Anyone with Puerto Rican friends knows that even the most innocuous statement about the island’s political status can awaken the most vehement passions. We can’t help it, it’s the Caribbean blood. But despite the deep personal feelings evoked by Puerto Rico’s perpetual state of political confusion, the truth is that most non-Puerto Ricans actually have no clue what the heck our deal really is. And at no time is this more painfully evident that when an island Boricua hits the Powerball jackpot.
So: Is Puerto Rico a colony? Do Puerto Ricans want to be a state? Do they want independence? Everyone’s dying to know, and every single one of the nearly 8 million self-identified Puerto Ricans in the world will give you a different answer. So just keep scratching your head in confusion.
Or alternately, you can keep a look out for Emmy Award-winning Puerto Rican filmmaker Juan Agustín Márquez’s latest documentary, The Last Colony (also known in Puerto Rico as Di Las Cóloni), which dissects the complicated and polarizing debate around Puerto Rico’s political status through interviews with politicians, historians, sociologists, and economists in an effort to get the average non-Puerto Rican more or less up to speed on the issue.
Taking as its point of departure a 2012 plebiscite that was supposed to definitively decide the future of Puerto Rico, The Last Colony doesn’t appear to have any artistic pretensions, but rather focuses on some of the most important talking heads in Puerto Rican politics and academia. Featuring a whole range of political orientations, Márquez seems to be making at least a nominal effort to present a balanced point-of-view, but the documentary’s very title gives an idea of where the director’s political sympathies may lie.
As for the 2012 plebiscite — in which a resounding vote for U.S. statehood prevailed — it has been effectively discounted due to some slippery methodology and painfully evident political bias. Now, almost three years later, Puerto Rico finds itself exactly where it started: passionately confused.
The Last Colony premieres in Puerto Rico on April 30, 2015 at Fine Arts Caribbean Cinemas. Here’s the newest trailer.
Let the comments begin.