La Brega: Three Minutes for Puerto Rico — Episode Transcript
Davina Resto: Um, I’m okay. Kind of a little nervous.
Alana: Davina Resto is on a mission.
Davina Resto: But I’m prepared. I’m feeling prepared.
Alana: She and producer Ezequiel Rodríguez Andino met up in Brooklyn on a rainy Monday in June, 2025, to take the subway to Manhattan together.
Ezequiel: Okay. Okay. You look prepared.
Davina Resto: That’s good.
Ezequiel: That’s important.
Davina Resto: Right? Yeah. I think that’s the most important thing
Alana: Davina is scheduled to address the United Nations today. Specifically, the UN’s Special Committee on Decolonization. She’s one of 61 people who are all coming to the UN to speak about Puerto Rico.
It’s rush hour and it’ll take Davina around 40 minutes to get there. Not too bad; some people have to travel for days to get to the UN. If you’re coming from Puerto Rico, it’s a four hour flight.
Davina Resto: I mean, it’s exciting. It’s, it’s almost an honor ’cause this is supposed to be the stage where the people are heard.
Alana: You caught that, right? It’s supposed to be the stage. There was a time when Davina would have been excited about what’s happening today. She studied diplomacy and foreign relations. It was once her dream to make it to the UN.
Davina Resto: But it doesn’t take that fast to get radicalized, you know, once you’re, awoken, you know, you’re like, oh, oh my gosh.
Alana: Davina is with a group called Adolfina, a Puerto Rican women’s organization.
Davina Resto: You know, I feel like we almost weren’t gonna do this.
Alana: Like a lot of us, she’s seen how major institutions… like the UN… can let people down.
Davina Resto: And so, you look at things, though, going on in Palestine currently where the UN has constantly just failed them year after year, veto after veto. You wanna be proud and you wanna be happy that you’re like making this grand speech at the UN. But I feel just too, I feel too, too disappointed. You know, and you realize this is just yet another tool of failure of the empire.
Alana: When it comes to Puerto Rico, the disappointment is a long time coming. Since 1972, this committee has issued more than 40 resolutions urging the US to decolonize Puerto Rico.
Year after year, with a few exceptions, there’s a summer day when the committee considers testimony. And… well… not much has changed.
This year, every speaker – they’re called petitioners in UN parlance – will have just three minutes to say their piece about the effects of colonization in Puerto Rico. Three minutes. So, it’s not a great platform. But it’s still “a” platform. And people have been coming for decades to use it, and to fight for Puerto Rico here.
Davina Resto: This is a moment to have our voices heard, so, yeah. But I will say my mom is very happy. My mom is very proud.
Alana: Davina and the other participants had to submit an application with a passport-style photo, identifying details, and a description of their organization.
Davina Resto: It’s hard to say things that everyone said every year…
Alana: This is going to be Davina’s first time speaking here – but she’s watched the live stream of the speeches before, so she has a sense of how it goes.
Davina Resto: How do you say something new? without just going in circles every year? And that’s what it feels like at these conferences it feels like just the same thing.
Alana: Even after this UN decolonization committee hears all the speakers, it seems unlikely that the UN’s General Assembly will take up the issue of Puerto Rico. On this day in June, the US doesn’t even have a UN ambassador. But even when they have one, that person never comes. And knowing all that… Davina and other participants show up with a sense of ambivalence.
Davina Resto: I don’t think I should be asking my captors for freedom. Right. And that’s what it feels like.
Alana: But the people who signed up to speak are still taking on the task of representing Puerto Rico with conviction. And not only that, but in recent years, this day at the UN has felt, improbably, even more intense. New petitioners have started championing a competing future for Puerto Rico: statehood. The process has become adversarial between groups of people with very different visions, even while it feels increasingly like a dead end.
Davina Resto: Oh, is this 42nd? I think this is us.
Ezequiel: Yeah. 42nd.
Davina Resto: Perfect
Alana: So, today, we’re going to the United Nations, to find out why everyone else is still going.
