Charles Schumer really have much choice?

As the DACA issue took center stage in the Congressional debate over the shutdown, it has begun to get some pushback as well. This was the case because it clearly overshadowed in the media other issues important to Democratic constituencies, such as the Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP), recovery aid for Puerto Rico, as well as national security. But the most ironic aspect of this is the way the DACA issue is also overshadowing broader immigration concerns, as Trump is clearly zeroing in on eliminating “chain immigration,” the diversity visa lottery and promoting a merit-based approach.

Why it is increasingly being asked, are the Democrats so focused on DACA to the seeming neglects of these other issues? After all, when they controlled the Congress at the start of the Obama Presidency, they did little to promote immigration reform, and Obama pursued a “deporter-inchief” strategy to unsuccessfully show Republicans he was tough on the undocumented. Even when pressed on using the executive order route to limited immigration reforms, he initially protested that he didn’t think this could be done legally.

Now that the Democrats are in the minority, it is widely understood that at most they have the power to block legislation, not enact it. As a result, it appeared pretty clear that they would have to punt on the DACA issue so that the ability to get McConnell to agree to discuss DACA renewal while sounding like a weak short-term solution could be the most the Democrats could have negotiated. The alternative, holding out for a more extended government shutdown on this single issue was always politically problematic. Would it be seen as responsible for a shutdown to affect the anticipated Democratic wave election this year? While no one knows for sure it would, no one really knows for sure it wouldn’t. But the Democrats’ blocking power could be used creatively to stop some of Trump’s immigration deformation ideas.

While it appears that there is still time, and bipartisan support, for a DACA extension, the question keeps coming up, at what cost to broader immigration reform issues? DACA presents immigrant rights advocates with a painful Sophie’s Choice dilemma. Protect the upwardly-mobile DACA recipients at the expense of their undocumented parents who they put in peril (and themselves) by merely applying to the program? And for what is only a temporary fix. Who, after all, would have imagined on the early evening of November 8, 2016, that we would be in the midst of a Trump reign of immigration terror campaign today? No one, not even Trump.

If Schumer’s Democratic Establishment had taken a hard line on DACA and the shutdown, this would have also created Sophie’s Choice regarding

such things as children’s health services and the recovery of hurricane-devastated Puerto Rico.

Being in the minority, Democratic leadership options are greatly limited to the point of the use of symbolism in a long ball game in a political environment never seen before. An environment that on the same day saw both an inspiring and massive Women’s March and the most extreme version of a federal government meltdown resulting in a hugely unpopular brief government shutdown. How does one project politically from this seemingly contradictory conjuncture?

The hope, of course, is that on February 8th we actually see at least an extension of DACA, if not a more long-term granting of legalization status.

But it is also clear that Trump’s base seems to be pulling him more and more to the Right on immigration and other issues as the DACA advocates’ pressure increases. The irony here is that pro-DACA arguments include that most have good jobs, benefitted from the US educational system and are fitting into American society. These are exactly the things that bother the Right about these “illegals.” The arguments being made for DACA may be increasing opposition, not support, for its extension. That’s how weird the immigration debate has become in Trump’s America.

It seems we have to be prepared as well for the possibility of the ending of DACA. It raises questions about the practicality of deporting these 800,000 and the millions of undocumented family members. While we see the effects on Latino communities under ICE attacks in random raids on workplaces, courtrooms and people’s homes, and surprise deportations from routine immigration check-ins, a post-DACA world in which the federal government has each target’s address and family connections in writing is simply terrifying.

While this represents a serious misunderstanding of the role of immigration in American society, the frustrating part is that it is a conscious misunderstanding. A supposedly commonsense understanding of the need for a merit-based immigration policy when aren’t these the good jobs Americans should want and something that ignores the low-wage jobs Americans really don’t want? Is fair immigration reform even possible under such a radically ideologically-driven Trump-Republican regime? The major dilemma facing the DACA protestors today is that they are operating under the assumption that the American political system is currently functioning under relatively normal parameters. Unfortunately, it is not, making Schumer’s long ball strategy possibly the only game in town despite its short-term limitations and consequences.

Angelo Falcón is President of the National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP).

He is the author most recently of the NiLP Commentary, “The End of the Puerto Rican?” He can be reached at afalcon@latinopolicy.org.

The NiLP Report on Latino Policy & Politics is an online information service provided by the National Institute for Latino Policy. For further information, visit www.latinopolicy. org. Send comments to editor@latinopolicy.org.

