Marcus Vega Doesn't Speak Spanish

Cartaya’s book is set in both Springfield, Pennsylvania, and Puerto Rico, which became a US territory in 1898 following the Spanish-American War. The political and financial contrasts between the island and the continental US are highlighted throughout the book. On the way to the airport in San Juan at the end of the family’s trip, Marcus sums up the contradictions that he notices:

It’s like another country out here. Except it’s not. It’s an island in the middle of the ocean where people speak English and Spanish and sometimes a mix of both. It’s full of contradictions. The people here can serve in the US military but can’t vote for president. How does that make sense? Where they play the same sports as we do back in Springfield. Have the same passport. The same currency. It’s part of the same country (228).

Marcus is surprised and excited by the cultural differences between Pennsylvania and Puerto Rico, such as the foods he is exposed to there. However, the book also refers to Puerto Rico’s socioeconomic challenges. For example, an older woman Melissa sits next to on a bus mentions the island’s debt crisis. Puerto Rico accumulated over $70 billion in public debt and over $50 billion in public pension liabilities following decades of economic challenges and excessive borrowing. These issues had multiple causes, including inequities in federal funding for aid programs, an economic depression, and changes in federal taxation laws that prompted companies to leave the island.

The debt crisis resulted in bankruptcy, from which Puerto Rico exited in March 2022, several years after Cartaya’s book was published. The bus passenger also mentions the island’s high unemployment rate. According to the Council on Foreign Affairs, Puerto Rico’s “average household income is about one-third of the US average, and its poverty rate is more than twice that of the poorest state, Mississippi” (Cheatham, Amelia, and Diana Roy. “Puerto Rico: A US Territory in Crisis.” Council on Foreign Relations. 29 Sept. 2022). The article also points out that unemployment rates on the island doubled the national average from 2011 until 2021.

In addition to suffering government mismanagement, Puerto Rico has endured several natural disasters in the 21st century. In 2017, Hurricane Maria caused about 3,000 deaths, knocked out the electrical power grid, and caused an estimated $90 billion in damages. The island was struck in 2020 by its strongest earthquake in the past century; this was followed by the COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed the inefficiencies of Puerto Rico’s healthcare system. In September 2022, Hurricane Fiona triggered severe flooding and mudslides. Cartaya mentions Hurricane Maria in an author’s note at the end of the book, honoring the lives lost in the disaster. These disasters prompted an emigration of Puerto Ricans from the island: “More people of Puerto Rican descent live on the mainland than on the island, and a 2019 study projected that the territory’s population would fall by another 8 percent by 2024” (Cheatham and Roy. “Puerto Rico: A US Territory in Crisis").

The question of Puerto Rico’s status is politically charged. In 2020, 52% of Puerto Ricans voted in favor of US statehood in a referendum that is non-binding, since the US Congress must act in order for this status to be granted. On December 15, 2022, the US House of Representatives passed the Puerto Rico Status Act. This proposal represents an offer from Congress to the people of Puerto Rico to vote on a binding referendum to decide their future: statehood, independence, or independence followed by free association with the US. The US Senate did not vote on the bill prior to the session’s adjournment.