Editor’s Note: This article has been translated into Spanish by El Eco Copy Editor Margarita Lievanos. You can find the Spanish version here.
California Lutheran University’s Global Studies and Ethnic and Race Studies Departments hosted a cultural exchange breakfast with author and professor Juan Pablo Rivera on Friday, Oct. 3, to discuss Puerto Rico’s cultural and political history.
The breakfast was part of a two-day event. Rivera had hosted “Puerto Rico at CLU” the previous day, which explored the world of Puerto Rican culture through the lens of identity and pop culture.
Lorena Muñoz, associate dean of Equity, Inclusion and Belonging and associate professor and director of Ethnic and Race Studies and Global Studies, has coordinated the series since 2022.
When deciding on which Latin American country to feature this year, Muñoz said she wanted to base the event on the faculty-led travel seminar to Puerto Rico in spring 2026.
Muñoz described the first event, “Puerto Rico at CLU,” as a more scholarly and longer talk, while the breakfast was set in a relaxed atmosphere that focused on “food and conversation.”
“Food is an amazing vehicle, and food is culture as well. Food is also a way to express love; it’s a love language,” Muñoz said. “I thought that I would always try, even with [last year’s event], ‘Colombia at CLU,’ to have these interactions with food and conversation, and in a relaxed way, because that is how we mostly learn from each other.”
The breakfast, prepared by Sodexo, offered an array of Puerto Rican cuisine and tropical fruit, such as revoltillo con chorizo–scrambled eggs with chorizo and mofongo—a traditional dish made from fried green plantains mashed with garlic, pork and olive oil in a molcajete–mortar and pestle.
The talk began with Rivera sharing his Puerto Rican background and upbringing. Born in Hatillo, Puerto Rico, an hour west of the territory’s capital, San Juan, Rivera was raised on a dairy farm. He attended a Catholic school from kindergarten through 12th grade with the same classmates and a supportive family, which gave him the “transformative experience” of getting to attend Yale University on a scholarship.
Rivera said he went on to attend Harvard University for his master’s degree and Ph.D, studying multilingual literature by queer people in the Americas. Rivera has since written two books about Puerto Rican literature and culture and two poetry collections. He currently teaches at Clark University, a private university in Massachusetts.
Rivera’s talk revolved around themes of gender, politics and musician Bad Bunny, who is one of the largest representatives and advocates of Puerto Rico and gender identity, Rivera said.
“I never thought I was going to become a Puerto Rican studies scholar, but then I came to the States and found myself homesick, but also curious about Latin America,” Rivera said. “Puerto Rico has this controversial, contentious relationship with the idea of Latin America because we are part of the United States as a territory. So, being outside of Puerto Rico has given me a different vision of what happens on the island.”
Rivera said living on the mainland helped him see the various issues Puerto Rico faces, such as the crime rate, government corruption, loss of medical specialists and crumbling of the educational system.
While Rivera made multiple systematic connections to Bad Bunny’s work, one example was tying Puerto Rico’s electrical issues, which the island still faces after Hurricane Maria in 2017, to Bad Bunny’s song “El Apagón,” which means “the blackout” in English.
Muñoz first met Rivera in 2010, during her first tenure-track job at Westfield State University.
“We were both there as assistant professors,” Muñoz said. “Being Latina … we gravitated towards each other when we met, and it was great, especially being Mexican in New England.”
Sophomore Victoria Ruiz said she first attended “Puerto Rico at CLU” the day before to take photos for the Global Studies Department’s social media pages and for a class assignment. She said she found the topic “really interesting,” which brought her back for the breakfast.
Ruiz said the part of the event that stood out to her the most was spreading awareness of the gentrification of Puerto Rico, which also reminded her of her own background.
“I’m from Yucatán, which is also heavily gentrified, or is starting to be at least. We’re neighbors with Cancún, so it’s really like seeing how the real estate pricing goes up due to gentrification as opposed to tourism; it kind of relates to each other,” Ruiz said. “It’s cool talking about gentrification in Puerto Rico, because that relates to so many other places in the world.”
Despite having no Puerto Rican roots, Ruiz described both events hosted by Rivera as “eye-opening.”
“I really enjoyed both events. I thought they were really interesting to people who aren’t of Latin American descent or those who were coming from a different culture [who wanted to] learn about Puerto Rico,” Ruiz said.
