Monica Ruiz is vice president of the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Puerto Rican Agenda and executive director of Casa San Jose in Pittsburgh. There are 500,000 Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania, and this comment mobilized Puerto Ricans in a way not seen during this election.
“We are a proud people. We love the island, and we love it more than anything,” says Lewis. “And calling it a floating island of trash offended a great many people.”
Ruiz says the comments are unlikely to change the opinion of pro-Trump Puerto Ricans who were already planning to vote for him. But she says her comments are likely to motivate younger and more disinterested voters to go to the polls.
Additionally, the comments are motivating Puerto Ricans across the state to become more involved in the “Get Out the Vote” effort.
She says this comment motivates all Latin Americans, not just Puerto Ricans.
“I think this is helpful, because not only did he say bad things about Puerto Ricans and Puerto Ricans, he also said that Latinos as a whole like to have lots of babies in a really bad way.” says Lewis. “And it’s like, you can’t, you can’t do that.”
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