Ricans Quotes & Sayings

That at the end of the XX century many Puerto Ricans don't know who he is, nor acknowledge him as their Father is a real pity, that other Puerto Ricans that can never be compared to Dr. Betances be praised as illustrious Puerto Ricans, and his name is omitted makes one think why. — Armando Pacheco Matos

I'd say it's even harder to cater to Hispanics than to the lesbian or gay community. We're so culturally separated: Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Mexicans, Venezuelans. We're all so different. — Carlos Ponce

What do you think would have happened to me if a neighborhood of Puerto Ricans saw a scary-looking black dude trying to kick down the door of one of their fellow countrymen? — Charles Ramsey

We want to allow Costa Ricans to make a qualitative leap in our development and go to an economy based on innovation and developing a broadband infrastructure in order to overcome the barrier of 15 per cent penetration. — Laura Chinchilla

It is quite understandable that Puerto Ricans seek to preserve a cultural sense of identity without separating politically from U.S. national sovereignty. — Dick Thornburgh

I grew up in a neighborhood with blacks and Puerto Ricans and Italians, the whole gamut, so conveying unity has always meant a lot to me. — Carmine Giovinazzo

I want to thank the pioneering women who years ago opened the doors of politics in Costa Rica. My government will be open to all Costa Ricans of good faith. — Laura Chinchilla

The Puerto Ricans forming the ranks of the gallant 65th Infantry on the battlefields of Korea ... are writing a brilliant record of achievement in battle and I am proud indeed to have them in this command. I wish that we might have many more like them. — Douglas MacArthur

Dortmunder had helped by expressing doubts. "If the Puerto Ricans all come here," he'd said, for instance, "how come it's such a hot idea for us to go there?" Another time, he'd expressed the opinion that airplanes were too heavy to fly, and a little later he'd pointed out he didn't have a passport. "You don't need a passport," May told him. "Puerto Rico's part of the US." He stared at her. "The hell it is." But it turned out she was right about that; Puerto Rico wasn't exactly a state, but it was something in the United States of America - maybe it was "of. — Donald E. Westlake

The term Hispanic, coined by technomarketing experts and by the designers of political campaigns, homogenizes our cultural diversity (Chicanos, Cubans, and Puerto Ricans become indistinguishable), avoids our indigenous cultural heritage and links us directly with Spain. Worse yet, it possesses connotations of upward mobility and political obedience. — Guillermo Gomez-Pena

Projects meant living with blacks and Puerto Ricans, but that's what we wanted. Living in the projects, we've met so many wonderful, wonderful people. — Yuri Kochiyama

Elijah Muhammad teaches us the truth of God beautified the planet by separating everybody in different countries for themselves: Chinese in China, English in England, Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico, Ethiopians in Ethiopia, Arabians in Arabia, Egyptians in Egypt, and Americans took that country and stole it away so there's always going to be trouble and chaos. — Muhammad Ali

Before September 11, the skinny, jittery black guy made security think one thing: drug mule. But after the attacks, security only cared about bombs. So it was the Arab guys, the Puerto Ricans and Indians, even white men, that got searched. I was too dark to make people worry on a plane. Still caused fear in elevators. — Victor LaValle

I am willing to bet that there are some Puerto Ricans who don't know about [their status]. — Sonia Sotomayor

On May 19, Malcolm X's birthday, two police had been machine-gunned on Riverside Drive. I felt sorry for their families, sorry for their children, but i was relieved to see that somebody else besides Black folks and Puerto Ricans and Chicanos was being shot at. I was sick and tired of us being the only victims, and i didn't care who knew it. As far as i was concerned, the police in the Black communities were nothing but a foreign, occupying army, beating, torturing, and murdering people at whim and without restraint. I despise violence, but i despise it even more when it's one-sided and used to oppress and repress poor people. — Assata Shakur

There are three lies in life," Sutherland said to his young companion, whose first night this was in the realm of homosexuality and whose introduction to it Sutherland had taken upon himself to supervise. "One, the check is in the mail. Two, I will not come in your mouth. And three, all Puerto Ricans have big cocks," he said. — Andrew Holleran

All B.S. aside, it all comes down to ... we got to survive. I mean, even warriors put their spears down on Sundays. We got to survive here in this country ... 'cause I'm not going back to Africa. We got to survive here. And for us to survive here-White folks, Black folks, Korean folks, Mexican folks, Puerto Ricans-we got to understand each other. — Tupac Shakur

Queens, New York. The most ethnically diverse region not just in the United States, but on the entire planet ... In Queens, you will find Korean kids who sound like black kids. Italians who sound like Puerto Ricans. Puerto Ricans who sound like Italians. Third-generation Irish who sound like old Jews. That's Queens. Not a melting pot, not even a tossed salad, but an all-you-can-eat, mix-and-match buffet. — Victor LaValle

