Recently, I visited my homeland, Puerto Rico, the proud owner of a very special place called
The Walkway of the Presidents.
That is the Presidents of the United States of America, the country that invaded Puerto
Rico in 1898.
It is a collection of nine beautiful brown statues of U.S. presidents, from Teddy Roosevelt
to Barack Obama.
The descriptions are cast in long-lasting metal plaques, in Spanish, Puerto Rico's official
language, and English, for the benefit of our future generations of well-educated colonial
children.
The Walkway was the brainchild of two Puerto Rican honorable legislators named Tomás
Rivera-Shatz, who can barely speak English, and Jennifer Gonzalez, who cheered at the
Republican Party's convention where Donald Trump was elected as the presidential candidate.
The Walkway honors only those presidents who have the kindness to visit our little island
and spend time with the native leaders and some of its locals, like Teddy Roosevelt,
who graced us with his presence when we were just a seven-year-old colony of the USA.
Teddy had a special affection for Puerto Rico, do not make peace until we get Puerto Rico,
he told the senator.
He showed his fatherly love when he said that, if any South American country misbehaves,
it should be spanked.
Herbert Hoover visited us in 1931.
He was very friendly and kind.
He signed the law that changed the name Puerto Rico, given to us by them, the USA, back to
its original Puerto Rico, our real name.
FDR, or as we islanders call them, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, came for a day in 1934.
He had appointed Robert Hayes Gore as governor of Puerto Rico, a man who did not know where
the island was located, but who had very progressive ideas like banning Spanish in classrooms.
Harry S. Truman arrived at our shores in 1948 in his celebratory mood, after having dropped
two atomic bombs in Japan three years before.
It humbled us to have such an accomplished man pay us a visit.
General Dwight Eisenhower, like Puerto Rico so much, he came twice, in February and March
of 1960.
He wanted to make sure our children got a good education where they would not have to
read marks and angles like our dangerous communist neighbors in Cuba.
For America and her president, it is a mission of goodwill and something more, this whirlwind
journey that begins in Puerto Rico.
Afraid that other countries might follow Fidel Castro's example, John F. Kennedy visited
Puerto Rico in 1961 as part of a Latin American tour to promote the Alliance for Progress,
that is, progress for American business.
He and Jackie stayed in the governor's mansion.
The Puerto Rican governor, Luis Muñoz Marin, was not so comfortable with the visit as he
had to hide his opium plants.
The building in the background with the USA and Puerto Rico flags is not the US capital,
but Puerto Rico's own capital.
It has an inscription by another US president, Abraham Lincoln.
He probably would have visited us if we had been an American colony during his tenure,
at least to take a break from the Civil War.
On March 2, 1968, Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife Lady Bird landed on Ramey Base, a Puerto
Rican airfield occupied by the US Air Force.
He needed a break from all the Vietnam War protests.
He went to church, played golf, and spoke to Governor Muñoz Marin, who did not like golf.
Gerald Ford, who was not elected president but became one, visited us in 1976.
Infamous for pardoning Richard Nixon, Ford was sharply condemned by many critics.
The plaque says that time has made many of those critics recognize that it was a wise
decision.
On July 11, 2011, history was made when the first African American US president visited
Puerto Rico.
Barack Obama met with the governor and the two honorable lawmakers who authorized the
construction of the walkway.
In return, Mr. Obama made a promise called PROMESA, the Puerto Rico Oversight Management
and Economic Stability Act, which grants the US complete control of the fiscal and political
affairs of the island, once again reminding us why we are the only country that has a
walkway of presidents from another country.