From Futuro Studios, I’m Alana Casanova-Burgess, and this is La Brega. In this episode: three minutes for Puerto Rico.
BREAK
The full name of the decolonization committee – and I swear this is true – is “The Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.” Or, C-24, for short.
There is, as that title suggests, a lot of protocol at the UN. It’s apparent right away.
In the line to get through security, Jerry Segarra – of the nationalist party of Puerto Rico – was telling me why he’s been coming for over a decade.
Jerry Segarra: …once años viniendo, si…
Alana: This is the drop of water, he said, that falls on the stone. Sooner or later, it’ll break it.
Jerry Segarra: Como, como la gota que cae sobre la piedra, tarde o temprano romperá la piedra.
Alana: And then, right as I was registering the poetry of the metaphor, a security guard stopped me.
Guard: Are you, are you taking him in an interview right here?
Alana: Yeah. No, no?
Guard: You’re not supposed to do that.
Alana: Okay. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.
Guard: Can you please put everything in your bag and go move into the come, come over.
Alana: There’s a time and a place, and apparently, we weren’t there yet.
Meanwhile, Eze was with Davina.
Davina Resto: And I feel like I’m going through the airport.
Alana: Davina’s speech is going to be about the effect of colonialism on women in Puerto Rico. That’s one of the most valuable parts of coming here: to enter something specific into the public record at the United Nations, something that might otherwise not be talked about. Her draft started out at 5 minutes, she’s got it down to 3, and she’s been practicing. And pumping herself up.
Davina Resto: I like brought heels. I was like, the heels make me feel empowered.
Ezequiel: That’s important.
Davina Resto: I think that if I just have them…
Alana: She ran into some other petitioners she knew, who were also coming to speak in favor of independence.
Davina Resto: I was a little nervous, but I’m feeling more empowered now that now that I’m with, with my people, you know?
Alana: There’s a high school reunion energy to the sessions – people fly in from all over the states, and from Puerto Rico. Who’s gonna show up this time? Who might you run into? And who do you hope doesn’t come?
Alana: The veterans already know the drill, and the first-timers are calming their nerves. Everyone is making their way to conference room 1.
Alana: Special committee of 24, the eighth plenary meeting.
Alana: It looks a lot like what you picture when you think of the UN: curved rows of seats arranged in tiers, all facing the front of the room, like a grand diplomatic amphitheater. But up close, the room looks shabby. The brown vinyl chairs are all torn up. You get the sense, immediately, that the UN has seen better days.
Puerto Rico’s history has been entwined with this body – and its rules – since before this UN building even existed.
ARCHIVAL – Founding of the United Nations – San Francisco 1945 | Archives | United Nations
Speaker: Here in the midst of war – The world’s people collaborated in the drafting of a workable international constitution.
Alana: Formed in the shadow of the Second World War, the UN has always frowned on nations ruling over others.
In 1946, for its very first session, the UN put together a list of non-self-governing territories. Their governing countries would have to submit yearly reports on the progress towards self-governance for these places.
For the US, that included Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa and the US Virgin Islands. And there was, frankly, a lot to report. The US bombed the town of Jayuya in 1950, for example, to quell a nationalist uprising there. The UN, however, didn’t respond.
Then in 1953, the US made a big claim. Puerto Rico had adopted a new constitution and created a new status: Estado Libre Asociado – a free associated state. So, the US said that Puerto Rico had been decolonized, and the UN could take it off the list of colonies. Other countries pushed back – like, India’s representative said that (quote) “Puerto Rico is definitely not a territory which has attained independence, nor is it separate in identity”. She also said that Puerto Rico’s status is (quote) “inferior to that of a state of the union”.
But, it didn’t matter. Puerto Rico was taken off the list. Meaning it was considered decolonized – even though Puerto Rico remained a literal colony of the US – in all but name.
The next big step happened in 1960, when the UN stated that colonization was a violation of human rights, by passing “the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples”. That mouthful is called Resolution 1514 – and it’s become an important shorthand.
