Dancing to maracas and drums: Philly celebrates as Puerto Rican governor resigns
Community supporters and local residents joined at a gathering they have called La Primera Victoria —Spanish for the first victory.
It’s been a weeklong wait for Puerto Ricans in Philly to celebrate the ousting of island Gov. Ricardo Rosselló. Here, about 75 community supporters and local residents joined at Fairhill Square Park on Fourth Street and Lehigh Avenue to dance bomba at a gathering they have called La Primera Victoria — Spanish for the first victory.
Rev. Roberto Luis Lugo, a community organizer and pastor for the Reino de Dios Community Church, gathered the crowd to pray for the liberty of Puerto Rico:
“We demand a decolonization process for the island,” he said, “and that all governments be held responsible for what they’ve done.”
Rosselló announced his resignation July 24 after corruption and messaging scandals rocked his administration two weeks prior. He was two years and seven months into his four-year term.
The second-youngest politician to ever govern Puerto Rico and the first to resign from the position has a controversial successor: Pedro Pierluisi was appointed Wednesday as the new Secretary of State (after former secretary Luis Rivera Marín resigned). He is facing political and public opposition because of his ties to La Junta -- a financial oversight committee known for giving the U.S. more control over the island.
As outlined in Puerto Rico’s constitution, Pierluisi is next in line to govern Puerto Rico, once he is sworn in, until a governor is elected in 2020.
When asked about the new governor, Maribel Áviles, 46, who lives in Northeast Philadelphia, said she wants to see what Pierluisi has to offer, though the political situation “doesn’t look too good.”
Marilyn Torres, 56, from West Philadelphia, however, said he has to go, too: “A united Puerto Rico will take out any government figure that opposes the people’s will, so watch out!”
Frances Negrón Montaner, a Puerto Rican filmmaker, writer, and professor at Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, spoke on the July 22 episode of The Takeaway, a podcast produced by WNYC Studios and PRI, about how mainland editorial coverage has overlooked the unique history between the U.S. and the island, often advocating for the U.S. to have more control over the territory, as the Washington Post recently published.
“The idea that what Puerto Rico needs is the strengthening of oversight or strengthening of U.S. involvement in this matter in Puerto Rico, I think struck a chord to what people really feel that is needed, that is that Puerto Ricans themselves take more control on what’s going on in Puerto Rico and that they are in power to do so, structurally.”