Phone A Friend: George Laws García, Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Statehood Council.
Unf*cking The Republic
UNFTR Media
4.9 • 683 Ratings
🗓️ 2 March 2024
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Our guest this week is George Laws-García, the Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Statehood Council. A longtime policy advocate and consultant and native of San Juan, Laws-García was tapped to be the organization’s first executive director to increase the engagement of Puerto Rico statehood supporters. George and I have a great conversation about the hows and whys of statehood, roadblocks and resistance the movement faces and the tension between advocates for statehood versus full independence. He is a wealth of information and an extremely thoughtful approach that I know you’ll appreciate. He doesn’t shy away from the dark side of the imperial and colonial relationship between the U.S. and Puerto Rico and some of the atrocities that those we are unfamiliar with our past might find surprising.
Resources
George H. Laws García on Twitter
George H. Laws García on Instagram
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Sometimes when we talk, we don't know what the fuck, so we have to call and ask, |
| 0:11.0 | so we have to call and ask a friend. I want to know the things you know |
| 0:22.8 | It'll make a better show |
| 0:26.6 | You're the one on whom we all depend Hey everybody, welcome back to phone a friend. |
| 0:46.0 | Our guest today is George Laws Garcia, the executive director of the Puerto Rico |
| 0:50.8 | Statehood Council. |
| 0:52.2 | A longtime policy advocate and consultant and a native of San Juan, Laws Garcia was tapped |
| 0:57.3 | to be the organization's first executive director to increase the engagement of Puerto |
| 1:01.9 | Rico statehood supporters. |
| 1:03.7 | George and I have a great conversation about the hows and wise of statehood, roadblocks |
| 1:08.6 | and resistance the movement faces, and the tension between |
| 1:11.5 | advocates for statehood versus full independence. And he is a wealth of information with an |
| 1:17.3 | extremely thoughtful approach that I know you're going to appreciate. And he doesn't shy away from |
| 1:21.9 | the dark side of the imperial and colonial relationship between the U.S. and Puerto Rico and some of the atrocities |
| 1:28.4 | that those who are unfamiliar with our past might find surprising. Without further ado, |
| 1:34.1 | here's my conversation with George Laws Garcia of the Puerto Rico Statehood Council. |
| 1:39.9 | George, thank you for joining the show today. We really appreciate it. |
| 1:43.3 | Thank you so much, Max. It's pleasure to be here. |
| 1:45.0 | So one of my favorite places, and this may be unusual, I don't know, |
| 1:49.0 | but you can tell me as a native Puerto Rican is the kiosks in Luquillo. |
| 1:55.0 | Oh, they're awesome. The best al-Caburias you can get anywhere. |
| 1:59.0 | There we go. See, now I'm not going to be one of those interviewers that struggles through pronunciations and it sounds like that newscaster that mispronounces, Nicaragua. |
... |
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