Immigration along with nonwhite birthrates will make white people a minority totally vulnerable to the political, social, and economic will of blacks, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Orientals. A social upheaval is now beginning to occur that will be the funeral dirge of the America we love. I shudder to contemplate the future under nonwhite occupation; rapes, murders, robberies multiplied a hundred fold, illiteracy such as in Haiti, medicine such as in Mexico, and tyranny such as in Togoland. — David Duke

I'm glad I escaped the clutches of those evil gnomes ... I'm talking, of course, about Puerto Ricans. — Thom Yorke

Then a strange thing happened. A US Senator named Millard Tydings finally introduced a bill that would give Puerto Ricans their independence. Every politician on the island supported it - except Luis. Throughout the 1940s, he repeatedly opposed the Tydings independence bill. He even traveled to Washington in 1943 and 1945 to lobby against it, saying that Puerto Rico "was not ready for self-government."54 — Nelson A. Denis

The Porto Ricans at Harvard University believe that the crime was a horrible one and it should be punished, but death penalty would add to, and not detract from, its horrors," the Harvard students wrote. One of the student signatures on the letter was by Pedro Albizu y Campos who would later become a Puerto Rican promoter of ideals for the island's independence from the United States. — Yasmin Tirado-Chiodini

what manhood is. We know that under capitalism, manhood is defined according to the amount of money a male has. Puerto Ricans, since they are exploited by capitalists, have no money, and as a result no status or prestige. As Eldridge Cleaver puts it, our men are "deballed." Since they can't prove manhood economically, they try to do it sexually at the expense of their women. — Darrel Enck-Wanzer

Not only are Puerto Ricans citizens by birth, but one would be hard-pressed to find a Puerto Rican without a sister in New York or a son in Chicago, a cousin in Orlando or a daughter in Honolulu or Oklahoma City. — Luis A. Ferre

When I heard Puerto Ricans in New York City, it sounded very strange. And the first time I heard someone from Spain, I thought they had a speech impediment! — Viggo Mortensen

You think we live in Norway or something? Amir Jordan is Pakistani. There's also an Asian guy, some Puerto Ricans, and the starting left wing has, like, carrot-hair. he must be Irish. It's the whole UN over there. — Sarah Ockler

Puerto Ricans are Americans. We've been American citizens since 1917. We fought the same battles, made the same sacrifices. We've lost our land in the same way that Native Americans lost their land, and we've been the subject of discrimination and racism in the same way that African Americans have. We've suffered the full spectrum of oppression, and yet we've been off the map 4,000 miles away so we haven't even been able to argue our case. — Nelson Antonio Denis

The Puerto Ricans who come to our cities today have no place to roast pigs outdoors... — Jane Jacobs

With what moral authority can [the US] speak of human rights ... the rulers of a nation in which the millionaire and beggar coexist; where the Indian is exterminated; the black man is discriminated against; the woman is prostituted; and the great masses of Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, and Latin Americans are scorned, exploited, and humiliated ... Where the CIA organizes plans of global subversion and espionage, and the Pentagon creates neutron bombs capable of preserving material assets and wiping out human beings. — Fidel Castro

Puerto Ricans who find they can no longer afford to keep their pets often choose to drop their dogs, sometimes even whole litters of puppies, at a beach - sometimes under cover of night, in secret - rather than surrender the animal to a city or state-run shelter where the animals will face grim conditions and almost certain death by euthanasia. — Juliana Hatfield

Why can't we have racism that's ignorant but nice? You could have stereotypes that are positive about race. You could say, "Those Chinese people, they can fly!" "You know about the Puerto Ricans? They're made of candy!" — Louis C.K.

Mrs. Armitage had been different, although she was old too. That was in New York at the San Juan Laundry on Fifteenth Street. Puerto Ricans. Suds overflowing onto the floor. I was a young mother then and washed diapers on Thursday mornings. She lived above me, in 4-C. One morning at the laundry she gave me a key and I took it. She said that if I didn't see her on Thursdays it meant she was dead and would I please go find her body. That was a terrible thing to ask of someone; also then I had to do my laundry on Thursdays. — Lucia Berlin

The most popular single in the world was "Livin' la Vida Loca," a song about how Pro Tools made Puerto Ricans gay. — Chuck Klosterman

Many people say, "Oh, we have nothing against Puerto Ricans," and I wanted a way to unmask the people that say that they have nothing against gay people. — Luis Negron

This "enlightened civilization" held some firm views about their neighbors. On February 22, 1899, the New York Times ran an article headlined "Americanizing Puerto Rico," describing Puerto Ricans as "uneducated, simple-minded and harmless people who are only interested in wine, women, music and dancing. — Nelson A. Denis

SoHo was called Hell's Hundred Acres because it was full of sweatshops - without fire escapes. Completely not up to code. Every once in a while, these buildings would burn and 26 Puerto Ricans would be killed. — Carl Andre

Whoever you hate will end up in your family. You don't like gays?
You're gonna have a gay son. You don't like Puerto Ricans? Your
daughter's gonna come home with Livin' La Vida Loca! — Chris Rock