Montage from C-24 Session, June 2025
Speaker: Resolution 1514
Speaker: The UN resolution 1514
Speaker: Resolution 1514
Speaker: La resolución 1514 en el caso colonial particular de Puerto Rico
Alana: But Puerto Rico wouldn’t be an official part of the conversation about decolonization until the 1970s. Then, after years of trying, pro-independence activists (with the help of Cuba) finally got the committee to start passing resolutions supporting self-determination, and independence.
In just a few years, it had become a ritual. It was mostly pro-independence activists making the pilgrimage. And once in a while, pro-statehood voices and even defenders of the current status would go to the UN to ask the committee to advocate for the US granting more powers to Puerto Rico.
But even as speakers have understood that it was important to show up and participate, there was already a sense that these meetings wouldn’t go anywhere. Because the US wouldn’t actually respond to any pressure. Even newspaper editorials in smaller markets reflected how common this takeaway was.
Newspaper Archival:
Voice Over: “If the committee decides Puerto Rico is, in fact, a colony, the edict can be expected to have little effect. The United States anticipates widespread support in the Security Council and the General Assembly, if the issue ever gets that far”
The Indianapolis News editorial, August 30th, 1978
Alana: In the summer of 1978, there were four days of intense testimony. And Governor Carlos Romero Barcelo, who pushed for statehood, showed up and spoke to both boos and applause.
NEWSPAPER ARCHIVAL
Voice Over: “Political passions flared at the UN Decolonization Committee as the governor of Puerto Rico told the panel that his island’s politics were none of its business, and the Cuban ambassador denounced him as a “Yankee.”
The Miami Herald, August 30th, 1978
Alana: The committee ended up deciding that yes, Puerto Rico is a colony. But as expected, the issue didn’t get any further than that. And fifty years later, it still hasn’t. The ritual continues. Petitioners get their allotted time, which has shrunk down to three minutes. The committee issues a declaration in support of decolonization and independence. The US ignores it, the General Assembly doesn’t take it up for a vote – and then the committee does it all over again the following year.
And although statehood advocates have been here before, this has historically been the turf of the pro-independence movement. But that’s been changing.
ARCHIVAL – Facebook
Ricardo Rosselló: “Puerto Rico es una colonia.”
Alana: In 2016, then gubernatorial candidate Ricardo Rosselló showed up – advocating for statehood. And there’s been more and more pro-statehood advocates showing up to make the case that becoming a state is also a way to decolonize Puerto Rico.
Then, Governor Rossello ended up resigning in disgrace in 2019, after a protest movement forced him out of office.
But… he’s here today, too, actually…
Chairwoman: I now invite Mr. Ricardo Roselo –
Alana: …And so is his wife Beatriz and several other statehood advocates.
Many of them are members of what they call the “extended congressional delegation for Puerto Rican statehood.”
Vivian Rivera Moreno: El foro siempre lo creamos nosotros y nosotros entendemos de que en Washington no hay ambiente.
Alana: Vivian Rivera Moreno is with the Rhode Island chapter. The group has been focusing their efforts on Congress, without much luck.
Republicans are in control now, and they have not been receptive to Puerto Rico becoming the 51st state.
Vivian Rivera Moreno: …y sin embargo los Republicanos pues han dicho que – que no.
Alana: So, they’ve turned their attention to the UN. This is Vivian’s third time here.
Vivian Rivera Moreno: Creo que es vergonzoso que Estados Unidos mantenga, eh, una colonia y por eso estoy aquí…
Alana: It’s shameful, she says, that the US – which she calls the cradle of democracy – should keep Puerto Rico in this position, as a colony.
Vivian Rivera Moreno: Está es la cuna de la democracia a Estados Unidos, pero esto es una vergüenza, lo que nos están haciendo.
Alana: She tells me, several of her group have a nickname:
Vivian Rivera Moreno: Nos estaban llamando la las damas de la estadidad.
Alana: The statehood ladies.
Vivian Rivera Moreno: Pero somos muchas las que tenemos este blazer.
Alana: Ah si?
Vivian Rivera Moreno: Sí, lo único que yo fui la que decidí traerlo hoy.
