Intervention 2

 Intervention 2

For my second intervention, I decided that I would create an Instagram page dedicated to Puerto Rican and Latino content concentrating on topics like gentrification, displacement, and economic issues. The name of the account is called estamo.saqui, which translates to “we are here” in Spanish. I chose this username because I thought it would be a simple and easy thing to remember with weight to it. I feel as though many times Puerto Ricans or people of color are looked over or only seen when it’s convenient for America but fail to realize we were the ones who were here first. So this a reminder that hey WE ARE HERE and have always been here.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cq6hD8XOhKs/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

As for the content itself, on my Instagram page, I have given an introduction to the page and have included informational foundational topics for people to understand why I feel so passionately about this. I have included details about Tainos and where they originated from. I’ve also included a street artist from Puerto Rico who speaks on the same issues with an artwork called bemba.pr on Instagram.I have also included a video of myself walking around with the Puerto Rican Flag in my hometown, Rahway. The reason behind doing so was to capture people’s attention, especially in the downtown area because I’ve seen gentrification within my own town happening. You’ll see a regular town has tons of luxury apartments and buildings surrounding shops to cater to those who are wealthy enough to stay there while traveling to new york. Instead of just putting that money back into school or into the community. 

The effect circulates all catering back to gringos, to privileged people, to people who can afford it. Puerto Ricans and people of color have dealt with oppression for years and have been overlooked for years and now are getting displaced not only in our motherland but also in the U.S. itself. They keep investing money only into what would make them more money. They like to take, take, take as they usually do and have been doing since the 1400s when they discovered our land and took it from us and made America where nobody is really welcomed.

It is somewhat hard building a community of people who actually care an Instagram but my consistency has been somewhat paying off on the account as an activist, I can proudly say now I am “working within the very culture we are trying to change,”(pg.104) as Steve Lambert and Steve Duncobe wrote in the Art of Activism. There is so much information out there that needs to be absorbed especially from the oppressors, but it chose not to. But with my action of creating estamos aqui, I now force people to look at the thing everyone is on every day of their lives to understand the issues happening to Puerto Ricans. I am working in the very society that surrounds themselves with information all day but with the right information a change may spark.”Words we use, the images we employ, and the performances we stage will be made sense of in various contexts. Our opponents can consciously manipulate our symbols for their own ends, and we need to operate with the assumption that they will,”(pg.114) which is exactly what I intend to do with my social platform. Doing such a simple gesture with my flag and even creating graphics for my Instagram account will visually show people how these things are important.

For the second part of my invention, I decided to do a project called “I AM NOT A GRINGO” which basically looks into how people perceive themselves in America. I recently talked about on my page that when a Hispanic or Latino refers to someone as a Gringo it’s usually not a positive connotation. So I did an experiment and made a sign that has two sides. One side has “I am not a gringo” and one side has “I am a gringo,” and let people on the street choose how they identify as. I assumed some people knew what that meant and for some, I had to explain what gringo actually meant. It was interesting to see how different people reacted and what they knew and didn’t.

Works Cited

Duncombe, Steve. Lambert, Steve. The Art of Activism. OR Books, 2021