[ISL] "New York Boricuas react to island’s crushing debt"

[rfmcdonald]

Al Jazeera America's Kate Kilpatrick and Azure Gilman report on how Puerto Ricans in New York are reacting to the economic issues of their island homeland. The debt bomb is big, and apparently not unexpected.

María Guzmán, 63, moved to New York from Puerto Rico when she was 6 years old. She visits the island every year and planned to retire there — she has a house in Guánica on the southern coast. But with the island facing economic crisis, those plans have changed.

“I don’t think so. I’m going upstate, not to Puerto Rico,” said Guzmán, standing outside her apartment in Bushwick, Brooklyn. “Every day, like 400 people leave Puerto Rico. Can’t nobody afford the food there. Everything is expensive.”

Guzmán said she has many family members in Puerto Rico, including her father, who moved back 12 years ago.

“My father’s about to pack up and come to New York again. He worked so many years here, went to Puerto Rico — that was his dream, buying his house, retired, being there — and he can’t even afford the medicine [anymore]. He’s 75 years old.”