i was born here in new york and living in washington heights. my mother they are both gone but my mother was from puerto rico and my father was cuban. i was the only child. it was a small but hard-working unit and my father was very pro-castro and we would have meetings he would have 10 or 15 people on saturday nights and they would make black coffee and it was exciting for me because i would hear these exciting conversations about politics, latin america. a lot of people hadn t heard that castro was all the talk at my house. but i had an early lesson in the value of family and the importance of maintaining it because the fbi came shortly after the cuban missile crisis. the crisis is in october and in november 62 at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning i was eight years old with a time and they took my father away. they deported him to cuba without any process orchestrated protocol that i was aware of. he was just gone and we never saw him again. our family was permanently ruptured
<p>From forced disruption of native industry through mass sterilization and forced austerity, one writer argues that the only escape from mainland abuse is full Puerto Rican independence. </p>
Puerto Rico Needs Independence, Not Statehood theatlantic.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theatlantic.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.