Comments on: Americans are dying in Puerto Rico https://www.habitablezone.com/2017/10/12/americans-are-dying-in-puerto-rico/ Fri, 03 Apr 2026 02:37:11 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: ER https://www.habitablezone.com/2017/10/12/americans-are-dying-in-puerto-rico/#comment-40345 ER Thu, 12 Oct 2017 16:48:27 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=67251#comment-40345 To be honest, I didn't enjoy my stay there. I felt prejudiced against the Puerto Ricans. It was culture shock and homesickness, I suppose. Its not because their culture was so different from my own Cuban upbringing, but because it was so similar--the tiniest variations rubbed me the wrong way, magnified and exaggerated by my own intimate familiarity with the national character of a nearby island with a similar history. Even the slight variations in the way we spoke a common language I found distasteful--like fingernails scraping on a blackboard. The feeling was mutual. Puerto Ricans didn't particularly care for Cubans, either, considering us pushy and arrogant, stuck up and clannish. I noted that Puerto Ricans sometimes seemed to think of Cubans in much the same way some Anglo-Saxons seem to think of Jews. Gringos could be forgiven for their clueless awkwardness and clumsiness, Cubans couldn't use that as an excuse. Being brought up in the rural South, I am perfectly familiar with racial stereotypes, how they are formed and perpetuated, and I did my best to not let them affect my behavior. But I don't think I was completely successful. Even those Puerto Rican friends I found charming and admirable often exasperated me because of their cultural tells and quirks. Having said that, following the news about Puerto Rico's devastation by the recent hurricanes deeply troubles me. No one deserves the mauling they received, or the neglect and contempt now being heaped upon them. And I want to make it clear that I am not faulting the aid agencies and organizations that have rushed down to their rescue. I know perfectly well the geographic factors that are making the aid effort so difficult, and I know enough about disaster management to understand that the responders are really doing their best. What I do fault is the contempt and disdain heaped on these helpless people by the Trump White House. Perhaps that all translates to little actual neglect on the ground, that is in the hands of dedicated professionals, technicians and administrators. But no one can mistake the tone of the President, and his tendency to consider everyone elses misfortune as evidence of some shortcoming in character, and thereby, fully deserved. I doubt if simple racism can be fully blamed for this, perhaps it is just the usual Conservative tendency to feel that their own successes are the result of their virtue, while the tragedies of others are the result of sloth, stupidity and greed. I find it difficult to believe Trump would be talking about a similar emergency in, say, Hawaii the way he is about the one in Puerto Rico. It's been over 40 years since I lived in Puerto Rico, I don't doubt the place has changed a great deal and few of my memories are of much use in understanding what is happening there now. But I feel great empathy for those people now, and I am deeply saddened by their plight. The Trump knee-jerk response to the island is reprehensible but not totally unexpected. It's just the way he, and I suspect too many of his followers, are. To be honest, I didn’t enjoy my stay there. I felt prejudiced against the Puerto Ricans. It was culture shock and homesickness, I suppose. Its not because their culture was so different from my own Cuban upbringing, but because it was so similar–the tiniest variations rubbed me the wrong way, magnified and exaggerated by my own intimate familiarity with the national character of a nearby island with a similar history. Even the slight variations in the way we spoke a common language I found distasteful–like fingernails scraping on a blackboard.

The feeling was mutual. Puerto Ricans didn’t particularly care for Cubans, either, considering us pushy and arrogant, stuck up and clannish. I noted that Puerto Ricans sometimes seemed to think of Cubans in much the same way some Anglo-Saxons seem to think of Jews. Gringos could be forgiven for their clueless awkwardness and clumsiness, Cubans couldn’t use that as an excuse.

Being brought up in the rural South, I am perfectly familiar with racial stereotypes, how they are formed and perpetuated, and I did my best to not let them affect my behavior. But I don’t think I was completely successful. Even those Puerto Rican friends I found charming and admirable often exasperated me because of their cultural tells and quirks.

Having said that, following the news about Puerto Rico’s devastation by the recent hurricanes deeply troubles me. No one deserves the mauling they received, or the neglect and contempt now being heaped upon them. And I want to make it clear that I am not faulting the aid agencies and organizations that have rushed down to their rescue. I know perfectly well the geographic factors that are making the aid effort so difficult, and I know enough about disaster management to understand that the responders are really doing their best.

What I do fault is the contempt and disdain heaped on these helpless people by the Trump White House. Perhaps that all translates to little actual neglect on the ground, that is in the hands of dedicated professionals, technicians and administrators. But no one can mistake the tone of the President, and his tendency to consider everyone elses misfortune as evidence of some shortcoming in character, and thereby, fully deserved. I doubt if simple racism can be fully blamed for this, perhaps it is just the usual Conservative tendency to feel that their own successes are the result of their virtue, while the tragedies of others are the result of sloth, stupidity and greed. I find it difficult to believe Trump would be talking about a similar emergency in, say, Hawaii the way he is about the one in Puerto Rico.

It’s been over 40 years since I lived in Puerto Rico, I don’t doubt the place has changed a great deal and few of my memories are of much use in understanding what is happening there now. But I feel great empathy for those people now, and I am deeply saddened by their plight. The Trump knee-jerk response to the island is reprehensible but not totally unexpected. It’s just the way he, and I suspect too many of his followers, are.

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