Alana: And Vivian definitely looks the part. She’s wearing a blue quilted blazer with white stars on it. Several of them own the same one – but only Vivian wore hers today.
She and the other statehood advocates have made this long trip, and prepared and practiced their three minute long speeches. And yet… she doesn’t expect Puerto Rico’s status to change as a result of what happens here today.
Vivian Rivera Moreno: Si, sería un plus, ¿verdad? Eh, algo positivo que el que sucediera eso, pero pero para mí es irrelevante.
Rafael Olivera Cintrón: Eh, ¿las naciones unidas contra qué, tu sabes?
Alana: Rafael Olivera Cintrón is 25, he came from Orlando to speak in favor of independence. He’s wearing a suit… and something that seems a bit out of place here: a pava. A traditional straw hat.
Alana: ¿Y llegaste con la pava?
Rafael Olivera Cintrón: Y si yo llegué con la pava, yo creo que no sé si el primer año – es posible que. Déjame pensar. Yo creo que el primer año no llegue con la pava…
Alana: It’s also his third year. The first two felt energizing. But now, he’s wondering what the point is.
Rafael Olivera Cintrón: Tu sabes porque han sido como 40 resoluciones. Pues, ¿cuál es el punto?
Alana: The thing is, he recognizes that you can’t NOT come and speak at the United Nations. But he’s frustrated by how little progress there’s been from this body.
Rafael Olivera Cintrón: Tenemos que presentarnos, tenemos que venir siempre, pero a la misma vez, ellos tienen que entender que estamos como que ¿por qué? ¿Cuál es el problema? Tu sabes, ya lo han dicho. ¿Por qué no hacen algo?
Alana: So there’s agreement that not much will come of today’s session. But even so, before things get started, there’s drama.
Here’s what happened: Rafael heard two women nearby talking loudly, he says, about logistics.
Rafael Olivera Cintrón: I’m giving you like all the tea, you know, like for example, I was like maybe like a few steps down, just like minding my own business.
Alana: He asked them what they were talking about, he thought it was something pertinent.
Rafael Olivera Cintrón: And they were like, “this is between us”. And I was like, and I was like, “oh, well, like. I, my bad”. You know, like “my bad, like, you know, like you sounded pretty loud to me. Like I thought you guys were talking, in general.”
Alana: Then, there was a back and forth.
Rafael Olivera Cintrón: And at some point I was just like, “listen, listen, listen, listen. We’re not gonna, like, do this”. This is just the beginning. Like, I don’t, I don’t wanna do this with you guys.
Alana: It’s like, um, it’s serious because it’s colonization, but it feels like a football game. You guys are on different teams and you don’t wanna let each other know what the strategy is.
Rafael Olivera Cintrón: It’s exactly like a football game and it just doesn’t make any sense because the reality is that we’re gonna end up being neighbors anyways. It’s not like we’re not gonna have to solve problems together.
But I also feel like it’s ’cause the independence movement itself is really stuck in this like dichotomy and doesn’t just transition straight into being like, about manifesting and building Puerto Rican society. And so like, let’s stop the nonsense, you know?
Alana: Zoraida Vélez Beníquez is from the Florida chapter of the statehood delegation. And she also feels the tension in the room.
Zoraida Vélez Beníquez: No importa en el foro que estemos, no importa la diferencia de opinión, creemos que, como seres humanos, debemos respetarnos.
Alana: She wants both sides to respect each other: each side is here to share their opinion and defend their preferred status.
Zoraida Vélez Beníquez: Ustedes tienen su opinión. Yo tengo mi opinión. Ustedes defienden su estatus. Nosotros defendemos nuestro estatus.
Alana: But she’s heard someone from the pro-independence side call the statehood advocates … “vendepatrias.”
Zoraida Vélez Beníquez: …“compatriotas llamándonos vende patria”…
Alana: Sellouts, or turncoats. Traitors. She’s upset. She wants her side to be heard, too. She says that’s why they came here, because pro-independence advocates have been using this space unchallenged.
