When a comedian mocked Puerto Rico last week at Madison Square Garden — possibly changing the course of the presidential election — a wave of justified outrage washed across the country. Whether or not some Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania withhold their votes for Donald Trump over Tony Hinchcliffe’s so-called punchline describing the U.S. territory as a “floating island of garbage,” the words have ricocheted throughout Boricua diaspora communities around the mainland.
“A lot of our members, they can’t believe this has been going on,” says Irma Iris Vargas, who joined the Mission’s Club Puertorriqueño de San Francisco in 1974 at the age of 18. “How can anyone trash a group of people who’ve served in the armed forces and are U.S. citizens? Why are they saying things like this about us?”
The insults packed a particular wallop for members of Club Puertorriqueño de San Francisco, which bills itself as the oldest Latinx organization in the U.S., and the heart of the Bay Area’s small but proud Puerto Rican community. For more than a century, it’s served as a social, cultural and political hub, with a regular calendar of events, like the one Sunday, Nov. 10: Dia del Cuatro Y Trovador, a musical performance featuring rising cuatro master Carlos “Pachito” Vega and veteran vocalist Samuel Quijano Huertas.
“It’s their first time here on the West Coast,” Vargas says, noting that the musicians play the East Coast frequently, but haven’t yet made it to California. “Quijano, he’ll ask you your name, and what you do, and he’ll improvise a verse about you on the spot. Every year we bring out a trovador or trovista and a cuatro player. We’re a small community, but we’re still part of Puerto Rican culture.”
The Dia del Cuatro Y Trovado concerts have been held annually for almost two decades, starting with legendary cuatrista Yomo Toro, known for accompanying stars like Hector Lavoe, Ruben Blades and Willie Colon. (The cuatro, Vargas explains, is the national instrument of Puerto Rico). But Club Puertorriqueño de San Francisco has much deeper roots.
The club was founded in 1912, in order to represent Puerto Rico in the Panama Pacific International Exposition, which was held in San Francisco in 1915. Its founders were Puerto Rican immigrants who had been recruited to be sugar plantation workers in Hawaii. But, upon arriving here, some decided not to continue their journey, and formed their own Puerto Rican community in the Bay Area.
Vargas’ Puerto Rican-born parents joined the club in 1953, and when it celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1962, “my dad was vice president at the time,” Vargas says, noting that her brother is also a past president of the club.
With about six dozen members, the small but proud organization based at 3249A Mission St. casts a long shadow. Puerto Ricans in town for conferences or events often come by for activities, Vargas says.
“They’re surprised there are so many Puerto Ricans here,” she said, noting that the Modesto Puerto Rican club Proud formed when San Francisco members moved to the Central Valley due to the city’s high cost of living. The Pruma branch in Union City was another spinoff, founded by Puerto Ricans from Hawaii. And San José’s Puerto Rican Civic Club serves as a hub in the South Bay.
“We all do a lot of fundraising for education, for disasters, for when hurricanes strike,” Vargas says. “And not only for Puerto Rico. When the earthquake hit Mexico City in 2017, we raised $30 thousand with an event where we didn’t charge at the door, just donations.”
Since residents of Puerto Rico don’t vote in U.S. presidential elections, Puerto Ricans living on the mainland are deciding whether the disrespect at the Madison Square Garden event should factor into their vote. It’s hardly the first time that Trump has run afoul of Puerto Ricans, given his administration’s widely panned response to Hurricane Maria’s devastation in 2017. But something about the brazenness of the recent insults has resonated far beyond the island.
“It’s caused a lot of commotion, and people are coming to our defense,“ says Vargas. She’s been heartened by that response, including from people outside the community. “I was reading on Facebook that a group from Colombia made a song about it, [with the lyrics] ‘Don’t bother Puerto Rican friends. They’re our family.'”
Dia del Cuatro Y Trovador takes place Sunday, Nov. 10 from 2:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Club Puertorriqueño de San Francisco, 3249a Mission St. Tickets ($20-$25) and more info here.