All they have to do is watch the news for a couple of evenings or read the newspaper two or three days out of the week and they will see or read about some black person somewhere getting hauled off to jail. For someone new to this country, who is still under the impression that America is the land of equal opportunity, one can imagine right away whom they do not want to identity with. Since Puerto Ricans were forced into a situation where they are forced into the same community as black people they want to do everything they can not to associate with them, as a means of avoiding similar treatment. In addition Puerto Ricans had their own ideas of what they wanted in and from their communities. To the speaker it is important to be identified as Puerto Rican because identity is essential to their struggle and eventual achievement of social gains and recognition of culture.
Identity is also central to political mobilization.
Politics was not always the primary reason for coming together. Puerto Ricans have not discontinued to get together, in fact there is an annual festival held in the summer that is a celebration of Puerto Rican culture, it is just in the recent past into the present, the primary reason to meet regularly is for political empowerment and advancement. Identity politics is the use of the unifying aspect of ethnic identity for political mobilization. Identity politics was the primary tool used by Puerto Ricans when they first came to mobilize in Hartford. When community leaders came together they did not always come with the same goals in mind, but they always came for the same reason.