Introducing – La Brega: Season Three

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Suave – Introducing La Brega: Season Three (“Who Represents Us?”)

Date: February 11, 2026
Host: Alana Casanova Burgess (Futuro Media, La Brega)
Episode Theme:
A compelling exploration of the cultural, political, and historical battle over public monuments and the meaning of “Puerto Ricanness,” sparked by the toppling of the Juan Ponce de León statue in Old San Juan on the eve of a royal visit. Launching the third season of La Brega, this episode dives into questions of representation, colonial legacy, and national identity through personal stories, humor, and sharp critique.

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Main Theme and Purpose

Overview:
This episode introduces the third season of La Brega, centering on Puerto Rican “champions” and the cultural battlegrounds of representation. The kickoff story is the dramatic and symbolic toppling of the Ponce de León statue—a flashpoint for debates on colonial history, public commemoration, and who truly deserves a pedestal in the country’s public squares and collective memory.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Setting the Stage: The Royal Visit and a Toppled Statue

• Timeline: January 24, 2022—Celebration of San Juan’s 500th anniversary and visit by Spain’s King Felipe VI.
• Puerto Ricans woke to viral images of the toppled Juan Ponce de León statue in Old San Juan, decapitated and snapped at the legs ([01:41]-[04:54]).
• The statue’s fall coincides intentionally with the king’s visit, underlining a protest against both Spanish colonial legacy and U.S. economic influence, highlighted by the activist group Fuerzas Libertarias de Boricain’s claim of responsibility ([04:54]-[07:08]).

Public Reaction: Outrage, Memes, and Mockery

• Outrage among political figures and local media, contrasted with satire and memes online ([08:00]-[12:41]).
  • Quote: “I just started brainstorming ... the statue is broke ... Partío corazón, partío, Alejandro Sanz. Let’s go.”
    —Juan PI, political satirist ([10:45]-[11:48])
• Memes circulate suggesting alternative “champions” for the pedestal—icons like Bad Bunny, Iris Chacón, even abstract representations (e.g., a tree, a goddess).
• The statue becomes a canvas for both nationalist grief and irreverent Puerto Rican humor.

Rushed Restoration: The Absurd Race to Reinstall the Statue

• The city promises the statue will be restored before the king’s arrival, despite its mangled condition ([09:06]-[10:11]).
  • “Imagine, it takes them forever to fix a pothole, right?”
    —Rafael Capó García, historian ([09:58]-[10:11])
• Satirical commentary erupts: the urgency to restore the symbol of colonialism juxtaposed with chronic neglect of public services (e.g., “potholes old enough to have birthday parties”).
• Municipal workers scramble to repair and re-erect the statue, the spectacle livestreamed for all of Puerto Rico ([25:13]-[28:43]).

Symbolism, History, and Debate over Monuments

• Statue’s Background: Erected in the 1890s, cast from cannons used in the 1797 defense against the British.
• Debates from Puerto Rican historiography: using “Hispanicity” as a defense against U.S. Americanization ([23:25]-[25:05]).
  • “We’re not Americans, we are something else. And rooting themselves in European and Spanish heritage was sort of a defensive mechanism.”
    —Rafael Capó García ([23:44]-[23:57])
• The myth of a benevolent Ponce de León recirculates persistently in Puerto Rican discourse ([24:07]-[24:30]).

Protest and Police Response

• Protesters (notably Capó García himself) ascend the empty pedestal, striking the Ponce pose to delay restoration ([25:09]-[26:19]).
  • “So getting up on the pedestal was not the plan ... fuck it.”
    —Rafael Capó García ([25:09]-[25:33])
• Heavy police presence arrives, forming a cordon for workers to reinstall the statue ([26:31]-[27:23]).
  • “How come you don't answer the call when my safety is at risk ... but you’re here now when I'm protesting?”
    —Crowd to police ([26:47]-[27:02])

The Farcical Restoration: A Crooked Outcome

• The repaired statue is hastily installed in a cockeyed position, noticeably “leaning to the left.”
  • “You couldn’t in good faith stand back and look up at that pedestal and say, Juan Ponce de León’s standing tall and proud ...”
    —Adrián Florido, NPR reporter ([29:57]-[30:07])
• The King’s motorcade may not even have passed by, and city officials avoid substantive comment ([32:23]-[33:10]).

Reflections: What Does the Pedestal Mean Now?

