Hubby and I just spent a desperately needed week on vacation in Puerto Rico. The resort we went to last time, The Ritz Carlton was still under construction post-storm. We stayed at the next door resort, at the Marriot instead. What can I say? The room was good. The view was magnificent, the bed was hard, and the food was not the best. at all.
Of course, all that was to be expected. We chose to stay in Puerto Rico because we knew that our vacation money was best spent in the land our administration has forgotten... and so we did. That was our decision. And so, we grinned, bared through any discomforts, spent a ton on meals left unfinished, enjoyed the beach and each other.
As is customary, we did venture off the resorts. We spent a day in Old San Juan, which while interesting, was difficult. The plan was to get a taxi to the old fort and tour that and the museum. The traffic there was bad, and the driver insisted he would drop us off close enough. Put us where we could get the bus there, that never came. We ended up on a bus that got us a few blocks closer and a few hills closer, but we ended up walking a couple miles and by the time we got to the fort, I knew I was too tired to make it through the tour and so just walked the grounds and enjoyed the view.
Afterwards, we walked through a pretty creepy neighborhood to find a local restaurant. The food was OK, but our stomachs were a little off for the rest of the week.
Another night, the night before the tour, we took a cab to an Italian Restaurant. The food was not bad, and the conversation was ... tense. Let's just say hubby is a very curious and asked the waiter questions that weren't exactly welcomed. This waiter in particular, had very strong opinions about the government, and about the US and they were all hostile. I asked about education on the island, which everyone knows is a disaster, and his opinion was "what about it- once" kids can read, who cares"
Now as a former homeschooling parent, I kinda feel the same way, but how many parents are going to take that child's ability to read and run with it? How many are going to back off the struggle to just survive to ensure their child experiences a higher level of education? How many who don't just flee the island are going to be left vulnerable to those coming onto the island to take advantage of the "poor natives" because they are uneducated. How long before Puerto Rico is no longer a residential island, but a giant gentrified resort? That is where it seems things are going, you know. As a US territory, the residents are free to move to the US and large corporations and buying up the land to make dollars off of it. It is quite disheartening.
I would love to find a way to get more people on the island to accept the job of educating their own children, and even providing private scholarshipped higher education. I don't know. But something has to be done.
Other interesting things I learned while in Puerto Rico:
Puerto Ricans have been used as lab rats: https://waragainstallpuertoricans.com/2016/08/30/puerto-ricans-are-being-used-as-medical-guinea-pigs-again/
Puerto Rican women were the first to be tested with birth control pills: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/05/09/guinea-pigs-or-pioneers-how-puerto-rican-women-were-used-to-test-the-birth-control-pill/?utm_term=.4a08643a5437
Nerve gas tested on blacks and Puerto Ricans http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/06/24/pentagon-use-race-ethnicity-for-world-war-ii-mustard-gas-experiments-on.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1974/09/the-nerve-gas-controversy/376284/
American laws hurt Puerto Rico http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/28/news/economy/jones-act-puerto-rico/index.html
So as I sit in my comfy home after dumping a ton of money in Puerto Rico in exchange for a week of rest and a sobering education, my question is, is there anything else I can do that doesn't reek of gentrification or a stuck-up American thinking they know better?
