La Brega, Episode 1: What Is La Brega?

Latino USA

My Cultura, Futuro and iHeartPodcasts

Society & Culture

4.9 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2021

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this kick off episode, host Alana Casanova-Burgess sets out to define la brega and examine what its ubiquity among boricuas really means. A brega implies a challenge we can’t really solve, so you have to hustle to get around it. In Puerto Rico, Cheo Santiago runs a social media account called Adopta Un Hoyo, where people deal with the huge problem of potholes by painting their edges white and posting photographs of craters to the site. Because the roads are rarely fixed properly, the challenges of potholes (hoyos) and what people do to fix them or get around them is a metaphorical and literal brega in Puerto Rico. Plus, the scholar Arcadio Diaz Quiñones reflects on how this useful word has its limitations, and how la brega sometimes asks too much of boricuas.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Maria Inojosa, and I am Penileira Mides.
0:03.0	And on this new series, we're going to get to know the most powerful Mexican government
0:08.6	official ever to face trial in the US for his alleged ties to the infamous drug lord, El
0:15.4	Chappo.
0:16.4	But this is not your regular narco story.
0:19.3	It's like true crime, myths, telenovela.
0:22.6	This is our new series, USA versus García Luna.
0:27.1	Find it whatever you get your podcasts and at futuroinvestigates.org.
0:37.1	Dear listener, it's been a really busy season at Futuro Media.
0:45.6	We've brought you some incredible podcasts like Anything for Selena and Suave.
0:52.4	And today we're super excited to introduce you to La Brega.
0:57.0	It's a special seven part mini series presented by Latino USA and WNYC Studios.
1:03.0	And it's an anthology of stories that take a deep look at Puerto Rico's history, present
1:08.4	and future.
1:10.1	Over the next month, we'll be bringing you episodes of La Brega.
1:14.2	And if you'd like to hear any of the episodes in Espanol, visit the La Brega feed wherever
1:20.3	you listen to your podcasts.
1:22.6	Well, you're probably wondering exactly what is La Brega.
1:27.3	Well, you're about to find out.
1:29.9	Now I'm handing it off to WNYC's Alana Casa Nova Burges.
1:35.2	A few months back, a friend sent me a photo of a water truck in a pothole in Gagos, Puerto
1:40.8	Rico.
	...

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