Giannina Braschi - United States of Banana

Cockroach: The problem is Oliver Exterminator.

Giannina: Exterminator exterminates insurrections with a spray of raid.

Cockroach: Instigator, you’re the instigator of the coming insurrection. They will blame you.

Giannina: I won’t defend myself. I am an insurrection. Good that they are defending themselves. The power should not be in the halo of one body, but in the body of the masses.

Cockroach: Hey, who called les Chinois ?

Segismundo: The reptiles violated the trilateral agreement we signed in the crown: Puerto Rico gets independence — the U. S. of B. pesos — and les Chinois power. But the U. S. of B. spent it right away in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Iran. They were so deep in debt — almost bankrupt — naked lunch bankrupt — that they decided to attack Puerto Rico. They thought China would stop the war with money. By paying all their debts. But the breach of contract made Hu and How angry. They said:

— No more money! Now it’s war!

But Americans don’t go to war against their equals — unless they have allies — and this time they have no allies — not even the Georgians are getting involved because they feel Puerto Rican in relation to Russia. So the reptiles are running away — cowards. They don’t want to battle the red dragon — plus the Spanish fleet La Armada Invencible — plus Fidel — plus Chávez — plus Morales — plus Lula — plus Kirchner — plus Sarkozy — Medvedev and Putin who are all on Puerto Rico’s side. And the people, what are they doing?

Cockroach: They don’t know what to do.

Giannina: We will win this war. The stars are on our side — aligned in favor of liberty. Who would have thought that liberty was so important — when you don’t have it — but I always was free. I always said what I feel. Some people were offended because my liberty intimidated them — it made them feel that they were not free. I wanted them to feel that breach between what they didn’t have and what they should have — but some of them saw that breach — and instead of swimming to the other side — to what they should have — they stayed in what they didn’t have — and then they opposed what they should have had — because they had to make an effort — and the effort was too big.

Cockroach: Look, they are coming toward us — imploring, on their knees.

U. S. of B.: I never meant to hurt you. Please, forgive me, Puerto Rico. My house was in foreclosure. My credit cards were blocked. My unemployment benefits ran out. And I had no health insurance. All I wanted was more money from China.

Giannina: You know what el Che says. When you are un guerrillero —and that’s what I am — sometimes you have to play dead — for years — so that they think you are dead — and you can work on your liberation. When you decide to be free — after depending for a long, long time — and you say — I can’t stand it anymore! — it’s because many times before you said — I can’t stand it anymore! — and you kept standing it longer than you should have because even though you couldn’t stand it anymore — you were afraid that with change all hell would break loose — but when you said for the last time — I can’t stand it anymore! — your patience had reached the point where it was the last straw that broke the camel’s back — and all hell broke loose. I can write about many things and disguise my desires through many appetites that I satisfy in order not to confront the reality of a nation that has been misused and mistreated — undervalued — underpaid — denied — deprived. I keep hope alive with my torch of happiness inside — and my two flags on the tip of my tongue — speaking in Spanish, Spanglish, and English — but I can’t delete from the computer of my mind my unalienable right — liberty — that has been denied by more than a hundred years of American colonization. And to transform an unalienable right of a nation to be free into an if — if you vote to be free, or if you vote to be a state, or if you vote for the status quo. Don’t give false options — make an unalienable right an unalienable right — don’t make it an option — because you know it’s not an if. I can no longer deny that I am not free — and that my country is not free — and that the voting system has cancelled the right to be a right — and has reduced it to a clause — a presupposition — a condition — if. If is not the issue — and liberty is not an issue — nor a ballot box — but a right. But like the psychics in the streets always say to me:

— You have a smile on your face, but deep inside you are not happy.

You don’t have to go so far as deep inside. From the outside you know I am not happy — because I am denied the three unalienable rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Cockroach: They say your declaration is treason.

Giannina: It came from the heart. It’s what every heart wants — to be free. But then we have second thoughts:

— How will we survive? Look at Haiti. Look at Cuba.

Those are cucos they put in our heads. But we overcame those cucos and threw cocos instead. To crack skulls — to see what is inside their brains.

Cockroach: Prepare for the coming insurrection. Gusanos are everywhere in San Juan, in Miami, in New York. Everywhere.

Giannina: You always have to deal with betrayal — those who want to live on welfare — who want others to define them — who keep saying that what is little is big and what is big is little. They don’t believe in themselves — that’s the real problem. They don’t believe they can make it — so they don’t want you to make it — especially if they knew you when you were little. They think if they knew you back then, they know you now, and you’re not allowed to change.

Cockroach: Maybe they don’t want what you want. They’re happy being who they are — tourists in their own land. And they want to continue being conquistadores who marry exterminators. They don’t want to lose what little power they have — undeserved — because they don’t earn it — they inherit that power to be the rulers of a colony in shambles — in ruins. So they continue sucking the milk of the holy cow without questioning their masters. They’re very loyal to the masters — and their loyalty is rewarded with the power to maintain the status quo — the devil they know.

Giannina: It was a declaration of love for the Puerto Rican people, by the Puerto Rican people, of the Puerto Rican people. They recognize that I’m saying what they’ve been feeling without words for a very long time. Who among us has not been colonized by a colonizer? We all have to decolonize ourselves. To become free. Then we can begin to think about the unification of the North and the South — the Americas — but first everybody has to dance to the rhythm of his own drum:

I want to live in America!

There is a large population within America that is still not part of America because they still want to be where they have not been able to be. I’m amazed how easily they took the name of two continents to name one nation — something smaller. Blessed be thy nation. But now I’m going to take back the name of the nation and put it where it belongs. It is the name of two continents not of one nation.

I want to live in America!

And whenever they sing it in West Side Story —they sing it with impatience:

I want to live in America! I can’t wait for it to happen — when is it going to happen — that we all live in America!