• Four years later, the statue still slants, and the pedestal remains lower, literally and symbolically “down a peg.”
• The episode closes by posing crucial questions for the season:
  • Should the bronze be melted and recast? Should the pedestal remain empty to invite reflection?
  • Who truly represents Puerto Rico? What stories are we telling with our honored champions? ([33:10]-[34:58])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote/Highlight | |-----------|---------|-----------------| | 09:58 | Rafael Capó García | “Imagine, it takes them forever to fix a pothole, right?” | | 10:11 | Nar. | “There are some potholes in Puerto Rico that are old enough to have birthday parties.” | | 11:48 | Nar. | “In Puerto Rico, nobody needs a statue to remember colonialism. It’s not in the past.” | | 23:44 | Rafael Capó García | “We’re not Americans, we are something else. And rooting themselves in European and Spanish heritage was sort of a defensive mechanism.” | | 24:07 | Rafael Capó García (quoting historian) | “Hopefully all conquistadors of the Indies would have been as benevolent as Juan Ponce de León was with the indigenous peoples of Puerto Rico.” (Noted as a persistent, problematic myth) | | 25:33 | Rafael Capó García | “Well, fuck it.” (on climbing the pedestal, embodying the spirit of protest) | | 27:02 | Protesters (via Laura Pérez) | “How come you don’t answer the call when my safety is at risk? ... but you’re here now when I’m protesting?” | | 29:57 | Adrián Florido | “You couldn’t in good faith stand back and look up at that pedestal and say, Juan Ponce de León’s standing tall and proud and straight, you know.” | | 32:23 | City official | “Of course, we were going to put it back up.” (on why the restoration was automatic, not debated) | | 33:10 | Adrián Florido | "Can you talk about this? He said no, without hesitation, like, of course not." (on refusing to discuss the symbolism) | | 34:58 | Nar. (Alana Casanova Burgess) | “What would we learn about Puerto Ricanness if we really had that conversation about who has championed Puerto Rico and who our heroes are?” |

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Intro & Season Preview: [00:00]–[01:41]
• The Toppling Incident: [01:41]–[04:54]
• Claim of Responsibility & Colonial Context: [04:54]–[07:08]
• Satire, Memes, & Public Debate: [08:00]–[12:41]
• Alternatives to the Statue: [12:41]–[15:41]
• Personal Reflections on Representation: [15:48]–[16:08]
• Restoration Efforts & Protest Escalation: [25:09]–[27:15]
• Live Reinstallation Drama: [27:15]–[28:43]
• Final Placement & Crooked Statue: [29:36]–[30:07]
• Reflection & Ongoing Legacy: [33:10]–[34:58]

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Conclusion & Episode Flow

True to La Brega's signature tone—wry, poetic, and deeply researched—the episode braids personal anecdotes, critical history, sharp observational humor, and street-level reporting. It challenges listeners to rethink not just the symbols we inherit but also the urgent, everyday questions of who “champions” our identities, and who writes public memory.

For those who missed the episode:

• You’ll come away understanding why a statue’s fate matters—and why it’s never just about a statue.
• The episode sets up a season promising more stories of Puerto Rican “champions”—from artists to athletes to activists—each contesting what it means to be represented and remembered.

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Memorable Moment:

“What would we learn about Puerto Ricanness if we really had that conversation about who has championed Puerto Rico and who our heroes are?”
—Alana Casanova Burgess ([34:58])

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[This summary omits all ad reads, as requested.]

Transcript

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

Hola, suave listener. Como estas? We're coming to your feed to bring you something special. Futuro Studios, which is our podcast division, has been working on season three of our hit podcast, La Brega. It's a new season. I love it and I think you, suave listener, are gonna love it too. Now, for those of you out there who are new to the show, La Brega tells stories about the Puerto Rican experience. And. And while these are stories that have resonated with listeners around the world, I mean, hello, bad bunny. On La Brega this season we go into the cultural battlefields to talk about campiones of Puerto Rico. So what do we learn about Puerto Ricanness by spending time with these particular champions? We're going to play episode one for you. It's called who Represents Us? And in it, La Brega takes us back four years ago when Puerto Ricans woke up one morning to a toppled statue of a colonizer in Viejo San Juan. And essentially it forced the question of who deserves to be up on a pedestal. And by the way, you can binge all episodes ad free when you join Futuro Plus. So easy to do it. So much fun. Sign up to support us as a Futuro plus member at futuromediagroup.org joinplus Alana Casanova Burgess, the host of La Brega, is going to take it from here. And yep, there's some explicit language. You've been warned.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