Zoraida Vélez Beníquez: Nosotros vinimos aquí porque ya está bueno que los espacios están llenos por los independentistas y no nos han dado espacio a los estadistas.
Alana: And Zoraida wants to make sure that the committee knows there’s another opinion about Puerto Rico’s future. She’s worried that they’re paying more attention to independence advocates, who she says aren’t being respectful.
Zoraida Vélez Beníquez: Ellos siguen escuchando a los independentistas que no respetan a sus hermanos, compatriotas.
Alana: And yet, there are people from Puerto Rico and the states here, advocating for both sides. And ironically, neither side really thinks the UN has any power over Puerto Rico’s destiny.
But still, historically, this has been a space where issues that matter get airtime. When the protest movement to get the US Navy out of Vieques was in full swing, speakers would enter that into the record at the UN.
Before the political prisoner Oscar López Rivera was freed, many petitioners – regardless of their politics – used their time in 2016 to urge the UN to urge the US to release him. Then, the following year, just a few months after leaving prison, he came to speak… for 20 minutes.
ARCHIVAL – Notiséis WIPR
Oscar López Rivera: In spite of all the horrible things done to me during the years I spent in prison I have come home with my head high and my honor, my dignity and my spirit stronger than the day I was sent to prison.
MUSIC
Chairwoman Menissa Rambally: Good morning. I invite you to take your seats, please.
Alana: Menissa Rambally, of Saint Lucia, is the chair of the committee. The draft resolution under consideration today is from the previous year. That’s the protocol, so there’s a sense that the whole process is stuck in time, always a year behind.
Chairwoman Menissa Rambally: 20th June, 2024 concerning Puerto Rico hearing of petitioners.
Alana: One by one, the 61 petitioners will have their microphones turned on so they can have their three minutes to comment. There’s a countdown clock on the screens at the front of the room, and a red light on each mic will start flashing when there’s 1 minute left.
Chairwoman Menissa Rambally: Once a speaker reaches the end of the three minutes, the sound on your microphone will be cut off.
Alana: There’s a lot of pressure. There’s live translation, too, so you can’t speak too fast to beat the clock. No banners, no flags.
Chairwoman Menissa Rambally: Please do respect decorum… as this is a meeting of the United Nations.
Alana: Coming up, what do you say about 125 years in just three minutes? This is La Brega.
BREAK
Chairwoman Menissa Rambally: I now invite…
Alana: The La Brega crew has been asked to sit in a chairless balcony box like we’re at the opera. That’s protocol for press. The committee members sit up at the front of the room, with the names of their countries on their desks. At least, the ones who show up. Cuba is here today, so is Spain, Ecuador, Germany, Algeria, Russia, Venezuela, and a handful of others. And again, no one from the United States. The petitioners are behind them, seated in the order that they’re speaking, which is the order they signed up in.
As long as they’re speaking about Puerto Rico, they can use the three minutes however they want. They can even rhyme.
Michael Viera, El Grito: They call us a territory, but we’re a colonized nation. Subjected to their greed and exploitation.
Alana: The chair goes down the row, recognizing the speakers in order. There aren’t a lot of surprises. Well, maybe one. To me.
Speaker: By the grace of Almighty God, we will make Puerto Rico, Spain again.
Alana: There are four people here pushing for Puerto Rico to be a Spanish colony.
Speaker: It’s time to do the right thing. Return Puerto Rico to Spain.
Speaker: Y que viva la isla de Puerto Rico española, OLÉ!
Alana: Spain aside, as we listened from our opera balcony, it was challenging to tell where someone stood just by dipping into their prepared remarks. Both sides, for example, are frustrated by what seems like the futility of this exercise.
Speaker: There is sometimes a sense of predictability of what occurs in this halls. There’s a predictability of language. There’s a predictability of outcomes.
Speaker: This is my second time addressing this committee, and while I thank you for the time, I ask for your forgiveness because I stand before you with no faith in this process.
Alana: Both sides use some of the same words – like dignity, democracy, justice. After the first couple dozen of these short speeches, it starts to feel like a sea.
