David Galarza Santa testifies on resolutions
David Galarza Santa, a Puerto Rican New Yorker, testifies in support of Resolutions 27, 28, 494, and 372. He emphasizes that New York City has a responsibility to act because many financial institutions involved are based there.
You hear me?
Okay.
Thank you, Chairwoman and the members of the committee, and a special thanks to Councilmember Alex Aviles for introducing these historic resolutions that will hopefully be replicated in cities across the United States that have significant and really vital Puerto Rican communities as well.
My name is David Galalza Santa, and I am a Puerto Rican New Yorker and a member of the Puerto Rican diaspora.
We stand here, or sit actually in this case, at the Schomburg Center, named for Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, an Afro-Boricua who came to New York and helped organize Puerto Rican and Cuban independence.
His legacy reminds us that the diaspora has always been a part of the struggle for Puerto Rico's freedom.
We're not spectators.
We are part of that struggle, and we follow the leadership of the people in Puerto Rico, which is why I'm glad that there were so many on the Zooms.
That is why we demand the passage of Resolutions 27, 28, 494, and 372.
Resolution 27 would stop Wall Street from profiting Puerto Rico's debt crisis.
New York is not a bystander.
Our laws and our financial institutions play a direct role in Puerto Rico's debt crisis.
If Wall Street profits from Puerto Rico, New York City has a responsibility to act.
Resolution 28, end La Junta.
Over 3 million Puerto Ricans cannot be governed by an unelected fiscal board that imposes austerity and puts creditors before people.
Puerto Rico deserves self-determination, not financial occupation.
Resolution 494, stop Project Esencia.
Cabo Rojo is not a playground, nor Puerto Rico is a playground for billionaires.
Our land, water, and equal systems are not commodities.
For luxury development, Puerto Rico is not for sale.
The City Council's own resolution documents the project's scale, its potential environmental impacts, and the New York-based organizing against it.
Resolution 372, repeal Act 22, Act 60.
Puerto Rico must not become a tax shelter for millionaires and billionaires while working class Boricuas face displacement, unaffordable housing, and rising costs.
And this is precisely why New York City must speak up.
Many of the corporations, financial institutions, developers, and other interests that make decisions affecting more than 3 million Boricuas are based here or operate here.
JPMorgan Chase, The Mandarin, Amman, and Rosewood Hotels, and the...
Time expires.
The decisions may be made in borders of my hand, but Puerto Rico is living in, they live the consequences in San Juan, Cabo Rojo, Vieques, Loiza, Ponce, communities across the archipelago.
So we're saying, in New York, use your power to stand with Puerto Rico, not to profit, not to profit from Puerto Rico.
Our land, our water, our resources, our future is not a commodity.
Puerto Rico is not for sale.
Puerto Rico is not a tax haven.
Puerto Rico is not a colony to be managed for profit.
And we demand the passage, the passage resolutions 27, 28, 494, and 372.
And we will continue to organize here in New York and across the diaspora until Puerto Rico has justice, self-determination, and freedom.
Puerto Rico no se vende, esencia no va, se acabaron las corazas, que viva Puerto Rico libre.