Politics of a Parade: How Pro-Independence Puerto Ricans Resisted Colonial Tactics in New York City
NOVANEWS
By Ashoka Jegroo, Truthout
Thousands of marchers, including Puerto Rican leader and recently freed political prisoner Oscar López Rivera, filled Manhattan's 5th Avenue for the 60th Annual National Puerto Rican Day Parade on June 11, 2017. (Photo: Joe Catron / Flickr)
In a modern-day manifestation of the old colonial divide-and-rule tactic, corporations and New York City politicians, including the mayor, were recently caught trying to engage in backdoor deals to divide the city's Puerto Rican community over a pro-Puerto Rican independence activist's participation in the Puerto Rican Day Parade.
The corporate and political efforts to divide the Puerto Rican community came after Manhattan's annual Puerto Rican Day Parade -- one of the diaspora's largest celebrations of Puert...