Futuro. It wasn't just any Monday morning in Puerto rico. It was January 24, 2022, and there was a lot of anticipation. For one thing, kids in Puerto Rico were going back to in person classes, even though the pandemic was still in full swing. Some students hadn't been in a classroom for two years because of the earthquakes in the south. And also on this Monday, the king was coming. El Rey Felipe sexto bien la isla comotivo de la celebracion de los de la ciudad capital de San Juan. The actual king of Spain, Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso de Todos los Santos de Borboni Grecia, or King Felipe VI, was coming to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the founding of San Juan. His visit had been postponed from the year before, and the press was poised to cover three carefully choreographed days of meetings. They had the official schedule and they were ready to tell us about it. Those actos protocolares, all of that pomp and circumstance were in service of a bigger goal, according to TV analysts. Now, as a U.S. colony, Puerto Rico can't go around Making trade deals with other countries. But the king was coming with Spain's Minister of Commerce. So talking heads on tv, like a former governor, kept saying the visit could spell investment for Puerto Rico. You know, deals, deals, deals. So the stakes were high. When we woke up that Monday morning, logged onto Twitter or Facebook or Instagram and saw photos nobody was expecting. According to police, the statue of the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon in Old San Juan had been vandalized sometime around 4:30am Although vandalized seemed like an understatement, in photos we could see this green bearded sculpture lying on the ground, face up next to his white pedestal. He was broken in two. Ponce's legs had come off from his body just below his medieval puffy shorts. Part of his base had come off too, so he was surrounded by chunks of rubble. The real Ponce de Leon had been appointed by Spain as the first governor of puerto Rico in 1509. His statue had been pointing south, perhaps towards the original capital city, Caparra. With his other hand on his hip, but on the ground, it looked like the statue was holding his finger up in the air, as if he wanted to say just one more thing before everyone stopped listening. He looked small.

[Rafael Capo Garcia]

Que paso? Quen y so esto? Por que?

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

For many media commentators, like talk radio show host Ruben Sanchez on wkaq, the big reaction was horror, shock, dismay. The statue, he told Mayor Miguel Romero, had been there since he was a little boy. But actually it had been up in that plaza since the 1890s, right off the famous Calle San Sebastian, next to the Church of San Jose, the same church that King Felipe was scheduled to visit the very next day. The mayor had the royal plane's arrival time at his fingertips. Sometime between 5:45 and 5:50 that very afternoon. Perhaps, the mayor said, the monarch doesn't even notice these kinds of things. Maybe the protest wasn't even about the royal visit. But it absolutely was. Even before 7am a group called the Fuerzas Libertarias de Boricaine had taken responsibility for pulling the statue down. They hadn't been heard of before and they haven't been heard of since. But the message was no kings and no gringo invaders. They were linking Ponce de Leon, a symbol of Spanish colonialism, to people from the United States moving to Puerto Rico for tax incentives, displacing Puerto Ricans. Whoever was behind the group, they had gotten everyone's attention. Coming up after the break, an empty pedestal. This is La Brega. Season three of La Brega was made possible by the Mellon foundation, which seeks to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive.

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[Rafael Capo Garcia]

I immediately called a friend and we came here like really, really early, just sort of to see it. I needed to see this statue on the ground.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

Rafael Capo Garcia leads Memoria de Colonial, a group that gives counter narrative history tours.

[Rafael Capo Garcia]

It was me and probably three other people interested in what had happened. And then you had the press, you had municipal employees outraged with how you could deface this monument.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

Rafael already knew the statue really well. He used to be a high school history teacher, and he'd bring his students to Old San Juan for field trips, teaching them to question whether violent colonizers were really heroes and champions who deserved to be on a pedestal. So when he saw Ponce de Leon lying on the ground, he felt hopeful.

[Rafael Capo Garcia]

I was. I was hopeful. I was excited that we were going to finally have these conversations, much needed.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

Conversations, but that conversation about who really represents Puerto Ricans and Puerto Ricanness, it didn't seem like there was going to be time for it to happen because by 8:30am Mayor Romero had already made a promise. In interviews, he sounded confident, even breezy, standing next to the empty pedestal, speaking with a reporter from Inuevo Dia. He expected the statue to be back up that very same day.