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12

Opinión / Opinion

El Sol Latino February 2018

Colonial Reparations for Puerto Rico: A Framework for a Post-Colonial Transition

by ANGELO FALCÓN | The NiLP Report | December 18, 2017

“The reparations debate is threatening because it completely upends the usual narrative of development. It suggests that poverty in the global south is not a natural phenomenon, but has been actively created. And it casts western countries in the role not of benefactors, but of plunderers.”

--- Jason Hickel, “Enough of aid - let’s talk reparations,” The Guardian (Nov. 27, 2015)

The current post-hurricane discourse on the need for the United States to come to the aid of a devastated Puerto Rico is based on two basic claims that ignore the colonial relationship between them. One is that the responsibility to come rescue of the people of Puerto Rico because they are US citizens. The other is the more basic appeal to urgently address the humanitarian crisis facing the Island.

As has become evident as a result of the massive debt crisis facing Puerto Rico, the statutory citizenship bestowed upon the Puerto Rican people by the United States Congress in 1917 has been consistently treated as a second-class variety. Just last year, two federal court decisions and the adoption by Congress of the PROMESA Act creating an unelected fiscal oversight board for the Island, have further starkly codified Puerto Rico’s colonial status, in the event anyone had any doubts about it.

The humanitarian crisis appeal is also undermined by US policies and politics. This crisis was exacerbated by natural forces that simply highlighted a politics of political and economic dependency on the United States that underdeveloped Puerto Rico and deformed its politics. As the current crisis unfolds, it is becoming more apparent how US treatment of the Island economically, politically and socially have resulted in a fragile infrastructure, in different senses, that easily and finally completely broke under the force of Hurricane Maria.

These realities raise the question of within which framework the future development needs to rest. It has been interesting that, despite a colonial history under both the United States and Spain that the claim to colonial reparations has not been raised in the current debate.

In his 2002 law review article, “Reparations Theory and Postcolonial Puerto Rico: Some Preliminary Thoughts,” Pedro A. Malavet argues that the colonial status of Puerto Rico requires a reparations theory that provides a framework for its transition to an urgently needed post-colonial status. He explains that the economic implications of post-colonial alternatives: “. . . Involve expenditures by the colonial power, the United States, to compensate the colonized people, the Puerto Ricans. These payments are essential both for the construction of local political power for Puerto Ricans, and to create a viable Puerto Rican economy that supports real equal opportunity for puertorriqueñas y puerlorriqueños, thus repairing the legacy of political, economic, and psychological colonization by the United States.

These legal changes and payments can be characterized as reparations, as defined in contemporary critical jurisprudence.”

Malavet outlines three components of colonial reparations theory: 1. Citizenship Reparations, which he quotes Eric Yamamoto as describing as reparations for the:

. . . restructuring of the institutions and relationships that gave rise to the underlying justice grievance. Otherwise, as a philosophical and practical matter, reparations cannot be effective in addressing root problems of misuse of power, particularly in the maintenance of oppressive systemic structures, or integrated symbolically into a group’s (or government’s) moral foundation for responding to intergroup conflicts or for urging others to restructure oppressive relationships. This means that monetary reparations are important, but not simply as individual compensation. Money is important to facilitate the process of personal and community “repair ....”.

2. Land and Monetary Reparations. He argues that: . . . reparations will have to include the return of the military lands to Puerto Ricans, as well as their environmental cleanup. 16 1 Moreover, the Puerto Rican economy will have to be made to work for Puerto Ricans, not just for U.S. taxpayers and investors.

Currently, Puerto Ricans on the island have a mean per capita income of less than one-third of the national U.S. average.

Additionally, they have received only a fraction of the federal benefits to which any other U.S. citizens are entitled. Reparations theory can well inform a resolution to these land and economic problems.

3. Psychological Reparations. Malavet points out that... “. . . perhaps even more important than money is a full disclosure by the government of the United States of the benefits that it has derived from the century-old U.S.-Puerto Rico relationship, both in the private and public economies. This is essential in undoing the myth of Puerto Rico as a dependent U.S. welfare-state that only drains the U.S. economy. Moreover, full disclosure of the political repression the anti-independence violence and police-state tactics that target any political dissent that the United States chooses to label as ‘anti-American.’ The distinction between public enemy and political opponent is especially important in the post-September 11 United States. Once a full disclosure is made, the Puerto Ricans can be in a position to evaluate the adequateness of any other type of reparations, including apology.”

While Malavet focuses on the United States, such claims for reparations should also be extended to Spain, which controlled Puerto Rico since the 16th century to 1898. This initially involved the introduction of slavery through first the repartimiento system and the exploitation of the Island’s gold mines. This was a period that resulted in the almost total extermination of the Island’s indigenous population. Through actions such as the Royal Decree of Grace, Spain appropriated and distributed land in Puerto Rico to its citizens and other foreigners. This transfer of lands by Spain culminated in its ceding the entire Island to the United States in 1898. These exploitations and genocidal practices by Spain in Puerto Rico were never accounted for as the Island’s ownership switched hands to the Americans.

