For the purpose of El
Puerto Rican Passport Project, please consider the following: the passport
is the official document which defines an individual's nationality, an
important sign of identity which you need in order to travel outside of
the country and in some cases within. Its color and text tell the country
of origin while the fotograf and related data identify the individual's
characteristics. Puerto Ricans, however, given our condition as North
American citizens, have been without a symbol which affirms our cultural
identity. To this end, we have created El Puerto Rican Passport.
It is now time to take El Passport Project to another zone of
thought, which is to question the significance of such a citizenship,
either assumed or bestowed. Considering that Puerto Ricans have developed
into a hybrid culture, might it be considered possible for others, not
of Puerto Rican descent, to solicit and assume, through El Puerto
Rican Embassy/El Passport Project, the construction of that symbolic
identity and become part of it. I would like you to consider the projected
imagery and to respond to the following questions:
a. What would citizenship in El Spirit Republic de Puerto Rico
(the country Send comments to adal_maldonado@hotmail.com
which El Puerto Rican Embassy represents) represent? Who may
assume one?
b. What are the implications of a multiple citizenship?
c. Is it possible to assume a national identity which has no citizenship
privileges, as the country (El Spirit Republic de Puerto Rico)
has no
territories other than conceptual ones?
The idea is for El Puerto Rican Embassy/El Passport Project to register
the social unconscious to vote on a criteria of thought flexible enough
to accept the absurd concept of having multiple citizenships and in this
way open a forum of dialog for an idealogical debate which may inspire
some answers to this identity crisis hat has been following us into the
21st Century.
Adal, 1996
Co-Director, El Puerto Rican Embassy
