For multiple Grammy and Latin Grammy award winning duo Calle 13, Puerto Rico’s “choice is between being a State and being independent.”
The Los Angeles Times quoted Rene Perez Joglar — “Residente” — explaining this in an interview with the two leaders of the band published November 22nd.
Noting that the very popular group has been “outspoken in support of independence for Puerto Rico,” the Times reporter asked Perez and singing partner and step-brother Eduardo Cabra Martinez — “Visitante” why the issue was important to them.
Perez answered that “It really has to do with human rights” referring to Puerto Rico’s not having voting representation — and equal voting representation — in the government that makes its national laws.
The singer added that, “this whole thing of being a colony, it doesn’t work. Obama is my president even though I can’t vote for him.” Perez was referring to Puerto Rico’s unincorporated territory status, sometimes misleadingly called “commonwealth” after a word in the formal name of the territorial government, as well as the Commonwealth’s lack of votes in the election of the president of the United States in addition to its lack of voting representation in Congress.
This post was originally written in English and may be being auto-translated by Google.
No responses yet