Velázquez and AOC Challenge Puerto Rico’s Colonial Party Duopoly

Opinion for The Latino Newsletter

SAN JUAN — Ahead of Puerto Rico’s November 5 elections, the most powerful Boricua women in Congress, Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), made a historic political move, endorsing the leading candidates of the anti-colonial La Alianza—a coalition between the Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana (MVC) and the Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño (PIP). Their endorsement strikes a blow against the island’s decades-long two-party dominance.

During a packed press conference alongside La Alianza leadership, both spoke not just as members of the United States Democratic Party but as Puerto Ricans who understood that the pro-statehood Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP) and the pro-Commonwealth Partido Popular Democrático (PPD) “had failed the Puerto Rican people,” especially the young.  

Calling La Alianza the project of the future that the youth of Puerto Rico “are crying out for,” Velázquez and Ocasio-Cortez delivered a double jab to both parties.  

“Today, head on and facing the sun, I embrace hope and endorse Juan Dalmau as Governor for Puerto Rico, Ana Irma Rivera Lassen for Resident Commissioner in Washington, and Manuel Natal for Mayor of San Juan, and the rest of the candidates for La Alianza,”  Velázquez said. 

Dalmau was not present at the conference. His wife, Griselle Morales, is in the hospital in a stable yet delicate condition after suffering a brain aneurysm. 

“Many people will ask me, but Nydia, why do you become embroiled in this squabbling? To them, I answer in the sobering words of our Eugenio María de Hostos, there is no victory without a struggle, nor a struggle without sacrifice. I will never abandon the struggles or causes of my country, no matter how convenient that might be,” she said. 

For her part, Ocasio-Cortez, speaking in Spanish, also endorsed La Alianza candidates, the first time she has backed local island politicians in an election.

She said the island has suffered “two types of disasters: natural disasters and the disasters of corruption and deficient leadership.” 

Velázquez herself is no stranger to local Puerto Rican politics. Historically, she has backed candidates from the PPD, including Eduardo Bhatia and Aníbal Acevedo Vilá. 

This time around, though, it is not about traditional colonial politics. It’s about survival for Puerto Rico. And it’s “the same young people that showed us the way during the summer of 2019 [when then PNP governor Ricky Rosselló was ousted by street protests],” the ones capable of achieving it, Velázquez said. 

Young Boricuas, traditionally apathetic when it comes to voting, recently registered in record numbers, almost 100,000, because they are fed up with the “bipartidismo” and see La Alianza as the alternative. They blame the latter for a $70 billion debt, an unelected fiscal control board, a collapsing education and health care system, governmental corruption, daily blackouts courtesy of Luma, and the displacement of Puerto Ricans due to Act 22 (now Act 60). 

PNP and PPD Reactions

Both the PNP and PPD offered predictable reactions to the historic endorsements. On television, radio, and print, they called Ocasio-Cortez a Bronx-born socialist, Velázquez an advocate of independence who betrayed the PPD and local island candidates belonging to the U.S. Democratic Party and dusted off that old canard—that they neither reside nor vote on the island.

During the conference, there were moments of pure Boricua political theater when a “tumba coco” (huge speakers mounted on the back of a truck) blasted a PPD political message in an attempt to drown out what was being said inside. 

Yet, no amount of political reggaetón can silence the fact that it was a win for La Alianza and a body blow to the PNP and PPD. The question is, will these endorsements alter the course of the election? 

Will it convince more young people to vote or disenfranchised PPD voters whose party trails Dalmau in third place, according to polls?

Will it lead to PNP voters not supporting pro-statehood gubernatorial candidate Jenniffer González, the front-runner, who Velázquez accused of falsely claiming that a vote for Dalmau would mean losing federal funds, Medicaid, and a U.S. passport?

Maybe. 

But I don’t think that was the main goal. It was more to blast through the crumbling two-party political duopoly and let Boricuas see that another viable alternative exists and that they don’t have to fear it. 

“What it's about is that Puerto Ricans continue to be Puerto Ricans in their own land,” Velázquez said.

The point, in this writer’s opinion, was driven home. 

About the Author

A former News Director for Univision Puerto Rico and conflict correspondent, Susanne Ramirez de Arellano is now a cultural critic and writer based in Old San Juan.

What We’re Reading (and Watching)

The “Cowboy Couture” of Manuel Cuevas: Veronique Medrano filed a very cool Washington Post profile this week about 91-year-old Manuel Cuevas, who “has always created outfits that match the wearer’s unique flair, including an Elvis jumpsuit and Johnny Cash’s Man in Black ensemble.”

The Trump Town Hall: Thursday night, Donald Trump made his Univision Town Hall appearance. This January 6 question was “a moment.” What do you think?

The Kamala Harris Fox News Interview: And in case you missed it, here is the full Fox News interview from Wednesday night.

_{The Latino Newsletter welcomes opinion pieces in English and/or Spanish from community voices. You can email them to our publisher, Julio Ricardo Varela. The views expressed by outside opinion contributors do not necessarily reflect the editorial views of this outlet.}