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Opinión / Opinion

13 NiLP Commentary

El Sol Latino February 2018

Colonial Reparations for Puerto Rico continued from page 12 Malevet focuses on Puerto Rico, but it is also essential to view the Puerto Rican diaspora stateside as victims of this colonialism. As Eduardo Melendez points out in his new book, Sponsored Migration, the government of Puerto Rico designed policies, with the support of the US government, to push for a massive migration of Puerto Ricans stateside as part of its economic development strategy. This turned much of Puerto Rico’s population into a racial minority within the United States that experiences economic exploitation as largely low-wage workers, along with racial and ethnic discrimination and other major social and economic dislocations.

One result today is a community that suffers the highest poverty rate of any Latino group, 23 percent, double that of non-Latino Whites. This is also a migration that has cost Puerto Rico a loss of some of its most valued labor and expertise, creating harmful demographic age distortions.

NiLP was the first, in 2015, to publically point to the need for a massive Marshall Plan-type of federal assistance to debt-ridden Puerto Rico, a position since taken up by many Democratic Party Congressional leaders.

Today, the level of support being provided by Congress and some policies it has adopted, such as the GOP tax plan, will create further severe economic and social problems for Puerto Rico. It appears that appeals to address the Island’s humanitarian crisis or the need to come to the rescues of its US citizens are not the proper frameworks for dealing with Puerto Rico’s longterm needs. This points to the need for a different framework from which to approach this problem, a framework that takes as its basis the notion of reparations as a transition to a post-colonial status for Puerto Rico.

A reparations approach to the long-term needs of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican people will require historical and economic research to determine the amount and types of necessary reparations. The usual way of doing this is with the establishment of a nonpartisan commission with the legitimacy and resources to accomplish this task. This would also require the ability to take these claims to an international body, like the United Nations, to adjudicate its legitimacy and resolution.

It is becoming more evident that the future of Puerto Rico cannot be resolved solely through a biased United States legal and political framework.

There is a need to go beyond it and current bases of appeals for assistance being made to the United States. Puerto Ricans should instead be demanding reparations from the United States (and Spain) for its shameful history of colonialism. The United States, in effect, leaves the Puerto Rican people no choice. As Hickel points out, we should not be viewing the United States as a benefactor, but rather as a plunderer. Plunderers, it stands to reason, must eventually be brought to justice.

Angelo Falcón is President of the National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP).

He is the author most recently of the NiLP Commentary, “The End of the Puerto Rican?” He can be reached at afalcon@latinopolicy.org.

The NiLP Report on Latino Policy & Politics is an online information service provided by the National Institute for Latino Policy. For further information, visit www.latinopolicy. org. Send comments to editor@latinopolicy.org.

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Libros / Books

El Sol Latino February 2018

Eva: una aventura de Lorenzo Falcó por ARTURO PÉREZ-REVERTE • Alfaguara, 2017. 400 páginas.

Es la época confusa y brutal de la guerra civil española (1936-1939). Violenta época cuando los nacionales, inspirados por su líder el general Francisco Franco, luchaban contra los republicanos fieles a la Segunda República. Guerra en la cual metieron las manos los fascistas de Italia y los nazis de Alemania apoyaron a los nacionales, mientras que las manos soviéticas de Rusia ayudaron a los republicanos.

En ese mundo el autor español Arturo Pérez-Reverte mete al protagonista, Lorenzo Falcó, en su última novela Eva. Esta la segunda en una serie de cuatro novelas que el autor propone escribir donde el asesino Falcó desempeña el papel principal. Lo coloca en el puerto que da al Mediterráneo, en el país de Túnez al norte de África, país supuestamente neutro en cuanto al conflicto que desgarraba España en aquella época.

Es precisamente en este puerto donde se centra el conflicto principal de la novela. Se anclan allí dos barcos españoles y Falcó sirve de intermediario cuando los dos capitanes se reúnen. El capitán Fernando Quirós del más viejo Mount Castle estaba del lado de los republicanos y “teóricamente …había debido acatar las órdenes de [Juan] Trejo [del Partido Comunista español] y de los agentes soviéticos a bordo…”

El capitán don Antonio Navia del destructor Martín Álvarez, el más grande y más moderno de los barcos, se declara del lado de los nacionales. Participa en la “sublevación militar”, diciendo “soy marino, soy católico y amo a España. Me sublevé contra el caos de la República por mis ideas, y hago la guerra para cumplir con mi deber…” Declara que sus órdenes son “mantener la vigilancia del Mount Castle.” Dice, “Voy a intentar que el capitán del Mount Castle se pase a nuestro bando, con el barco.” Y si éste se hace a la mar, hay que apresarlo, y si no se rinde, “Lo hundiré…Frente a mi destructor no tiene posibilidad.”

