Puerto Ricans had a message to ship to the King of Spain previous to his scheduled go to to the Caribbean island and it rattling positive wasn’t a welcoming one.
In line with the Related Press, a statue of Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León was toppled within the wee hours of the morning as we speak (January 24) in Plaza San José simply hours earlier than King Felipe VI was set to satisfy with Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi to rejoice the five hundredth anniversary of the founding of San Juan. Whereas on the floor it simply looks as if an everyday previous statue of an oppressor, it really carries some historical past in it’s personal building.
“The statue was fabricated from melted metal from British cannons and featured the Spanish explorer dealing with south together with his left hand on his hip and proper finger pointed towards the primary settlement he based. The ruins nonetheless mark the spot of the island’s first Spanish capital and is a U.S. Nationwide Historic Landmark. The statue additionally factors within the course of the close by San Juan Bautista Cathedral that bears Ponce de León’s stays and is a well-liked vacationer spot.”
Police commissioner for San Juan, Col. José Juan García, advised the AP that he and his males have been patrolling the realm once they heard a loud bang at 4:30am and located the standing damaged into items.
For years now Puerto Rican activists have been demanding that each one symbols of oppressions and oppressors be faraway from the island as they need Spain’s legacy be erased from eyesight. Although they’ve defaced and spray painted such symbols since, that is the primary time a statue has really been destroyed.
The transfer is paying homage to accomplice statues being eliminated and defaced within the US just a few years again and although many racists and MAGAts have been upset that People needed symbols of racism faraway from plain view, we doubt many Puerto Ricans will miss seeing Juan Ponce de León pointing to the San Juan Bautista Cathedral.
Must be fascinating to see how King Felipe reacts to information of the topped statue.
Always remember, If it was as much as Donald Trump, he would’ve been traded Puerto Rico for a white nation.