[Rafael Capo Garcia]

So the municipal government had to run, had to hustle to get this statue up because in their minds, they couldn't allow the king of Spain to visit San Juan and see this symbol of Spanish heritage on the ground.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

Did you think that they would be able to do it?

[Rafael Capo Garcia]

So it's pretty ridiculous. I didn't think they would be able to do it because the statue was broken in half. Imagine, like it takes them forever to fix a pothole, right?

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

It was actually Mayor Romero who acknowledged the pothole problem that morning. The City would have to spend public funds on fixing the statue, he lamented, instead of on fixing a pothole. There are some potholes in Puerto Rico that are old enough to have birthday parties. But the city was going to go ahead and try to repair Juan Ponce de Leon in less than a day. It felt ridiculous. Online, people were coping with the absurdity the usual way with memes.

[Juan PI]

I saw it like at 10am, 11am and I just started brainstorming because who.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

Goes by Juan PI is a political satirist and actor. He wanted to get something out about the statue really quickly.

[Juan PI]

I thought, well, I can do a parody of a song because the music is already there. I just had to change the words. Is the king of Spain. What is a good song? A good recognizable song? The statue is broke. Partillo corazon, partillo Alejandro Sands, let's go.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

Also rigged a bitmoji to look like a green bearded Ponce de Leon singing along to the song. There's a particular line he wrote. The statue sings, you all know that nothing will be the same without me. How will you remember colonialism? It's a punch. Because in Puerto Rico, nobody needs a statue to remember colonialism. It's not in the past. And so far, around 500 years of Puerto Rico's colonial past and present were being crammed into one single day. More and more layers were revealing themselves as the hours ticked by. Potholes, earthquakes, tax incentives, the literal king of Spain.

[Juan PI]

I think Puerto Ricans laughed. Have to get less pissed off.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

And actually, the more Huanpi remembered the day with me, the more pissed off he got. He remembered that the coverage was taking the vandalism of the statue so seriously, as though it was a national catastrophe. For example, here's a comparison to the attack on the twin towers on 9 11. And there was a disconnect between the way the government and the press were handling the story and the anger and mockery that we were seeing online. There were Valentine's Day cards like you knock me over like Ponce de Leon and jokes about the statue being too high to get up off the floor at a party, asking someone to get him a sandwich. People were playing with the idea of honoring other, more deserving figures instead photoshopping boricuas like Iris Chacon and Bad Bunny up on Ponce de Leon's old spot. Because the thing is, in Puerto Rico, there's no shortage of people who deserve to be honored on a pedestal. If you ask around old San Juan, or even in that same square Plaza San Jose, you'll hear so many better options than Juan Ponce de Leon, any other person, honestly.

[Adrian Florido]

But yeah, I just won't like to see him.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

Baseball players, musicians, poets, Boxers, independence activists, Ricky Martin.

[Adrian Florido]

Mariana Braceti. Those are just the persons that pop up.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

I heard creative responses, ideas for things that aren't even human, like a tree or a goddess. I heard enthusiasm to the point of yellow. And I heard the names of tons of talented and distinguished boricuas, icons who inspire so much devotion.

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[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

Growing up, my mother, and I'm sure probably your mother too, would point out Puerto Ricans everywhere. She still does.

[Brooke Gladstone]

Hi.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

I just wanted to tell you that I saw the Jimmy Fallon show and I. I heard the Planetos de la Cresta. Did you know they're from Cialis?

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

I can't remember my English father ever leaning over to celebrate someone's Englishness. But in Puerto Rico and its diaspora, we have a thing for people representing the archipelago, competing for it or championing it in some way. That's why this season on La Brega, we're bringing you stories of Puerto Rican champions. We're going to meet fighters who have represented us in courtrooms and in boxing rings and icons who have worn Puerto Rico on their sashes and on their jerseys. We're going to go to the cultural battlefields where Puerto Rico is a country and carrying the flag takes on even more meaning. What does it mean and what does it take to champion Puerto Rico as a nation, unflinchingly and with boundless pride? And perhaps this is why the events of January 24, 2022 felt and feel so absurd. Because there was an empty pedestal just sitting there and a pantheon of heroes to fill it. And yet the government insisted it should be Ponce de Leon up there and that they could resurrect his statue in just a day. And the hours were ticking by. So coming up after the break, remember, five hours to go until the king arrives. This is La Brega.