Pero el Mount Castle lleva treinta toneladas de oro del Banco de España destinado a Rusia que iba a guardarlas. Y a la amenaza de Navia, Quirós le pregunta: -- ¿Lo hundiría usted con el oro a bordo?

-- No le quepa duda.

-- Pero, ¿su misión no es apoderarse del cargamento?

-- Lo haré si puedo. De lo contrario, si una vez fuera de aguas tangerinas el mercante no atiende mis señales u ofrece combate, lo echaré a pique.

Lleve oro o estampas milagrosas.

Pocos días quedan antes de que el gobierno de Túnez exige que salgan los barcos españoles de su puerto.

A pesar de que Falcó parece estar del lado de la falange leal al general Franco, es más bien un militar aventurero que asesina a los que le encomienda su jefe El Almirante. Falcó es un hombre solitario, “a gun for

hire,” y a pesar de que declara que, “Tengo planes más atractivos: mujeres, cigarillos, restaurantes,” “Durante casi dos décadas, los años y la experiencia le habían afinado los instintos y afilada la navaja.” Vive con el “práctico principio profesional: antes de arriesgarse en un lugar, decidir por donde abandonarlo, si era necesario ir con prisas.” Y confiesa que “Hoy podría matar sin reparos a un ser humano…Y lo haría solo por eso.

Por desahogo. Por el alivio de matar.”

Sin embargo, a ratos, Falcó busca los brazos y el amor de las mujeres, y en esta novela le intriga y le fascina Eva Neretva, una espía rusa. Esta se caracteriza por “la fe comunista convencida y fría, casi religiosa, en la causa a la que dedicaba su vida…[la] lucha internacional del hombre contra hombre, para liberar al hombre incluso a pesar de él mismo. Causa despiadada, feroz, sin concesiones ni sentimientos.” Falcó la caracteriza como “una pistola metida en una barra de hielo.”

A pesar de que luchan en lados enemigos, en varias ocasiones ella se encuentra en peligro y Falcó la rescata.

Leer esta novela que mezcla historia con ficción es experimentar algo de la confusa época bárbara de la guerra civil española y las crecientes tensiones en los países de Europa, Inglaterra y Rusia, tensiones que explotaron poco después en la primera guerra mundial.

Pérez-Reverte debe de haber hecho muchos estudios de la historia de aquella época porque capta la intriga y los peligros de vivir en aquellos días.

Alterna episodios de gran tensión, incluso en el comienzo de la novela, con largos momentos de descripción e historia. Si no fuera por los dos barcos enemigos atracados en el muelle para dirigir la tensión de la novela, el lector pudiera perderse en las intrigas que parecen no llegar a ningún lado.

Varias veces Falcó recuerda con melancolía escenas del pasado que aparecen en la primera novela de la serie, sobre todo escenas en las que figura Eva. Hay bastante brutalidad y el lector duda si debe admirar al protagonista Falcó, o aceptar que sólo así se puede existir en tal ambiente amenazador.

En una entrevista que aparece en La Nueva España titulada “La sociedad valora más la riqueza y la moda que la dignidad” sobre su recién publicado El Tango de la Guardia Vieja, el periodista Rafa López le comenta a PérezReverte que, “En la novela pasa de puntillas sobre la Guerra Civil.” Éste le contesta que “No paso de puntillas, simplemente no me interesa narrativamente. Es una materia que no me interesa como novelista.” Con Eva parece que ha cambiado de manera de pensar.

Reseña de Cathleen C. Robinson, profesora jubilada del castellano y de la historia de la América Latina que ahora se dedica a escribir.

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Ciencias / Science

El Sol Latino February 2018

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What can we do about Climate Change? by BRYAN SALAS-SANTIAGO | bryansalas0815@gmail.com In the last few months we have been discussing what climate change is, how we know it is real, and how human activity is the main cause of it.

Knowing that humans are the main cause of climate change, it is necessary to discuss how we can improve our lifestyles and become the solution to this problem. In the scientific literature, Canadian scientists from the University of British Columbia, Seth Wynes and Kimberly A. Nicholas, have done an outstanding job in categorizing how much impact our actions have on our planet based in carbon emissions (Carbon Dioxide).

