Chican@s, Aztlanec@s, Mexican@s, time for our strongest solidarity with the people of Puerto Rico! Hurricane Fiona last month devastated the island, just four years after Hurricane Maria nearly destroyed it. 

Chicanos like me relate to this history all too well, mirroring, as it does, what the US did to México, stealing that nation’s vast northern territories in the 1840s and turning the Mexicans who had lived in those areas for centuries into the oppressed nation we call Aztlan. And the US has plundered the vast mineral and agricultural resources of Aztlan just as the US has plundered Puerto Rico, all the while turning México into a neo-colony and extracting similar levels of super-profits from Mexico’s natural and human resources.

Poverty, poor housing, economic and racial inequality, corrupt puppet governments: Our peoples have all suffered much the same losses.

The valiant Puerto Rican people know not to wait for the US or their colonial government to save them. They are working collectively to restore the electrical system, to restore the water supply, to feed and shelter the elderly, the sick, and the young.

But that doesn’t mean these Puerto Ricans don’t need our support. Those who understand them best should be leading the solidarity. In the US, Chican@s and our allies can demand that the Biden Administration prioritize assistance and support to Puerto Rico, working closely with the islands’ unions and mass organizations. In México, the social movements can also call on the AMLO administration to help their sister nation. And, of course, our people-to-people donations channeled through the trusted community organization VamosPR can and will make a difference.

Compas, vamos por Puerto Rico!