I just found out that November is “Puerto Rican Heritage Month.” I’ve never cared about made-up holidays (the only holiday that would matter to me – the independence of my country – doesn’t even exist yet) so I don’t pay too much attention to “special” months or days dedicated to minorities. Just like how I’ve always thought that Valentine’s Day is a bad boyfriend’s wet dream because it allows men to feel like they’re good people by pretending to care about their girlfriends for ONE day of the year (and lining the pockets of greedy capitalists in the process), I see Black History Month as white people’s way of saying “See? We can’t be racist; we gave y’all a whole month! You better not complain about anything now!” The fact that motherfucking RUDY GIULIANI is the person responsible for making Puerto Rican Heritage Month an official celebration says it all…HOWEVER, I saw a post encouraging people to post stacks of books written by Puerto Rican authors and I needed to jump on that. I would’ve been down with this even if its sole purpose was promoting the work of Puerto Rican writers, but the fact that each of these posts will also lead to donations to non-profit organizations working on rebuilding homes affected by the hurricanes that recently hit the island makes this even cooler.
These are the books by Puerto Rican (and Nuyorican) writers that I have with me here in my Brooklyn apartment, but I also want to shout out the ones I have in my mom’s house in San Juan: “Outlaw: The Collected Works of Miguel Piñero” (my all-time favorite writer); “Down These Mean Streets” by Piri Thomas (my all-time favorite book); “Bendición: The Complete Poetry of Tato Laviera;” “New York Ricans from the Hip Hop Zone” by Raquel Z. Rivera; and of course, “Mujeres Excéntricas,” a look into the autobiographical writings of Puerto Rican women – written by my own mother, Aileen Schmidt.
¡Qué viva Puerto Rico libre y que viva la lectura!
A Journalist Who Bleeds Green 