To start, we need to categorize our actions and how much of an impact these have when trying to modify our behavior to help the climate. We can categorize our actions in three groups based on the impact they have on the climate; we can have low impact, moderate impact, and high impact actions. A low impact action to help the climate is upgrading light bulbs.

Upgrading to LED bulbs is the simplest way we could start helping the climate. These bulbs require less energy to turn on which will lead to less consumption of fossil fuels. But remember, while it is great to upgrade light bulbs, it is not enough since they have a very low impact in the overall plan to try helping the climate.

Secondly, we have moderate impact actions. An example of these actions are recycling, washing clothes with cold water, hanging clothes to dry (instead of using a dryer), and replacing your car for a hybrid or more efficient one. Most of these actions are directly avoiding the use of our current source of energy that relies directly in burning fossil fuels.

Changing our current behavior in these actions is both great and necessary, but if we are really trying to do something big to our climate we need to pay attention to actions with the highest impact.

High impact actions are, in my opinion, the hardest ones to achieve and sometimes can be controversial for some. To start, it is recommended to change our diet. Eating a plant-based diet will be the optimum way to positively impact our climate by reducing our meat consumption, especially cattle. For more details in how cattle affect our climate, I will recommend reading my past column about deforestation that discusses this problem.

Credit: NASA Global Climate Change

Avoiding one transatlantic flight yearly has a huge impact on our climate.

Some scientists have estimated that to recover from each transatlantic flight we need to plant around 400 trees. This suggests that having fewer flights can greatly impact our climate for the better. Buying green energy is one of the most important actions we must take. Think about all the actions I have mentioned that are affected because of the energy source we use.

Switching to green energy will be very helpful because, for example, when during the winter you cannot hang your clothes to dry out, using your dryer with green energy will dry clothes without using fossil fuels. Also, this effect helps if we have electric cars. Having an electric car, but using fossil fuels as the energy source does not solve the problem, but switching to green energy will greatly impact the climate. In addition, reducing our car usage, using public transportation, or optimally living car free (specially in cities) is one of the highest impact actions we can do.

All of these actions needed to be done by all of us to help our planet recover. However, the highest impact action we can do, especially if we are living in a developed country like the USA, is having smaller families. This action has been estimated to have around 30 times more impact to the climate than living car free, which is the second highest impact action we could do. Having fewer children, though controversial for some, is the single most important action we could take. Think about how much waste, energy consumption, food, car drives, etc. are needed for a single human being. This alone can give an idea of the magnitude humanity’s lifestyle negatively impacts the climate.

In my opinion, we need to be conscious about our actions and understand their consequences. We need to understand that we are making our planet sicker and sicker every day, but we need to understand that we also have the power to change this. I encourage everyone to read my last two columns about Climate Change for a better understanding of the issue. In addition, if interested, I welcome everybody to directly visit the scientific literature which describes the impact actions I discussed in today’s column present in: “The Climate Mitigation Gap: Education and Government Recommendations vs. Effective Individual Actions” Wynes S. and Nicholas K. 2017 Environ. Res. Lett. 12 074024”.

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El Sol Latino February 2018

Temporada 2017-2018 THE MESSAGE Jueves, Febrero 22, 7:30 p.m.

Bowker Auditorium, Stockbridge Hall The Message es realmente un conjunto de estrellas.

Sus seis miembros, Donald Harrison (alto saxofón), Billy Pierce (tenor y saxofón soprano), Brian Lynch (trompeta), Zaccai Curtis (piano), Carl Allen (percusión), y Essiet Essiet (bajo), colectivamente tienen décadas de experiencia haciendo presentaciones de jazz en vivo y en grabaciones.

Cuatro de los seis miembros de The Message son alumni del Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, el icónico conjunto de jazz que tocó en conciertos desde los años 50 hasta1990.

Estos se unen para revivir la tradición de swingin’ y hard-bop de los Messengers con un enfoque en los arreglos de piezas del Jazz Messenger hechos por renombrados compositores tales como Wayne Shorter, Cedar Walton, Benny Golson, Lee Morgan, y Freddie Hubbard, siempre tocando composiciones originales que respetan las raíces del conjunto.

El mensaje musical de The Message es uno que solamente se pone mejor con la edad.

Precios de entrada $35, $25; Estudiantes de los Five College & jóvenes de 17 años ó menores $10; Under40TIX $25 Llame al Box Office para ver si usted o alguien de su grupo es elegible para un descuento.

Charla previa a la presentación en el Bowker Auditorium a las 6:30pm.

¡HAY MUCHO MAS!

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Para boletos: 413-545-2511, 800-999-UMAS o visite fineartscenter.com