Jon Marcantoni

Why This Puerto Rican Is Struggling to Vote for Biden and the Democrats (OPINION)

I just don’t know if I can trust Biden to not go ahead with a statehood initiative.

  • Oct 5, 2020
  • 5:36 PM

A New Play About Puerto Rico’s Cerro Maravilla Tragedy Seeks to Make a Mark in Colorado

Puerto Rican Nocturne investigates the nature of power, the limits of ideology, and the search for autonomy and peace in a colonized society.

  • Nov 19, 2019
  • 11:32 AM

Statehood of Confusion

After the passage of the PROMESA bill, even Puerto Rico’s estadistas shouldn’t celebrate the 4th of July.

  • Jul 4, 2016
  • 2:47 PM

Latinos for Trump and the Neocolonial Mindset

Many Latinos, even immigrants, share one major quality in common with the Republican presidential nominee: extreme patriotism.

  • Jun 29, 2016
  • 10:22 AM

Of Trump, Chicago and What People Are Getting Wrong

What happened in Chicago last Friday night was a communication breakdown.

  • Mar 14, 2016
  • 6:34 AM

A Latin American Struggling in a US Latino Diaspora

What it’s like to be from the outside but now inside and looking back out.

  • Dec 21, 2015
  • 10:45 AM

Puerto Rico al borde del abismo

“El 1 de diciembre fue un día ínfamo en nuestra historia. A ver nuestro gobernador dar limosnas a nuestro maestro colonial era una vergüenza profunda e imperdonable.”

  • Dec 9, 2015
  • 9:57 AM

There Are No Safe Zones in Art

“The intersection between art and politics has always been fraught with land mines and dismembered limbs of the well-intentioned.”

  • Dec 3, 2015
  • 12:12 PM

‘Barrio Imbroglio’: Daniel Cubias on Writing a Detective Novel

A conversation with Daniel Cubias, author of the new detective novel ‘Barrio Imbroglio,’ on writing, Latino authors and self-publishing.

  • Nov 27, 2015
  • 11:59 AM

Why the Latino Revolution May Never Happen

Do Latinos have the will to effect the kind of radical changes this country needs?

  • Nov 6, 2015
  • 10:53 AM

Entrevista con Edgardo Jusino-Campos, autor de ‘El harapiento de Betzaida’

Una conversación con el autor de su novela, las actualidades en Puerto Rico y la literatura latinoamericana

  • Oct 3, 2015
  • 9:09 AM

How Native Speakers Ruined Spanish for Everyone Else

Constant criticism from native Spanish speakers discourages non-speaking Latinos from learning the language

  • Sep 27, 2015
  • 10:06 AM

The Diversity Problem: Interview with Linda Nieves-Powell, author of ‘Yo Soy Latina’

The author talks about her play and the diversity problem perpetuated even within the Latino community

  • Sep 24, 2015
  • 1:02 PM

Interview with Prize-Winning Author Chris Campanioni

An interview with the ILBA and Academy of American Poet’s Prize-Winning author Chris Campanioni

  • Sep 2, 2015
  • 9:37 AM

‘Who’s Ju?’

An interview with award-winning author Dania Ramos

  • Aug 25, 2015
  • 10:00 AM

Kings of 7th Avenue: A New Era of Puerto Rican Literature

Puerto Rican neo-fiction seeks to address the social and psychological problems that afflict modern Puerto Rico, whether in regard to ‘self-racism,’ neo-colonialism, foreign influence, identity crisis and the effects of issues that have afflicted the island for the last two hundred years. The genre would not be bound by single traditional genres such as horror […]

  • Aug 18, 2015
  • 9:00 AM

Kings of 7th Avenue: Mami Dearest

—Pues primo, titi’s behavior is what happens in colonial societies. You don’t learn to value yourself let alone other people. Your mom is an empty shell full of rah-rah American bullshit fed to young Puerto Ricans that tells them they can never be satisfied unless they chase the American dream and leave the island behind. […]

  • Aug 13, 2015
  • 9:00 AM

Kings of 7th Avenue: Latin Pigs

In Latino literature and film, a common narrative is assimilation, where the protagonist wrestles with preserving the “traditional value” of the old world while embracing the “progress and enlightenment” of the new. By the end, even as the protagonist learns to appreciate and respect the values of their elders, what they really embrace and love are […]

  • Aug 11, 2015
  • 11:00 AM

Puerto Ricans Need Institutions They Can Trust

When I was an undergrad at the University of Tampa, one of my Latin American History professors made the point that the wars of independence in the 19th century were not so much popular rebellions as they were one social class (the Criollos, or direct Spanish descendants born and raised in the Americas) fighting another (the […]

  • Jul 16, 2015
  • 3:56 PM

Show Solidarity for Striking Teachers in Chile

Tonight, I received an email from my friend Katherinne Balboa Oviedo, a Chilean educator currently living in Colorado. She wrote me asking to contribute to a project to show solidarity with Chilean teachers currently on strike. The conditions facing Chilean professors is horrendous, yet frighteningly comparable to those faced by adjunct professors in the United […]

  • Jun 9, 2015
  • 7:20 AM

F*ck Being a ‘Latino Writer’

“Latino writer” is a label whose purpose is to make you feel like you are a part of something big, important and ultimately has nothing to do with you as an individual. “Latino writer” does not denote quality or innovation, it is not a movement nor does it embody a single worldview, but what it […]

  • May 20, 2015
  • 9:49 AM

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