Montage from C-24 June 2025 Session
Speaker: Sin descolonización no hay dignidad, ni paz, ni verdadera democracia.
Speaker: We ask for fairness. We ask for dignity. We ask for democracy.
Speaker: We demand justice
Speaker: I’m here to demand justice
Speaker: Es una injusticia que continuemos con el mismo estatus colonial.
Alana: Both sides also denounce the fiscal control board –
Montage from C-24 June 2025 Session
Speaker: An unelected fiscal control board overrides our democratic institutions.
Speaker: A fiscal control board that governs without the consent without the consent of the people. Let me say clearly: This is not democracy.
Alana: – but they have very different visions for getting rid of it.
Even though the petitioners are divided by their opinion on status, there’s a shared sense of urgency here.
Speaker: The United States calls us territory, but we are a nation.
Alana: Voices are raised and rushed, this is – for many of them – the biggest platform they will ever get to speak on behalf of Puerto Rico.
Gustavo Meza: En 2012…
Chairwoman Menissa Rambally: I thank the petitioner – while I would like to give you your time, I invite for the need for the decorum.
Alana: But… this is the UN, and the urgency of the moment keeps coming up against the rules of this body.
Speaker: Free Puerto Rico and Palestine now, thank you. (applause)
Chairwoman Menissa Rambally: I thank the petitioner and I kindly request and remind petitioners to limit the statements to issues pertaining to the territory under consideration.
Alana: The pro-independence advocates speak on a variety of issues facing Puerto Rico today – this is, after all, the moment to put something on the record for your area of expertise. There are petitioners who focus on the crisis in maternal healthcare:
Speaker: Over 50% of births are C-sections.
Alana: … The crisis for schools.
Speaker: Hoy estoy aquí porque no es normal estudiar con hambre.
Alana: …the crisis on immigration policy.
Speaker: In Puerto Rico, ICE has arrested hundreds of Dominican and other immigrants.
Alana: It’s a rhetorical tapestry on that side – the unity comes in the form of a closing line.
Montage from C-24 June 2025 Session
Speaker: Esas son mis palabras y que viva un Puerto Rico libre – ¡ viva!
Speaker: Puerto Rico libre!
Speaker: Gracias y que viva Puerto Rico libre!
Zoan: Viva Puerto Rico libre.
Speaker: Que viva Puerto Rico libre…
Speaker: Que viva Puerto Rico libre. ¡QUE VIVA!
Alana: It soon becomes obvious, however, that the statehood advocates have come with a coordinated message.
Montage from C-24 June 2025 Session
Speaker: Comienzo diciéndoles que Puerto Rico votó…
Speaker: Puerto Rico votó…
Speaker: Y la estadidad ganó.
Speaker: Y la estadidad ganó.
Speaker: El pueblo eligió la estadidad…
Speaker: Puerto Rico votó. Y la estadidad ganó.
Alana: Puerto Rico voted, and statehood won. They’ve brought the results of a controversial non-binding referendum vote from November 2024, and they argue that it shows vast support for statehood. I ask Vivian, who’s in the blazer, about it.
Alana: Puerto Rico votó…
Vivian Rivera Moreno: …y la, y la estadidad ganó. Si.
Alana: Outside, in the hallway, she explains that yes, they can all say whatever they want, but this year, the statehood group is trying to stick to the talking
point about the vote:
Vivian Rivera Moreno: Pero claro que que sí, nos vamos por la línea del plebiscito. Eso sí, que tratemos de no desviarnos de ahí.
Alana: Ultimately, they want the committee to recognize statehood as a way to decolonize Puerto Rico, and to change the draft resolution to reflect that.
Vivian Rivera Moreno: El tratado que han escrito, que lo revisen.
Alana: But, there’s a problem.
The vote – like so many votes on status in Puerto Rico – had a lot of issues. The speakers today are presenting it as a clear mandate: that almost 60 percent of Puerto Ricans want statehood. But since the vote wasn’t binding, most people weren’t rushing to the polls thinking that this was going to truly determine the status of Puerto Rico. Besides, the ballot didn’t have every option on it, like “keep the status quo”, and if the tally includes 180,000 ballots that were left blank, then support for statehood gets less than 50 percent. In short, the figures are problematic.
