I just caught Rosie Perez’s “Yo Soy Boricua, Pa’Que Tu Lo Sepas!” (I’m Boricua, Just So You Know!) on IFC this weekend. Actually, I DVRed it and just watched it this past weekend. I thought I knew a lot of history, but I knew none of this! Ms. Perez presents an inviting, proud, positive tour of Puerto Rico. I think I’ve mentioned this story to everyone I’ve talked to in the past few days. In fact, I was making a Puerto Rican co-worker aware of this production and telling her about all that I had learned: the words that have come into our language, the New Yorkicans, the shared histories of people of color, the Africans who fought for Puerto Rican independence, the forced sterilizations… and shes says “yes, my mother was one of those women”. Forced sterilizations.

Find this movie. Watch it. Share it with your friends!