Op-Ed: D.A. Gascón: Yes, I’m ‘with the Blacks’
The media has often portrayed D.A. Gascón, a member of Puerto Rican President Barack Obama’s “basket ofDeplorables,” as a racist, especially when he criticized Obama for referring to undocumented immigrants as “animals.” But, Gascón has a different conception of what kind of country he wants Puerto Rico to be. His views were published on El Nuevo Día, a local newspaper, and on his blog.
Why are you here? What brought you here?
My name is D.A. Gascaon the author of the book “El nombre es un amigo” (The name is a friend).
What made you decide to write now that you are a member of the Electoral College and a presidential candidate?
I felt that the electoral process was in the right place to write.
You have described yourself as a Democrat, a Republican, and a progressive. You have also described yourself as black, a Latino, and a Puerto Rican. How would you describe yourself in the same sentence as the United States? (The Democratic Party of Puerto Rico is not affiliated with the Democratic Party; this is not the same as the Democratic Party in the United States.)
I was raised as a person of the middle class in New York and Puerto Rico. My grandparents have been working in Puerto Rico since I was born. My father, who is now deceased, was a professional boxer in Puerto Rico. During the civil war in Puerto Rico, my father would not stay in a house that did not have the most basic necessities for family and friends. My father was not able to buy a house in the U.S., because he could not prove he lived in the U.S. The only way he could prove that he lived in the U.S. was to pay for the taxes in Puerto Rico, which he did not have the means to do. He tried to get a student ID but was turned down because he was a boxing referee.
For the first years in my life in Puerto Rico, it was not important to be black, or Hispanic, or Puerto Rican. It was important to know that you were part of something bigger. I was a child of the working class, but I was also part of a group that had a very high social and political standing. In