Davina Resto: As I sit here today. I know we’ll continue to hear from those who wish to skew the term of decolonization to fit their agenda.
Alana: It’s Davina Resto’s turn. We heard from her at the start of the episode, in the subway.
Davina Resto: We call on the UN to reject their lies and do their own research on the actual numbers.
Alana: She’s done a last minute edit on her carefully timed speech to respond to the messaging from the pro-statehood advocates. She juuuust barely doesn’t make it under 3 minutes.
Davina Resto: This is your call to action. We need you in this fight. Tha—
Chairwoman Menissa Rambally: I thank the petitioner. [applause fades down]
Alana: She had started the day out ambivalent about being here. But now, she definitely wants to come back next year.
Davina Resto: It’s kind of exciting to like get to yell at the statehood folks and you get a chance…
Alana: And actually, even though most people see these proceedings as predictable and besieged by protocol, she’s coming away having learned something.
Davina Resto: This is my first time coming to this and you just realize, wow, like there’s so many differences of opinions or what, what is self-determination for Puerto Rico. And I think that was really just like an awakening for me…
Alana: As serious as these proceedings are, there’s a small ritual that breaks the spell of protocol.
In the same way that a parent creeps towards the stage to film their kid in the school play, people get up to record each other speak on smart phones.
The whole thing is being live streamed, so there’s an audience at home, too. Some of the petitioners, like Vivian, are getting texts from friends who are watching.
Vivian Rivera Moreno: Diciéndose te estoy viendo en vivo desde la ONU.
Alana: Once they’ve had their turns, several members of the statehood group get up one by one and move to the back of the room to sit together. It looks as though they’re gathering at the bleachers after practice.
At lunch, everyone splits off into their respective groups. There isn’t a lot of mingling between the two teams. This isn’t a forum to find common ground. But in the hallway, I see Rafael, wearing his straw hat, taking a photo with some of the women in the statehood delegation.
Rafael Olivera Cintrón: They like my hat. They were like, oh, the hat, whatever. You know, like, and they’re just surprised that I would take a picture with them…
Alana: So, he said sure. Why not be friendly?
Rafael Olivera Cintrón: Y nada, tu sabes, están como que tomate una foto con nosotros. Y yo chevere, tu sabes. Pues me tomé una foto con ellos.
Alana: After the petitioners speak, it’s time to hear from the committee members themselves. Venezuela kicks things off –
Joaquín Pérez Ayestarán: Venezuela reitera hoy una vez más su pleno apoyo a las y los patriotas puertorriqueño, a su justa causa y a sus legítimas aspiraciones nacionales.
Alana: Followed by Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Margaret Hughes Ferrari: Moreover, we also renew our full support and solidarity with the people of Puerto Rico in their struggle for the realization of their inalienable right to self-determination.
Alana: Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Iran and Russia also speak. Colombia and Uganda aren’t members of the committee, but they chime in too. There’s more going on here than just Puerto Rico: for many of these countries, this is a chance to challenge the US.
The draft resolution supporting independence gets approved by the decolonization committee without a vote – and without any changes.
Chairwoman Menissa Rambally: It is so decided. Draft resolution L-7 is adopted without a vote. This meeting is adjourned.
Alana: Again, there’s no sign on this day in June that the General Assembly will weigh in on this resolution.
But, a lot of the people who came to champion Puerto Rico today are ready to come back next year and do it all over again.
It felt, after watching the entire day’s proceedings, like a futile kind of theater, or perhaps maybe like a circus. But then, I met Myrna Pagán.
Myrna Pagán: Nos escuchan, pero no nos oyen.
Alana: Myrna Pagán is from Vieques. Today, she spoke about the ties between Puerto Rico and Vietnam, and the testing of agent orange in Vieques.
Myrna Pagán: War chemicals do not fade away. They mutate in bodies, in DNA, in the soul of nations, as in Vietnam. Vieques and Vietnam share parallel tragedies.
