ABSTRACT
There is a memorable scene in the movie Piñero where the iconic Nuyorican poet and playwright, the late Miguel Piñero, confronts the literary elite of the Island and gives them a piece of his mind. They are the kind often referred to as “los blanquitos” (“the whiteys”), which is more a class than a racial designation, or the confluence of the two. It’s a stately but rather somber setting, at one of the Island’s official cultural institutions, like the Ateneo Puertorriqueño or the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. The crowd is stiff and still, a lot of dead stares from the bespectacled blanquitos sporting Oxford shirts and intense incredulous glances.
