On my first morning in San Juan, I was walking down Calle San Francisco in search of breakfast, and heard motorcycles revving their engines up ahead. I looked down the narrow, cobblestone street and saw a pack of motorcycles and a truck with a loudspeaker on it. They were blocking the street and moving my way. I could see I wouldn’t be able to get by until they passed, so I tucked myself into a doorway to watch. Since it was Martin Luther King Day, I thought perhaps it was a parade. As they grew closer, though, it became obvious it was a demonstration of some sort. That immediately gained my interest, because I come from a pretty political state. We’re always marching or demonstrating about something here. A man yelled in Spanish, his voice magnified by the loudspeaker to teeth-rattling levels. Even if he had been speaking English, I wouldn’t have been able to tell what he was saying, because I had to clap my hands over my ears as the speaker passed. Following behind was row after row of (mostly) men wearing green tee shirts, a banner stretched out in front of them and picket signs bobbing over their heads.
I could tell from the lettering on their shirts that it was a labor union (the Independent Union of Employees Aqueduct and Sewer Authority of Puerto Rico, aka UIAEAAA of Puerto Rico, as it turns out). I became curious about what they were protesting (or advocating). With my limited Spanish, I couldn’t figure it out. I assumed it was fair wages, safe working conditions, that sort of thing. I asked an English-speaking local about it later, and he had no idea. So I looked up a translation of their signs when I got home.
Their signs read “no mas despidos empleados transitorios queremos paz laboral negociacion colectiva,” which as best I can translate, has something to do with workers protesting layoffs of transient employees, and wanting peaceful negotiations. But I feel like there are important pieces of information missing here. I wish my Spanish were more advanced, so I could have understood better what their cause was. (That’s a real kick in the pants or me to speed up my Spanish studies.) Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find anything online about what this particular demonstration was about.
In any case, I appreciated this glimpse into the lives of working class locals–something I haven’t often gotten when I’ve traveled in the past. It reminded me that there is more than just a tourist economy in Puerto Rico. I became curious about their cause, the history behind it, and what will happen to them going forward. In some ways, it set the tone for how I felt about everything else that I did while in San Juan. I felt lucky to have stumbled across this little snapshot of Puerto Rican life.
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