UPDATE, May 20: Since we wrote the following piece on May 14, two outlets have covered the protests and what has happened since: PRI and HuffPost. Both outlets have linked to our original piece.
We waited a few hours to write this post just to give the U.S. mainstream media a chance to actually cover a day of some very intense protests in Puerto Rico on Wednesday afternoon. As of tonight (around 12:05amET on May 14), we can safely conclude that very little coverage (if any, to be quite honest) ever even appeared in U.S. English-language media. The only English language piece we found was a story by Prensa Latina:
San Juan, May 13 (Prensa Latina) Thousands of members of the Puerto Rican university community rejected the possible cuts to the budget of state University of Puerto Rico, in a massive march because of the fiscal crisis of the island.
Students, teachers, investigators and non-teaching workers of the UPR and members of private universities met at the Capitol of San Juan to march up to La Fortaleza, the host of the Puerto Rican Executive.
That was pretty much it as of this initial posting, even though #11Recintos1UPR was active for most of the day, as well as #MarchaUPR.
Those two hashtags included several photos, including these:
Today thousands of students in Puerto Rico marched to stop gov proposed university budget cuts #11Recintos1UPR @deray pic.twitter.com/vCe7ZSCpus
— Chantel Trujillo (@ChantillyyyLace) May 13, 2015
And these:
#11Recintos1UPR pic.twitter.com/5KZEx8DECr
— Maktub. (@ArtemasCafe) May 13, 2015
Estudiante en pie de lucha. #11recintos1UPR #ProductoUPR @uprrp #Marcha #protesta #publiceducation #PuertoRico pic.twitter.com/Rw2tRtCTum
— Rebeca Agosto (@rjagosto) May 13, 2015
Somos #11Recintos1UPR, haciendo HISTORIA. Debería salir el pueblo a luchar con nosotros. ¡LOS BUENOS SOMOS MÁS! pic.twitter.com/BwE2f97lIg
— Karlee Escalera (@karleeia) May 13, 2015
Llega más Fuerza d Choque a protesta universitarios en Puerto Rico. pic.twitter.com/4XesdyGM1n
— Perla Franco (@PerlateleSUR) May 13, 2015
#PuertoRico en su versión de videojuego en protesta #11Recintos1UPR pic.twitter.com/9U4j18Glze
— Mikey Pensando (@pensandopr) May 13, 2015
Social media also featured videos of the protests (“We are students, we’re not criminals!”):
Lo pongo por aquí por aquello de que somos “violentos”. El primer macanazo del día está como al minuto 1:15.El video está público ahora ya que muchos lo están compartiendo pero quiero también aclarar que mi intención con publicarlo no es condenar a la Policía de Puerto Rico. El Nuevo Día ayer dejó entender que los estudiantes fueron los primeros en ejercer violencia física y la intención del video es que quede en récord que los estudiantes hicieron un llamado a la paz en todo momento. Aprovecho también para dejar claro que la mayoría del cuerpo de oficiales allí presente se comportó con respeto hacia los manifestantes, salvo por aquel que primero soltó el macanazo y el otro que usó pepper spray. Ellos están allí haciendo su trabajo y posiblemente algunos simpatizan con nosotros. Como me dijo uno de los oficiales: "No es personal".
Posted by Jorge L Falcón Garrido on Wednesday, May 13, 2015
There were even reports that a Pepsi bottle filled with aluminum and a chemical had detonated very near the La Fortaleza (the governor’s mansion). There were no injuries, but we do think that if a bomb-like device had gone off near where an elected official on the mainland was, it would be on a constant 24/7 constant loop coverage. Images from the live stream of El Nuevo Día also were shared throughout social media all day in Puerto Rico:
[EN VIVO] Estudiantes intentan llegar al portón de La Fortaleza http://end.pr/1K6nkEI
Posted by El Nuevo Dia on Wednesday, May 13, 2015
And by the end of the day, student leaders were meeting with Governor Alejandro García Padilla.
Yet we guess that such news shouldn’t be reported to the rest of the United States. If you want to read more about what happened, you need to live in Latin America and know Spanish.
By the way, it looks like the student protests are just beginning to pick up momentum, with reports (in Spanish, of course) that a student strike will be happening this week. Four years ago, student protests on the island lasted for months.
But doesn’t the U.S. Government provide for low income students to attend college? Oh, right.
UPR students are different from any other university student in the island and probably in many countries (living in the US for the past 8 years, I can speak about a few)… we get educated to demand our rights and to protest when something is wrong. We are taught to raise our voices, not to lay down and take it, to be actively involved in the public policy process… a people that won’t lift up their voice in protest, ends up like North Korea!
I graduated from the UPR in 2002 and I am proud of my Alma Mater and proud that students still raise their voices.
Critical thinking is a very important skill… the UPR teaches critical thinking. That is why a degree from there is worth a million bucks!
