Vanessa Calderón-Rosado, CEO of Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción in Boston, couldn’t believe what she was hearing when a friend texted her a clip from a Donald Trump rally.

“I was thinking, ‘Wait, is this real? Is this not, you know, like a made-up thing?’” she said.

At a Madison Square Garden rally in New York on Sunday, stand-up comic Tony Hinchcliffe said to the crowd, “I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”

It hit a sore spot for some of the 3.2 million Puerto Ricans on the island who are not eligible to vote in presidential elections, despite paying into the country’s tax system. But Puerto Ricans on the mainland, part of what many call the “diaspora,” are even more numerous — 5.8 million, according to U.S. census data. And they can vote.

Calderón-Rosado found it deeply offensive as she reflected back on how Congress and the federal government had responded to Hurricanes Irma and Maria under Trump’s first term.

“After the destruction, he resisted sending that aid to the island, and as a result, recovery of that island took so much longer than it needed — and many people died because of that,” she said.

Thousands of people died in Puerto Rico during and after Hurricane Maria.

Massachusetts is home to over 320,000 Puerto Ricans, a number that grew significantly after the storm’s devastation. The poor response from the U.S. federal government to the dilapidated electrical grid, and subsequently, education and health care systems, drove families to communities in the mainland to restart their lives.

Lorna Rivera, director of the Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development & Public Policy at UMass Boston, pointed to the contributions of local Puerto Ricans, especially those who have become veterans, elected officials and nonprofit leaders.

“This is really not just a problem with this particular comedian’s racism, but it represents the broader like treatment of Latinos as ‘others.’ You know, even if we’re U.S. citizens, we’re still foreign,” Rivera said.

Mark Martinez is a local Puerto Rican born in Massachusetts and said Puerto Ricans appreciate a good joke. But Hinchcliffe’s comments, he said, aren’t funny.

“To have someone running for president put someone on their stage to talk about a place that means so much to all of us,” Martinez said. “It just feels really dismissive and really degrading and like another punch to the gut.”

To him, Puerto Ricans who live on the island are still overwhelmingly overlooked.

“I am skeptical of anyone running for president that says they’re going to do good things for Puerto Rico,” said Martinez.

He sees the response to Hurricane Maria under Trump as a clear failed test. Martinez is more confident in a Kamala Harris presidency to address the island’s issues.

Puerto Ricans on the island have been citizens of the United States since 1917. Waves of migration have occurred following World War II, the dissolution of pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities and during ongoing natural disasters.

State Sen. Adam Gomez represents the Hampden District, which includes Springfield, a Puerto Rican enclave. He’s the first Puerto Rican elected to the state Senate.

He thinks the garbage comment ignores the struggles of Puerto Ricans surviving there and on the mainland. Exercising the right to vote, and for the “right person,” he said, will be important this election.

“We’re in this moment in time when we need to continue talking to fellow Puerto Ricans in these battleground states to make sure that they know that remarks like this will not be tolerated,” he said.

Calderón-Rosado of Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción thinks the “joke” will have a resounding effect next Tuesday.

“This has had a really strong effect and impact in the diaspora,” she said. “And I think people will remember when they go out to vote on November 5th.”

This story was published by GBH on Oct. 29, 2024.