Trips to visit my godfather in Puerto Rico were not just a simple matter of packing a suitcase and heading to the airport. Before leaving New York City, he’d give me a call to tell me what he wanted me to bring.
He had lived in the Bronx, (the county in the United States with the largest number of Puerto Ricans) for more than three decades, working hard as a hospital and nursing home maintenance person, eventually working his way up to supervisor. He saved his money and while still working bought a home in Santa Isabel, which is on the southern coast of the island. When he retired he moved “home” to Puerto Rico. This, the dream of many mainland Puerto Ricans, is not always realized. He was elated to be able to garden for real, and was planting fruit trees all around the new house. His apartment in the Bronx was always overloaded with plants. There were, however, problems in his retirement paradise, and on phone calls he would talk constantly about the costs of food and how expensive everything was there. He had always been a thrifty shopper in New York, and knew every spot in the Bronx where platanos were 12 for a dollar and where other staples were on sale. So during our phone calls before I headed to the island, he would say, “Bring me coffee.” Coffee is a staple for most Puerto Ricans, brewed with either scalded milk for cafe con leche, or black and strong with spoonfuls of sugar served in a small cup. I have never entered a Puerto Rican home where I was not offered coffee.
The first time I went down after he had moved back to the island, I found the request really weird. Why would anyone have to bring coffee to an island famous for its coffee? This article titled “Puerto Rican Coffee: The Bittersweet History & Rise of Specialty” provides some of the answer, noting that:
By 1950, Puerto Rico found itself in the precarious situation of consuming more coffee than it was able to produce. Once a strong producing country, we had to begin importing coffee to be blended with local beans. Today, we struggle to produce 28% of our domestic coffee consumption. Yes, over two-thirds of the coffee we consume is imported.
When I arrived with a suitcase stuffed with more coffee than clothing, he was elated. I had picked up a bargain in the Bronx. Later on that week we went to a local supermarket, and I was stunned by the prices of not only staples like coffee, but also of vegetables like plantains, bags of rice, and milk. Some items were double the price. I never complained again about having to schlep food to him. I didn’t even think about the reasons for such high prices beyond knowing that most food in PR is imported, and though I intellectually was aware of the history of the Jones Act, at the time I wasn’t making a connection between higher costs for food, building materials, and other imports.
My godfather passed away last September. In some ways I am happy that he did not live to see the destruction of the island that always held a central place in his heart, relieved that he did not have to see all that he had worked for washed away by Maria. That he didn’t have to witness the government of the United States, his government, further endanger his beloved isle is perhaps a blessing. He was a proud Boricua, and a proud American citizen.
from Daily Kos http://ift.tt/2x78ABP
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