LOÍZA, Puerto Rico -- A dozen dancers wearing bright, colorful ankle-length skirts gathered around five wooden drums. Their shoulders and hips pulsed with the percussion, an upbeat, African-inspired rhythm.Loiza, a township founded by formerly enslaved Africans, is one of the many places in Puerto Rico
LOÍZA, Puerto Rico — A dozen dancers wearing bright, colorful ankle-length skirts gathered around five wooden drums. Their shoulders and hips pulsed with the percussion, an upbeat, African-inspired rhythm.
After Hurricane Maria, Maricruz Rivera-Clemente, founder of Corporación Piñones se Integra, said it took longer for electricity to be restored in Loíza than in the capital, San Juan, and other parts of the island. “We have the same electrical connection, the same electrical source as Isla Verde,” Rivera-Clemente said, referring to a popular tourist area in San Juan. “We had no electricity until two months later.
Many Puerto Ricans say they also feel that choosing black erases their unique cultural identity — including language, food and customs — and aligns their experience too closely with that of African Americans on the mainland. “For visual reasons, yes, I consider myself black,” he said. “For reasons of identity, I consider myself Puerto Rican.”
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