The Smithian

Some

Ernesto Antonio ‘Tito’ Puente Jr. was born on this day in Harlem, NYC (1923).

This fall the Latino, Asian, African-­American, and multiracial share of the Democratic-primary vote [in New York City] should be about 58 percent—up from 49 percent in 2001. The slices of the pie are shifting too: The black vote, long about 25 percent of the total, is slowly declining. The Latino vote will likely crack 20 percent for the first time—while growing more varied, as the number of Dominican voters catches up to Puerto Ricans, with Mexicans and Central Americans also registering in significant quantities. “No one or even two groups can elect a mayor anymore,” Democratic strategist Bruce Gyory says, “which puts a premium on coalition-building skills. And you have to knit a much broader coalition than before.” All the [mayoral] candidates are trying to figure out the new landscape. They’re emphasizing affinities: Bill de Blasio highlights his African-American wife and biracial kids. John Liu plays up his Taiwanese-immigrant roots and his stick-it-to-the-man attitude. But the stakes, and the opportunities, are highest for Bill Thompson.

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Named for its high-pitched calls…the coquí is the generic name for some 14 species of frog…Three of the species have gone extinct since the 1970s…scientists fear that the remaining 14 will also disappear unless the authorities take quick action to preserve more land and to slow rising temperatures…Loss of the coquís would be unsettling for Puerto Rico, where the frogs’ image can be found on everything from T-shirts to key rings…Because the frogs feed on mosquitoes, the decline of the tiny amphibians will mean that humans will be more exposed to mosquito-borne diseases…

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Puerto Rico has been undergoing…a restaurant renaissance, with a handful of eateries adopting elements of the local food movement that has flourished on the mainland.

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voces-inocentes:

¡Qué bonita bandera!

[look of the hour]

Cornelia White Peterson…born in 1869…She is…here with her two older children, Philip and Dorothy.

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art: painting by Samuel Lind

…ambitious, original study…that moves across Barbados, Cuba, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico with confidence, keeping multiple literary histories in play simultaneously, while helping to forge a vital sense of a regional history…

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[meaningful glance]

…the interdependencies between the U.S. and Puerto Rico weren’t, and never will be, a simple matter. It is a history of paradoxes and complications…The Jones Act, signed by President Woodrow Wilson on March 2, 1917, not only established U.S. citizenship for Puerto Ricans on the island, it also created a new form of government.

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