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[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

By 1pm A city crew had removed the statue of Ponce de Leon, or the two pieces of it from the plaza. No one knew the whereabouts of the shattered colonizer, but with five hours left until the king's arrival, we got a glimpse. Someone, it seemed likely that it was a municipal employee had recorded an eight second video that I can only describe as art. The opening frame shows one of those blue quilted blankets people use to protect precious cargo. A left hand pulls the fabric back and reveals Ponce de Leon's face. Ponce de Leon and gives him a short, swift slap. It's hard to keep a straight face even just remembering the video. It has derailed our editorial meetings and makes it hard to even record these lines. The comedic timing is impeccable, but it's also deep in life. Ponce de Leon was a violent conquistador. As a statue, he was glorified on an adorned pedestal, but now he was broken in two and casually slapped. That's not to say everyone agreed. It's typical when a controversial monument is vandalized for some people to see it as an affront to heritage and an effort to rewrite history. And there were people who certainly felt that way and were offended. Online, there were arguments in comment sections and on Facebook posts about what the statue really represented. The director of the Museum of San Juan was giving voice to that reaction in interviews. And that's because Juan Ponce de Leon isn't only a person who existed and who enslaved and killed indigenous people and Africans. He's also a symbol of Spanish heritage and part of a conversation about what it means to be Puerto Rican and who represents our origins. And the statue of him isn't just any monument. It says a lot, and I mean that literally. Puerto Rico There's a short film from 1957 that was made by the Puerto Rico government and narrated by the statue. It tells the story of the Spanish conquest. It's a real rewriting of history, with only scant acknowledgment of any violence. The last line makes a big claim. The people of Puerto Rico are a tree and he, Ponce de Leon, is the root.

[Rafael Capo Garcia]

Del cual Juan Pong sedele soy la ray.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

If the actual statue could really talk, it would tell a much more complicated story about Puerto Rican identity. Rafael Capo has written about it extensively.

[Rafael Capo Garcia]

The earliest mention that I found was in 1877. A journalist in the conservative newspaper Eboliti Mercantile mentioned how Puerto Rico needed to honor its conquistador, right? And he mentioned that just like in Mexico, Hernan Cortes was the Mexican Moses, right, who was venerated by all. Ponce Deon should receive the same treatment in Puerto Rico.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

Four years later, there's another newspaper report about the statue. It has been made in New York and is arriving in San Juan. And the material is notable. It's made from two bronze cannons that had been used to defend Puerto Rico from a failed invasion by the British in 1797. This is one of the defining moments in Puerto Rican history, when Sir Ralph Abercrombie attacks San Juan with a massive fleet and thousands of soldiers.

[Rafael Capo Garcia]

The people that defend Puerto Rico are not just Spanish soldiers.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

Black Puerto Ricans, creoles, whites, men, women, everyone came together to fight off the British. And many historians say that this is the moment that the Puerto Rican nation was created. So when the statue was put up in 1882, those who had pushed for it were celebrating a connection to Spain with this other element baked in.

[Rafael Capo Garcia]

For me, the statue and Hispanic heritage has always been really interesting because of how it sort of has become. Not so much now, but definitely during the 20th century, when the US was trying to Americanize Puerto Ricans, a lot of them sought refuge in Hispanicity.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

It was a way of saying, we.

[Rafael Capo Garcia]

Aren'T Americans, we are something else. And rooting themselves in European and Hispanic Spanish heritage was sort of a defensive mechanism.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

Being Spanish was special, different. For example, there's a debate that comes up in 1908 for the 400th anniversary of Ponce de Leon arriving in Puerto Rico.

[Rafael Capo Garcia]

The official historian of Puerto Rico, Caetano Colitoste, is adamant that Juan Ponce de Leon has his own national holiday. He's a hero in Puerto Rico. And he specifically mentions, and I love this quote, he says, hopefully all conquistadors of the Indies would have been as benevolent as. As Juan Ponce de Leon was with the indigenous peoples of Puerto Rico.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

This is simply not true, because it's.

[Rafael Capo Garcia]

Always that Puerto Rico is an exception, right? That we are somehow devoid of racism, because in our historical origins, thanks to Spanish civilization, we were conceived through mixture and tolerance from the beginning. And this narrative is always constructed by positing that there is an other that is racist and refuses to mix. And those are the British and that is the United States.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

So at some point though, you get up on the pedestal.

[Rafael Capo Garcia]

So getting up on the pedestal was not the plan.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

It was around 2pm, a little less than four hours before the King of Spain was sleeping to arrive in Puerto Rico on this fateful day, Municipal workers had been readying the base to receive the repaired statue. One of them had left a ladder.

