Except for the Taíno, we’ve never known existing without a foreign power ultimately in control-we are citizens, yes, but without full political rights-and we’re grappling with this history now. To this day, divorcing yourself from that reality does a disservice to the people who live here. It will take years to finish removing the unexploded ordnance on Vieques and Culebra islands, from the decades of U.S. The legal word for our status is “territory,” but this is a land completely shaped by colonialism and conflict. Puerto Rico is considered the world’s oldest colony. You know? It wasn’t until I began to learn more deeply about these episodes that many of the injustices I was seeing, in the present, started to make sense. citizens in 1917, in 1951 there was a referendum, our constitution was written, we lived happily ever after. “happened” into possession of it, Puerto Ricans were made U.S. When I was a child in San Juan schools, a lot of our story was glossed over: The islands were “discovered” by Christopher Columbus, the Taíno Indians were decimated, the U.S. This place that is beautiful-and enjoyable, and a tourist destination-has a complicated history that’s important to understand, for both visitors and locals. I’m Puerto Rican, and by photographing it like this, I’m trying to make a point. That beach with a tank, Flamenco, has been named one of the top 10 beaches in the world. This is one of eight stories from The Past Is Present project, a collaboration between National Geographic and For Freedoms.
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