Puerto Rican Obituary by Pedro Pietri

One of my favorite poems is “Puerto Rican Obituary” by Pedro Pietri.  It is particularly powerful in light of the recent political climate. It is a poem written in eulogy form to mark the death of Juan, Miguel, Milagros, Olga, and Manuel.  These are five men who have journeyed from Puerto Rico to the mainland of the United States to chase after the American dream.

 They come with all their hopes and talents, but despite struggles, they success is elusive. Despite following the rules, working hard, being subservient in menial low paying jobs, they are never able to break out of poverty.  They remain invisible in a society that does value them.  They come looking for the garden of Eden, looking for a world of clean wealthy neighborhoods and expensive houses.  A world that their parents and the media assures them exists. However, once they get to America, they only find poverty.

Pedro Pietri, the poet, believes that their Puerto Rico heritage is enough for prosperity and happiness, that, in fact they choose death when they enter foreign worlds.  Juan, Miguel, Milagros, Olga, and Manuel live lives filled with anger and jealousy over the little bits of property they manage to accumulate.  They die unnoticed.  The only people who remember them are gamblers who call on the dead to predict winning lottery numbers.  

The poem ends with them in the afterlife living authentic happy lives. The titled eulogy signals and obituary in three parts; a death to the potential to live a happy present life, a death to their exploited American life, and a death to the false hope that America offered them.