[Rafael Capo Garcia]

He put a ladder there and he left. And I looked at my friend, I was like, well, fuck it.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

And when Rafael got up there, he did the Ponce de Leon pose. A finger in the air and a.

[Rafael Capo Garcia]

Hand on the hipose.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

Were you trolling them a little bit?

[Rafael Capo Garcia]

I was definitely trolling. I had no intention of staying the entire day. And yeah, I stayed there maybe for an hour.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

It was long enough to make some news that a protester had delayed the installation of the statue. They took it very seriously. After Rafael's pose, some other protesters started arriving. It was getting close to the deadline.

[Laura Perez]

I didn't know how it was going to end.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

Laura Perez is a journalist based in San Juan and an editor for La Brega. She had been reporting for a wire service that day and had been in the plaza for nearly five hours.

[Laura Perez]

At some point I realized that there were policemen walking into the plaza. They were wearing riot gear and they were, well, intimidating.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

It was 4:45 an hour to go.

[Laura Perez]

People actually started screaming at them. And what they were saying, something I've heard before in this kind of circumstances. How come you don't answer the call when. When my safety is at risk? But how come is it that you're here now when I'm protesting?

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

The riot police marched forward, forcing people out of their way and forming a line around the pedestal, creating space for the municipal workers who had just arrived with the repaired statue when they started.

[Laura Perez]

Trying to get Juan Pose Leon out of the pickup. That's when I realized, oh, this is heavy and this is not an easy task.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

Municipal workers brought a couple of cherry pickers with them. They're like a small crane with a basket on the end. They had wrapped yellow straps around the now intact statue so it looked like Ponsse was wearing a zip lining harness. He was hanging from a crane while workers in the baskets and on the ground tried to position him on the pedestal. There was a live stream so we could all watch through splayed fingers.

[Laura Perez]

All of a sudden the status, like flying in the middle of the square, square. And he's just flying, but like he's crooked, not like a superhero. That knows how to fly.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

He was at an angle as though he was really ziplining. And they couldn't quite place him as he swung around.

[Laura Perez]

And I'm not sure that they know what they're doing.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

An hour went by.

[Laura Perez]

It seemed that they were just improvising. They were just trying to make it work with whatever materials and tools they have for whatever it is that they do for. For a living, which is not putting statues back up on a pedestal. I'm sure about that.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

Because the top part of the pedestal had also crashed down that morning. The base was now shorter, and there didn't seem to be an easy way to install the statue.

[Laura Perez]

And they had to put it back down. And then Ponce Leon was again lying on the floor of the square where the day started.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

And meanwhile, in the live feed from the airport.

[Brooke Gladstone]

Yeah.

[Alana Casanova Burgess]

Felipe.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

The king's plane had landed a few minutes early at 5:35. It was an unforgettable spectacle. A split screen with the king on one side getting a red carpet welcome and the conquistador statue on the other swinging from yellow nylon straps. The audience was Puerto Rico, even though it seemed like the show had been put on for someone else.

[Laura Perez]

We're always thinking about what others think of us, but not what we think of ourselves. That's Puerto Rico.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

It was just before 7pm when the bronze statue of Juan Ponce de Leon was finally reinstalled. With his legs attached to his body and his finger pointing to the south, the king had yet to drive past the site. But something was wrong. The statue leaned to the left, like a lot.

[Adrian Florido]

You couldn't in good faith stand back and look up at that pedestal and say, juan Ponce de Standing tall and proud and straight, you know.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

Adrian Florido is a reporter at NPR who covers race and identity in the US and when I told him I was starting this season with this story, he remembered a recording he had made for his side project, documenting Puerto Rico in Sound.

[Adrian Florido]

A lot of times when you're recording and documenting, you don't know what it means yet. And I think that's true of what happened with the Ponce de Leon statue.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

Adrian had followed the movement to remove statues of Confederate generals and other figures and this moment of reflection that a lot of communities around the world had had about their monuments.

