Puerto Rico: Our people, our challenges, our opportunities and the moment of truth

Puerto Rico: Our people, our challenges, our opportunities and the moment of truth

I have just returned from doing a speech in the Naval Base in San Diego, California. From there I flew to Purchase College in New York to do a speech there then flew back to San Juan. Last night I was invited to be part of a project which must remain a secret until it is unveiled within the next couple of months.

Let’s start with San Diego. I spoke to the Association of Naval Service Officers, composed of Hispanics officers in the Navy, Marines and Coast Guard. There were Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Mexicans, Cubans, Colombians and I am sure other Latin American nationalities I didn’t get to meet.

I was impressed by their professionalism. They were well groomed, well behaved, very courteous, on time for all their meetings and activities, in fact, undistinguishable from their Anglo counterparts. Some were Generals or Admirals, very high ranking in the armed forces. Some spoke perfect English, others had an accent but their English was flawless. All were very proud of being American Citizens and they were looking forward to continue serving the country and retiring when their time came.

It is the first time in my career that I speak to an Association and after my speech; they award me a free membership in their association, so now I am officially a member of the Association of Naval Service Officers, and besides the ROTC in the University of Puerto Rico, first time that I belong to a military association.

Then I go to New York to speak to the Latinos Unidos organization in Purchase College. That college is located right across the world headquarters of Pepsi Cola in Purchase New York. I thought it was going to be a little college in a small American town, and I was surprised by its facilities,( they were excellent) and by the beauty of their campus. They have close to 4,000 students and about 8% are Hispanics. Even so, I was told that the most active student association in the college is Latinos Unidos. The day started with my keynote speech and then they broke off to attend different workshops. The whole conference was a two day event.
My speech was about leadership. Some of the other workshops were titled:
HIV/AIDS, the Real Deal, to increase awareness of HIV/AIDS among college students.
The Afro Cuban Connection, although it should have been titled the Afro Latin Connection: Their theory was that in matters of race in the US, the African American and Latino communities act as separate “racial” entities although they are grouped as minorities and this categorization connects both communities.
The Zapatistas: They talked about the struggle for land rights in Mexico.
Making Change through Community Organizing: I suspect that what they discussed was about ways of getting together and serving the community in one way or another. The program they distributed had another session description under that workshop. In other words, a mistake no one caught when they printed the program.
Market Yourself: A workshop about how to manage yourself and lead by example.
Are you a Young Lord? : A look at the history of that movement and what they wanted to accomplish

Finally, Viva Latina: A discussion of Latina Women and the Sex Industry. They focused on all aspects of the sex industry including but not limited to pornography, sex trafficking in the US and other Latino Countries, nude modeling and prostitution. What makes Latinas so susceptible to getting involved in the sex industry? What is it about Latinas that makes them desirable in such an industry?

I suspect that was a very interesting session but I had to go to the airport to catch my flight back to San Juan and I missed it. Darn!

In contrasting both organizations, ANSO and Latinos Unidos, we see a tremendous difference. One is quite disciplined, very orderly with a very well defined set of values. The other one is very college like, a little disorganized (room was not set up when I arrived, program had mistakes in it, etc.) but very friendly and very proud of their Latin roots. The ANSO group was very pro American; the Latinos Unidos had all kinds of political shades. In fact, and this is the beauty of living in a free country, one of the speakers was a Puerto Rican young man that got his masters degree in Havana so as you can imagine, his talk was very anti American even though through a slip of his tongue, he mentioned that Cuba was not a free society. He also wore a black beret, had a beard and dressed in what could be described as “unconventional” clothing.
The President of Latinos Unidos and two of the members of the board of directors were Puerto Rican and they are wonderful kids with very clear plans for their future and the willingness to sacrifice to reach their goals.

My point here is that it is the environment that is different, the nationalities are the same, and they were all Hispanics. We can conclude that provided with the right environment, Puerto Ricans and for that matter, any nationality can excel and be very productive.

Last night I attended a meeting in Hato Rey with 20 outstanding citizens of this community. There were entrepreneurs, multi millionaires, college professors, television producers, famous entertainment personalities, motivational speakers, best selling authors, heads and former heads of government departments, a whole representation of our society. Well, not a whole representation because everyone there was successful. Some had the most humble origins but through sacrifice and hard work made it to where they are now.

The whole purpose of the meeting was how to change the direction Puerto Rico is going. How to take advantage of the enormous talent in this society and put it to work for the benefit of the whole community. These people had no need to be meeting from 7pm to 10.30pm to discuss these issues, they were there because they have a strong sense of duty towards this community and they feel very proud to be part of it. One common thread is that they have faith in Puerto Rico. They think that they can totally change society and teach people how to be self reliant, how to make a good living and how to help the community. In the future you will hear more about it, at this point, I am not in liberty to disclose more details. They want to create a movement to change the culture. One of the participants said that because of welfare, we have become a lazy society where people don’t want to work and sacrifice. Most people want the easy way out without much ambition. So, the challenge is, how to reach their hearts and get them out of the comfort zone.

It is very important to understand that we have great talent and intelligence in this island. I regularly have lunch at the Bankers Club and I hear my friend MAF a guy who is a financial genius, talk about solutions to our problems that if implemented could have a tremendous effect in our society. My friend FR is a director for a big bank and was president of his company for years, he understands the psychology of Puerto Ricans and how to make people productive. JB reads a book a week and is always well informed, GB is a also a financial wizard, BB is an accomplished lawyer, RR is the oldest in the group, retired, but one of the most successful business executives in the island and he is still goes to his office every day. ER is a prominent lawyer who jumped into the fray when he had to in order to save an important Puerto Rican institution, MP is a technology genius, an expert problem solver that I have come to believe, can solve any problem he is faced with. I don’t have space to mention more buddies of mine who are exceptional individuals who could have a huge impact in our society. These people don’t care if you are blue, red, green or orange, they only care about what results you produce and how can you help the island.

All these people I have mentioned in this article are the people that need to sit in a room with our governor and politicians to brainstorm some ideas and then assign people to follow up to make sure these ideas are implemented.

We have to stop fighting over stupidities, and we need to unite in order to face the challenges we are facing right now. For goodness sake, the NPP is divided, the Popular party is divided, and there are even ideological differences among the PIP.

The world doesn’t care about our divisions and our internal fights. The world only cares about what we produce as a nation (or whatever you want to call us) what industries we attract, how we handle the pharmaceutical industry, what other industries we can attract, how we compete with other nations and how we treat our tourists.

Talent, intelligence, motivation, there is plenty in Puerto Rico. What we need to do is change the environment, maybe even change the culture. Otherwise, there will be very sad years in our future and we will lose some of the most important competitive battles in the future.