¡Yo seré Jerezana hasta la muerte!
I agree with the strikes, because education is something that you can’t juggle with. But I think no matter the strikes or the protests that UPR students are doing, the governor is not going to do anything. Why? Because he’s acting like a dictator. Is what he says and wants, and that’s it. Do you think he’s is showing democracy, hell no. He’s there to ruin the economy, agencies, the government system and the education (of course). So please, in the next elections, think clearly and look up information about the candidates. And for AGP messing up the economy, don’t think the next governor is going to fix everything in 4 years. Puerto Rico has a debt of more than one decade. So it will take like four decades to replenish and cut down the debts.
I didn’t want to bring this topic of politics, but it has it’s link, unfortunately. :/
P.S. Um why “the US media ignored it”. ARE you guys trying to seek attention or something? Don’t put the US in this, because the US gives scholarships to the majority of the students (like millions of dollars to you guys) and still protest. I think that the problem is that some UPR students are SPOILED. Can’t you guys be grateful for the “Beca Pell” and plus gov. incentives? I don’t get it. I’m part of the public system too, and I think this is way too much. And fyi, I don’t receive scholarships. Pay a little bit of tuition, doesn’t make a difference. Every university in the world, has to pay a little but of money for tuition. Hello our tuition is extremely low, compared to other international universities.
Question: How many protests a day or a week aren’t covered by the national press? I’m guess a lot. Each media outlet covers only just so many stories a day. The question is whether this protest should have been seen as substantially different from all the others that didn’t get national coverage that day?
THE “BECA PELL” HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE MOVEMENT! IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH OUR TUITION AND WHAT WE PAY, PLEASE INFORM YOURSELF BEFORE YOU MAKE A COMMENT! WE ARE FIGHTING FOR A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT CALLED “EDUCATION”. I would like to believe that you would do the very same if you’re education were ever in risk, and I hope you never have to endure what our goverment put us UPR students through! And we do NEED the medias and US attention! WE NEED SUPPORT FROM ALL AROUND THE WORLD BECAUSE WE ALL HAVE THE RIGHT TO RECEIVE AN EDUCATION TO MOVE FORWARD AS A SOCIETY! I hope that as a fellow college student, who has goals and dreams of achieving greatness in the near future, understand that we must fight and raise our voices until we are heard and justice has been made.
Do you know the history of US intervention in Puerto Rico? Not a pretty story- deceit, disenfranchisement, disintegration of the diversity of crops and exports, forcing Puerto Ricans into the job sector while robbing them of their farming income, the housing debacle similar to the US housing crash that stripped many of their lands…the lack of representation in US Congress, despite the fact that the US forced the island to accept US citizenship juuust in time to mandate a draft and send Puerto Rican men to fight in US wars….the United States is not GIVING Puerto Rico nearly as much as it has taken. March on, students.
HelenCarlina God you are dumb
Did you just call God dumb?
Joseph A. Burgos
IT’S SOMETHING SIMILAR TO WHAT WENT ON WITH THE STUDENT PROTEST MARCH IN THE UNITED STATES FROM WEST INTO NEW YORK, I WAS THERE TO LISTEN AND EVEN WROTE AN ESSAY ABOUT THE EVENT. I HOPE THE BEST WILL COME OUT OF THE STUDENT PROTEST IN PUERTO RICO BECAUSE THEY HAVE A RIGHT TO BE HEARD AS LONG AS THERE IS NO VIOLENCE, PA-LANTE. SOBRINO DE JULIA DE BURGOS.
NOTE: NEPHEW OF JULIA DE BURGOS – WEBSITE: http;//www.angelfire.com/poet-artist-bio/index.html
Joseph A. Burgos
IT’S SOMETHING SIMILAR TO WHAT WENT ON WITH THE STUDENT PROTEST MARCH IN THE UNITED STATES FROM WEST INTO NEW YORK, I WAS THERE TO LISTEN AND EVEN WROTE AN ESSAY ABOUT THE EVENT. I HOPE THE BEST WILL COME OUT OF THE STUDENT PROTEST IN PUERTO RICO BECAUSE THEY HAVE A RIGHT TO BE HEARD AS LONG AS THERE IS NO VIOLENCE, PA-LANTE. SOBRINO DE JULIA DE BURGOS.
You should really educate yourself on the real issues and reasoning behind the protest prior to making comments. The education of our people is a basic human right and it is something worth fighting for, be it in Puerto Rico or any other part of the world. And as for being grateful for what the US government gives Puerto Rico, believe me when I tell you as a Puerto Rican and a U.S. Army veteran with 2 war campaign tours under my belt, what they do for our island ifs not enough in comparison to what we throughout the years have done for the U.S. it is a two way street.
No that would of be written like this. “God,you are dumb.”
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