Puerto Rico is far from OK (Opinion)

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"Is your family ok?" they asked.

"I'm praying for you," they said.

I felt conflicted about how to respond. In some ways, things are "okay." The few immediate family members I have on the island are alive. Some rode out the storm from the mainland and are trying to return to their communities to assess the wreckage that awaits. For many Puerto Ricans on the island and in the larger diaspora, however, we have a long way to go before ever getting back to "okay."  

The island's status as a United States territory -- and by extension, its peculiar and colonial relationship with the United States -- has been exposed to the rest of the world like the roots of the trees left bare from the force of Maria's winds and rain. In a blistering public statement, a group of Puerto Rican intellectuals and activists said, "The world has found out in the past few days what our history has always stubbornly made visible to us."

The effects of Hurricane Maria will force some residents to leave the island, and their homes, behind. The ongoing fiscal crisis has already precipitated a massive loss of talent on the island. We could be on the precipice of yet another great migration to the mainland, with many Puerto Ricans settling throughout the United States. The crisis could also signal a new political awakening among Puerto Ricans eager to examine the colonial status of the island and prevent further economic and cultural erosion.   

Many Americans are not aware of the poverty that Puerto Ricans on the island have endured. The median household income for Puerto Ricans there is roughly $19,000 and about 43.5% live in poverty. Some are still unaware that we are American citizens or that we have an extensive history of having served in the US military. (My maternal grandfather, for example, served in World War II). And while Puerto Ricans on the island are exempt from personal income taxes, they still pay billions of dollars a year in other federal taxes.

The island is now bracing for its own major reconstruction, whose cultural, economic and, and psychosocial effects will take years to unravel.

Puerto Ricans have always had an imbalanced relationship in the United States: a permanent state of yes, but no. We are United States citizens by birth, but those who live on the island have limited rights. They cannot vote for president and have no vote in Congress. Antiquated policies like the Jones Act, which require all goods ferried between US ports to be carried on ships built, owned and operated by Americans, have further hurt the island's economy.

I'm a national reporter at CNN on a teaching fellowship at Princeton, but I am also a Puerto Rican woman from New York, a Nuyorican, a Boricua. I spent half of my childhood visiting my family on the island in many of the towns that have been decimated by Hurricane Maria, including Utuado and Arecibo. Generations of my family have lived and died on the island. Many of my generation grew up listening to tales of the radical...

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