When Snow Came to San Juan

When Snow Came to San Juan

For several years in the early nineteen-fifties, Puerto Rico received snow, right around Christmas. Children in San Juan rode a sled and had a giant snowball fight in the tropical weather. It wasn’t a miracle, or a meteorological outlier. The snow was a gift from San Juan’s longtime mayor, Felisa Rincón de Gautier, who had fallen in love with snow during her years in New York. It was delivered by Eastern Airlines, which milked the publicity for all it was worth. A young New Hampshire girl escorted one delivery, wearing a hat and a cable-knit sweater. The snow didn’t cost Puerto Rico anything, but it certainly came with strings attached. At a time when the independence movement was being harshly suppressed, in favor of a continued colonial relationship with the United States, the fetishization of the northern “white Christmas” reads to some as a gesture of cultural imperialism that has never quite ended. And even recently—as the island still faces routine blackouts of its electrical grid, years after Hurricane Maria—the mayor of a small town proposed building an ice-skating rink. WNYC’s Alana Casanova-Burgess reports on why the snow came, and what it meant to Puerto Ricans.  Our story was produced in collaboration with “La Brega,” from WNYC Studios and Futuro Studios.

Avsnitt(150)

Keeping Score: A Year Inside a Divided Brooklyn High School

Keeping Score: A Year Inside a Divided Brooklyn High School

Nearly seventy years after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, our public schools effectively remain segregated. And, by some measures, New York City has the most segregated system in the countr...

12 Sep 202247min

How Will Liz Truss Govern a Britain in Crisis?

How Will Liz Truss Govern a Britain in Crisis?

This week, Liz Truss became the United Kingdom’s newest Prime Minister. She comes into office following a string of scandals in the Conservative Party under her predecessor, Boris Johnson, and faces a...

8 Sep 202226min

Jill Lepore on Why Biden Is No F.D.R.

Jill Lepore on Why Biden Is No F.D.R.

Joe Biden has had a remarkable reversal of fortune this summer. He signed three bi-partisan bills, and the Inflation Reduction Act, a multi-billion-dollar combination of climate and healthcare legisla...

1 Sep 202230min

The Risk of a New American Civil War

The Risk of a New American Civil War

Since the F.B.I. raid on former President Donald Trump’s home, Mar-A-Lago, the phrases “civil war” and “lock and load” have trended on right-wing social media. The F.B.I. and the Department of Homelan...

31 Aug 202225min

Could Engaging the Taliban Help Afghan Women?

Could Engaging the Taliban Help Afghan Women?

This August marks the one year anniversary of American military withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s swift return to power in Kabul. It has been an excruciating year for the war-torn nation, ...

25 Aug 202223min

What’s Driving Black Candidates to the Republican Party?

What’s Driving Black Candidates to the Republican Party?

The Republican Party is clearly no place for Black activism as most of us know it. Members of the Party inveigh against what they call critical race theory, and oppose efforts to redress racial discri...

22 Aug 202218min

Uncovering Biden Family Secrets

Uncovering Biden Family Secrets

President Joe Biden’s political talents are inseparable from his folksy persona. In speeches, he emphasizes his modest upbringing and quotes aphorisms from his car-salesman father about dignity and ho...

18 Aug 202236min

Is the Historic Climate Bill Enough to Save the Planet?

Is the Historic Climate Bill Enough to Save the Planet?

Last week, after more than a year of drama and deal-cutting, the Senate passed a complicated piece of legislation called the Inflation Reduction Act. Its name notwithstanding,  it’s being celebrated a...

15 Aug 202219min

Populärt inom Politik & nyheter

aftonbladet-krim
p3-krim
svenska-fall
rss-krimstad
spar
flashback-forever
rss-sanning-konsekvens
rss-vad-fan-hande
aftonbladet-daily
motiv
rss-aftonbladet-krim
rss-flodet
politiken
rss-klubbland-en-podd-mest-om-frolunda
rss-frandfors-horna
rss-krimreportrarna
grans
krimmagasinet
dagens-eko
olyckan-inifran