Cajitas de Florecitas Royal Borinquén

I hate boxes. Not actual boxes. Those can be useful. My cat? She fucking LOVES a good box. But me? I don’t like being placed into them. Categorized into a neat box. I do not fit into them.

I find them unnecessary, restricting, and limiting.

Gay? Yes, but only because society still makes me explain myself.

Lately, I’m putting myself in a few on purpose. Because I have to. Because if I don’t, THEY win. If I don’t, they will think I’m going to let them put us and my Latin cousins into camps silently. If I don’t, the people they keep taking will feel alone.

I’m a Puerto Rican Gay man. There is privilege in that sentence (and I’m going to use it). There is also POWER. There is a reignited pride in my culture inside me. I'm going to be annoying about it too. It's a flame slowly growing into a blaze. They do not realize that it will only get stronger with their hatred.

Pride flags? I could do without them. They clash with my outfits (I love to wear black). I wear them to let others know that I see them. That I’m one of them.

JLO not being able to stop talking about being Puerto Rican is a meme. But, I get it. Now more than ever.

Bad Bunny’s album Debí Tirar Más Fotos in 2025 was a blessing I did not see coming. It was a love letter to Puerto Rico. Songs about the mountains, the air, the ancestors, and about colonization (with a side of Perreo because throwing ass is in our DNA). It reminded me how much I love being Puerto Rican. How I miss my summers with mamá Carmen on the marquesina playing dominos, eating pastelillos, and drinking coffee until 2 am.

Te extraño tanto, mamá. Siempre te tengo en mi corazón. Perdóname por no estar contigo cuando ya no me recordabas. Mi corazón no pudo con ese dolor. No estar a tu lado es uno de los únicos remordimientos de mi vida. Gracias por quererme tanto. Sé que papá Dios te está cuidando y que estás viendo a Don Francisco los sábados. Tengo tanto que contarte. Estoy bien, y te quiero mucho.

"Debí tirar más fotos de cuando te tuve. Debí darte más besos y abrazos las veces que pude."- Bad Bunny

Didn’t expect to leave my Grandma a message in this post but here we are!

Anyway, I find myself talking about being a Rican more. Listening to more Latin music. Playing video games in Spanish. Reading in Spanish. Encouraging my partner to practice his Spanish. Practicing my own Spanish that feels like it’s slipping away because I live in a very White city and don’t get to speak it much with other Latinos. And the next time the plane I am in lands in PR, I will clap like we do. I will kiss the ground.

I’m reclaiming that box. Because they want to take the box away. They want to crush it until nothing is left except blanched unseasoned chicken cutlets (shout out to Sazón and Sofrito but also fuck Goya).

My great grandfather worked at Royal Borinquén for most of his life. The factory in our home town of Yauco made lots of delicious treats. One of them was Florecitas. Tiny multicolored cookies that come in a little bright yellow tin. They are delicious and I loved eating them during my childhood summers in PR.

So, if I have to be in a box, I'll be a tin of Florecitas. The cookies have around for almost 100 years. They have survived years of colonialism and the passage of time. And so will we.

- Manny 🇵🇷

“Aquí, mataron gente por sacar la bandera. Por eso es que ahora yo la llevo donde quiera, cabrón, ¿qué fue?”

- Bad Bunny