The Rev. Jesse Jackson will be the keynote speaker at a conference on Puerto Rico, sponsored by the Program in Latin American Studies, this Friday. The conference will include roundtable discussions on four topics: migration and citizenship, education and citizenship, law and citizenship and the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.
Jackson, who is the founder and president of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, is expected to speak about his efforts on behalf of Vieques to end U.S. military bombing exercises on that island.
"We wanted to have somebody who was already involved in the cause and could attract the press here," said Ramon Cruz GS, one of the organizers of the conference.Other speakers include Efrén Riviera Ramos, dean of the University of Puerto Rico Law School; the Rev. Wilfredo Estrada, secretary general of the Bible Society of Puerto Rico; Marcia Riviera, a distinguished Puerto Rican sociologist; Sonia Sotomayor '76, a U.S. Court of Appeals judge and Juan Flores, a professor of black and Puerto Rican studies at the City University of New York.
"We wanted to do something on Puerto Rico because of the lack of courses and activities related to Puerto Rico," Cruz said. He also noted that the island "has been in the news lately because of the Vieques issue."
Cruz said the conference would examine that topic and the issue of American citizenship. "Central to all [the other Puerto Rican issues] is the citizenship [question]," he said.
"We are supposed to have the same rights as Americans," said Cruz, a native of Puerto Rico, in reference to laws that prevent Puerto Ricans from enjoying all the rights of American citizens and yet force them to meet the same obligations. He added that it is important that this conference highlight "how [Puerto Ricans] see themselves as Americans or Puerto Ricans."
Professor David Figueroa-Oritz, the social director of the Program in Latin American Studies, said it was "natural" for him to get involved in this event.
"The issue of Puerto Rico in the United States is something that is not being addressed properly," he explained. "This event, in addressing many of the issues at once, is trying to fill that vacuum," he said. "It is not only timely, but also due," Figueroa-Oritz added.
And Jac-kson has helped to bring those issues to light. According to Cruz and Figueroa-Ortiz, Jackson has visited the camps of the groups in Puerto Rico protesting the bombing in Vieques. Jackson also led some of the protests with his wife.
"At the height of that struggle, Jesse Jackson got involved and visited the island," said Cruz, who also said he was arrested in Puerto Rico as an activist himself. "He has been supportive of the cause."
Born in 1941 in South Carolina, Jackson attended the Chicago Theological Seminary and was ordained a Baptist minister in 1968. He founded Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) in 1971 and has been president of the National Rainbow Coalition since 1986.
Merging these two groups, Jackson combined the goals of both groups to create "a progressive organization fighting for social change," according to the coalition's website. "We're working to move the nation and the world toward social, racial and economic justice."
The conference will take place over two days: Friday from 11:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m and 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., in Bowen and McCosh halls. Jackson will speak Friday at 11:45 a.m. in 50 McCosh Hall.
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