[Adrian Florido]

Who are our heroes? You know, like, who are we honoring? Let's put the statue in a warehouse for a while till we decide what to do with it. A lot of places said, no, we're not putting that back up. It doesn't represent our values anymore. Other places have left the pedestals just blank and empty, you know, which forces a conversation about what used to be there and what isn't there now, and maybe what should be there. And maybe there like, aren't answers to that question necessarily, but it forces people, at the very least, to reflect on it.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

That clearly wasn't happening here. There just wasn't going to be time to discuss what this particular statue says about Puerto Ricanness or Puerto Rico. Adrian got there just after it had been reinstalled, and there were protesters heckling and pointing out that, yes, the statue was most definitely crooked. And he spoke with the Director of Public Works for San Juan, Raul Garcia.

[Adrian Florido]

Del Municipio San Juan. I asked him, is that. Did you put it up the way it was before? Like, people are saying it looks a little crooked. Is the word that Puerto Ricans use. Chueco is the word that we Mexicans use. He said, we put it back up exactly the way that it should be.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

He says the pedestal is missing, but that they'd be fixing it soon.

[Adrian Florido]

I was curious to know whether he'd had the conversation with anybody about whether that was the right decision to make, given what was happening in other places where these sorts of statues had been toppled. This is a statue that has been here since the 19th century. Of course we were going to put it back up.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

It's not a political situation. It's just simply that the administration decided to put it back up.

[Adrian Florido]

Can you talk about this? He said no, without hesitation, like, of course not.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

We asked the municipal government for an interview and for comment, and they did not respond. The king did make a visit to the church next to the statue during his visit, but he didn't walk past. Seems unlikely that he saw it at all, given how far away his driver parked. We'll never know if the king of Spain noticed the tiny, crooked colonizer, but frankly, I don't think most people care if he saw it or not. Four years later, Ponce de Leon is still slanted. The city never did fix the pedestal. So the effect is that the statue is leaning to the left and is also lower to the ground, not down a peg, literally. It's telling a different story than it used to. I've heard a lot of fantasies about what could happen next. What if Ponce de Leon keeps leaning and just crashes to the ground again? And then what if the bronze from the cannons that the statue is made out of is so important to a story about Puerto Rican identity? What if it were melted down and forged into a new monument? Who would we replace him with? What story would that tell? Or what if the pedestal were left empty to invite us to reflect on who actually represents us? What would we learn about Puerto Ricanness if we really had that conversation about who has championed Puerto Rico and who our heroes are? So we're gonna do just that. From Futuro Studios, I'm Alana Casanova Burgess, and this is La Brega. In this season, Puerto Rican champions tol mund en peso agrital Puerto Rico.

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[Laura Perez]

You don't get that anywhere else.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

It's awesome. People would often say, are the young lords coming? And I would say, the young lords are here.

[Laura Perez]

That would be me.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

Imagine that.

[Rafael Capo Garcia]

Your cuatro is bleeding. For me, the cuatro is everything.

[Narrator / Reporter (possibly Alana Casanova Burgess or another Futuro Studios reporter)]

Mo America has told her, who do you think you are coming to this country? You don't belong here. She's like, no, who do you think you are to treat me that way? On the next episode of La Brega, we honor a campeon we all love to hear. El cuatro. This episode was reported and written by me, Alana Casanova Burgess. It was produced by Ezequiel Rodriguez Andino and edited by Maria Garcia and Laura Perez. Additional editorial support from from our senior producer, Nicole Rothwell. Original art for this episode is by Tanya Gonzalez. Special thanks this week to Mark Pagan, Yarimar Borilla, Adrian Florido, Tito Roman, Olga Casanova Burgess, Elliot Burgess and Alex Owen. The La Brega team includes Nicole Rothwell, Ezequiel Rodriguez Sandino, Laura Perez, Liliana Ruiz, Roxana Aguirre, Maria Garcia and Marlon Bishop. Fact checking this season is by Laura Mocoso and Tatiana Diaz Ramos. Sound designed by Jacob Rosati. Mixing by Stephanie Labeau, Julia Caruso and JJ Karubin. Scoring and musical curation by Jacob Rosati and Stephanie Lebeau. Our theme song is by Yife. Original music is by Balloon. Our executive producers are Marlon Bishop and Maria Garcia. And me, Alana Casanova Burgess. Legal review by Neil Rossini and projorn. Futuro Media was founded by Maria Hinojosa. La Brega is a production of Futuro Studios. This season of La Brega was made possible by the Mellon Foundation. Check out our website la bregapodcast.org for transcripts and more information about this episode. And if you want access to the entire season right now ad free. Sign up to support us as a Futuro plus member at FuturoMediaGroup.org joinplus. Talk to you soon. Bye.

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