Alana: Myrna is someone who takes the long view, which is helpful at a place like the UN. This is her eighth or ninth time coming to speak. It’s now a family affair. Her granddaughter spoke today too, about maternal healthcare in Vieques.
Myrna Pagán: The first time I was full of, uh the illusion of so many minds working on the same problem of decolonization. I mean, personally, I was so honored to speak for my island. I was truly prepared. I had all my numbers in order. Everything was in order.
Alana: She practiced to hit the time limit. Back then, in 2014, it was nine minutes. But now…
Myrna Pagán: This is a three minute presentation. It’s just enough to get your motor started. But it also excites you and, uh, energizes you and makes you really, truly focus.
Alana: Myrna is here for Puerto Rico, but Palestine is on her mind. It’s come up several times today, and how could it not? We’re at the UN, where reports and resolutions and admonishments didn’t bring an end to the genocide. Partly due to vetoes from the US.
Myrna Pagán: You have to change, how can you keep killing children, how can you keep bombing hospitals, how can you destroy a whole education system, how can you continue, how can how can be the United Nations a spoken out yes they have, they have given it time. But Israel is not listening, Israel is not listening and the United States is not listening.
Alana: And despite the very real sense during today’s proceedings that those who need to be listening haven’t even shown up, Myrna says it would be a greater failure still not to use any platform that you’re given. What else is there to do?
Myrna Pagán: Pero seguiremos viniendo porque el no venir, el no utilizar un foro tan importante como este, pues sería neglect. And we’re here to hope to change things.
Alana: If you’re given three minutes, you take them.
Myrna Pagán: If that’s what you can, I’ll take two. I’ll take one. I’ll take anything.
Alana: And you use them the best way you can.
These feel like particularly urgent times, when we’re all witnessing misery and often feeling powerless to stop it. And against that backdrop, the set-up for these petitioners felt to me… not quite as useless as they did before.
When it’s your turn, your microphone switches on and the room is silent. And for three minutes, your words — your grief and your warnings and yes, your expertise – are entered into the public record.
And it is, as Myrna says, a much more dangerous thing to stay away and not use them at all.
THEME MUSIC
On the next episode of La Brega, we trace the route to the major leagues, and ask: how can Puerto Rico’s baseball stars get there without having to leave home?
This episode was written by me, Alana Casanova-Burgess. It was reported and produced by Ezequiel Rodriguez Andino, senior producer Nicole Rothwell, and by me. It was edited by Maria Garcia and Laura Pérez.
Original art for this episode is by Pedro Lugo-Vázquez. Special thanks this week to José Delgado, Alberto Medina, and Wilma Reverón. Thank you also to Marlon Bishop for the voice over work, and Jose Ibañez from Monopolio Records for the hospitality
The La Brega team includes Nicole Rothwell, Ezequiel Rodriguez Andino, Laura Pérez, Liliana Ruiz, Roxana Aguirre, Maria Garcia, and Marlon Bishop. Our production managers are Jessica Ellis and Victoria Estrada with support from Francis Poon. And our marketing team includes Anhelo Reyes and Luis Luna with support from Paloma Perez and Jackie Hill.
Fact checking this season is by Laura Moscoso and Tatiana Díaz Ramos.
Sound design by Jacob Rosati.
Mixing by Stephanie Lebow, Julia Caruso, Jacob Rosati, and JJ Querubin.
Scoring and musical curation by Jacob Rosati and Stephanie Lebow.
Our theme song is by IFÉ. Original music is by Balún.
Our executive producers are Marlon Bishop and Maria Garcia and me, Alana Casanova-Burgess.
Legal review by Projourn and Clearance Counsel by Fisher Legal Arts; Jonathan Fisher.
Futuro Media was founded by Maria Hinojosa.
La Brega is a production of Futuro Studios. This season of La Brega was made possible by the Mellon Foundation.
Check out our website, labregapodcast.org, for transcripts and more information about this episode.
Talk to you soon. Bai!
