My Puerto Rican family is not trash

Fact: Puerto Ricans have been Americans since 1917 and Puerto Ricans have been a part of Utah's history for more than 70 years. It is also estimated that there are over 11,000 Puerto Ricans living in Utah.

I am a proud member of a large Puerto Rican family and am angry, hurt and unsurprised by the comments I heard at the Donald Trump rally in New York on October 28th.

Tony Hinchcliffe compared Puerto Rico to a “floating island of garbage” and I was initially speechless when I heard this. I expected blatant racism from the Trump campaign and his staff, but these sharp daggers hit too close to home – right at my home in Salt Lake County.

You know, I joined this non-trash family in 2018 after meeting my brilliant husband Gabriel. I was thrilled to marry into his loud and large family. As an only child, I would never have had the chance to have nieces or nephews, and now I'm grateful to be an uncle to a loud dozen.

When I met him, Gabriel was an award-winning, tenure-track chemistry professor and Parkinson's researcher at the University of Utah. I didn't know much about Puerto Rico except that the food was very good and they had excellent piña coladas. Together we started our family and I gained a sister-in-law who works for the Pentagon, a father-in-law who was a successful restaurant owner, a nephew who trained to be a pilot, and a niece who is a literal rocket scientist, among many others Doctors, engineers and professors. Not too shabby for in-laws – and certainly not for trash people.

I have learned a lot since marrying into this family. Generally proud of my Utah public school education, I realized that my seventh and eighth grade Spanish wasn't going to get me there Bibliotecaand I was completely unprepared. I didn't realize that the innovative U.S. territory was involved in every major U.S. military engagement from World War I to Afghanistan, with the Department of Veterans Affairs listing more than 116,000 Puerto Rican veterans. I didn't know that Puerto Rico has a thriving island-wide STEM program and that its biggest exports include pharmaceuticals and medical devices – not trash. I didn't know that baseball was the number one sports export, or that the island's residents, or that Puerto Rico had won twelve Olympic medals. Over the years of visiting the tropical paradise, I've learned about the rich Taino culture, the delicious coffee, and Bad Bunny – who publicly announced his support for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Despite all that Puerto Rico and its American citizens have given us, the people of their homeland are legally required to pay most federal taxes and other fees but are not eligible to vote in general elections. Only if a Puerto Rican lives in the continental United States can they vote in U.S. elections. Talk about taxation without representation. These hateful comments come as the island and its residents recover from the unspeakable traumas caused by climate change.

In September 2017, I still remember talking to my then 73-year-old mother-in-law about a downed cell phone line that was cut when Hurricane Maria began terrorizing residents. I sat crying with my husband in our living room as the storm swept across the island, knowing that she, along with my nieces, nephews and other family members, were directly in the path of the deadly storm. It took four agonizing days before we learned she was alive, and together we mourned the thousands who died during and after the storm. The Trump administration's disastrous response and the year of reconstruction that followed compounded the injury, as bodies were piled in refrigerators, makeshift and ineffective medical ships were brought in, and Trump tossed paper towels at victims. We sat helpless while our people suffered.

As a Utahn, I am disgusted by the recent round of comments about the Trump event. I personally reached out to Governor Spencer Cox and asked him to immediately revoke his consent on behalf of all Puerto Ricans living in Utah. This is not the way Utah does it, and it's certainly not something we could better disagree about.

Just like the 72,000 Puerto Rican “Borinqueneers” who fought against Nazi Germany in World War II, I hope Puerto Ricans in Utah stand with me and vote against the fascism and racism we see emerging from the MAGA movement.

As one wise and cheerful woman recently said, “Say it to my face.” I will make sure my voice is heard in the election and will use my platform to make sure every Puerto Rican in Utah knows that the Democratic Party is a place where you are welcome and respected.

Jade Velazquez is chairman of the Salt Lake County Democratic Party.

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