The black and white flag is a symbol of resistance and colonialism. The artists released a letter which said, in part, “To replace these colors with black (the absence of light) creates new readings. Ours is a proposal of RESISTANCE, not to be thought of as pessimist. On the contrary, it speaks about the death of these powers just as we know them, but hope is still present in the white stripes that symbolize individual liberty and its capacity to claim and defend their rights.”
The letter, written in Spanish, continued, “May this act serve as an invitation to reflect and to take action upon the collapse of the educational and health systems, the privatization and destruction of our natural resources, our colonial status, the outrage against our future workforce, the payment of an illegitimate debt, the imposition of a non-democratic government, the strangulation of cultural efforts among other things. This act is the evidence that there’s an artistic community that is not willing to give up, that will stand up and fight against the impositions of an absolutist government and its policies of austerity; their most recent example: the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA).”
The repainting was an immediate response to PROMESA, coming four days after its establishment. However, the design has continued to be shared as a statement of resistance. It is in fact known as the resistance flag. The artists listed some of the things they were resisting, but it has also been used as a symbol of grief after the destruction of Hurricane Maria.
A symbol of resistance, not independence
The black and white flag has been said to represent a push for independence, but that was not its original intention. The people of Puerto Rico overwhelmingly support statehood. In addition, support for independence, as low as it is, may also be inflated because Puerto Rican independentistas are often under the mistaken impression that their US citizenship would remain secure if Puerto Rico were to become a foreign country.
Independentistas, while an overwhelming minority both stateside and in Puerto Rico, are slightly more prevalent stateside. A 2016 poll in Florida, for example, had support for Puerto Rican independence at 8%. In the 2017 referendum in Puerto Rico, just 1.5% chose independence, and the highest number ever was only 5%, in the 2012 referendum.
When they talk about aspirations of independence, stateside Puerto Ricans typically begin with the preservation of Puerto Rico culture as their foundation, despite the fact that they have, as is often said, voted for statehood “with their feet,” and loss of native cultures typically follow a move stateside in light of assimilation, including but not limited to the gradual loss native languages.
It is also unclear that independence would actually preserve Puerto Rican culture in Puerto Rico any more than statehood would. Independence would place a barrier between Puerto Ricans who have moved stateside and those who remain on the island, especially with the new immigration laws that would follow, weakening those bonds and all that would follow.
Similarly, statehood does not require jettisoning Puerto Rico culture any more than the current U.S. territory status does. Statehood would not require Puerto Rico to meld with any other state; rather, it would retain its own history and culture as a 51st state, keeping its dignity intact. The statehood process would recognize Puerto Rico’s inherent dignity and complete the work of democracy beginning in 1917 with the grant of U.S. citizenship.
At its essence, the black and white flag is a call not for independence but for change. Attempts to interpret the black and white flag as a symbol of independence may represent a romanticization of independence for Puerto Rico that can sometimes be seen among stateside separatists who have voted for statehood with their feet and would not face the local upheaval and hardships that would inevitably follow independence for the Island.
Updated on July 5, 2024.
