Pierluisi in the cockpitprint   Copy article link

The governor’s visit to a cockpit and being a mere spectator of the cockfight was a cultural act and, equally, a challenge to the legal system of the United States. Since 2018, this sport has been prohibited in all states, although it is played clandestinely in different parts of the nation because the tradition it is covered in is centuries old, something that came to the new world by virtue of the empires of the time, as in our Spanish case.

Being prohibited by federal legislation, people in Puerto Rico enjoy the games and participate in weekly bets that, due to a law approved under the governorship of Wanda Vázquez, the supervision that the Department of Recreation and Sports customarily carries out continues to protect the public interest in compliance with his fiduciary responsibility. The cultural cockfighting hormone far defeats the federal legal mandate, which by the supremacy clause of the United States Constitution takes precedence over state law.

If there is a certain fact, it is that throughout history the statesmanship movement has been closely linked to the game of cocks. Being one of the main hobbies and entertainments of Puerto Rico in the 19th century, as has happened in the majority of the Caribbean basin, there was a period of around thirty years where it was prohibited, as it was a custom foreign to the culture of that country. the United States. However, it was Rafael Martínez Nadal who saved the cockfighters through legislation when he presided over the Senate of Puerto Rico.

After passing the legislation to legalize cockfighting, presented by him in the Senate, the measure reaches the signature of Governor Robert Hays Gore. Martínez Nadal plucks a feather from one of his roosters so that the current ruler could put it in the inkwell and sign the bill to turn it into law. With that gesture he named his rooster “Justice”, because thanks to the fountain pen created for the occasion, justice was done to the cockerels of Puerto Rico.

There were many times that his friend Pedro Albizu Campos visited him at his house in Guaynabo and, among their topics of conversation, was the game of cocks. They got up from the balcony and walked to the patio where Martínez Nadal showed him the fighting cocks. On occasions he told him: “Pedro, these are my babies,” referring to the newly hatched chicks and future combatants.

Years after the death of Rafael Martínez Nadal, his son, Mario, visited the cockpits and took his father’s pocket watch with him, and when he said that he had it at the time of signing the project, the cockpits came to kiss this artifact that Its invention was to measure human existence. Unfortunately the whereabouts of the watch are not known.

Traditionally the galleras in Puerto Rico were places where the poor and the rich met to share something they had in common; his love for roosters. They were places of camaraderie, gathering, drinks and food, where friendship flowed in spurts and when walking through the town, conversation on the topic arose where others joined in and, of course, a spontaneous conversation was formed.

In the last four years, a rooster was built on the Capitol grounds as a tribute to all the cockerels of Puerto Rico, who received it with joy and gratitude. This demonstrated the defense of the statesmen to this centuries-old custom since, unlike Spain, the rooster is the bull of the Caribbean.

Pedro Pierluisi did not go to the cockpit to play or bet. He went as a guest. The ban is on roosters fighting, since federal law considers it cruelty against animals, and there is already a strong movement around the world to defend fauna from undue human interference. However, culture resists the law, since violating the statute is a way of reaffirming Puerto Rican identity.

Culture has volcanic force in the towns. The bullfight in Spain and the San Fermín festivities have ancient roots. Opposition sectors have not been able to eradicate it. The same thing happens with roosters. Beneath the illegality, a custom permeates the psyche of the players as part of their cultural and personal identity and that will always be transmitted from generation to generation.