Ten years ago, the band Gente de Zona released a song called “La Gozadera,” celebrating the bond connecting the Latin People through an anthem, as a result, fueling a shared identity. Referencing Puerto Rican foods, Dominican music, and other Latin symbols, this song invited all Latin Nations to the same “fiesta de latinos,” disregarding the bounds of geography, and embracing the umbrella of memories and resilience that unites Latin America. With over 687 million streams, the past decade has become one laden with Latin pride, influence, and interconnectedness. In the wake of the mass deportation policies of President Trump’s administration, the unity that this song has spearheaded is due for a resurgence.
It is no secret that the targets of these deportations make up a demographic of individuals who transcend the boundaries of Western conservative norms, from Latinx communities to undocumented immigrants. Consequently, once they are deemed incompatible with those norms, they are often denied the same due process afforded to those who fall within them, losing their access to legal representation, fair hearings, and even the right to challenge their detention in court. A Maryland resident with legal protection from deportation, Kilmar Abrego García, was denied due process when he was deported to El Salvador without a hearing in March 2025, despite living in the United States with his wife and children. What is increasingly alarming is that these policies are being replicated in Puerto Rico, not only to remove people but to pit the Latinx movement against itself and destroy the unity that songs like La Gozadera have fostered.
The mass detention and deportation of Dominicans in Puerto Rico has increased from 95 to 552 as of May 27, 2025. These actions not only enforce the exclusionary lines drawn by the Trump administration but also fracture the Latin community by making it complicit in its policing. Under the language of this “America First” approach is a deeply racialized ideology where the lines between “us” and “them” are bolded and fear is manipulated to divide.
Historically, granting drivers’ licenses to undocumented immigrants has been possible through an inclusive immigration law, disregarding documentation status. Now, the Puerto Rican government is being forced by the Trump administration to hand in the names and addresses of the nearly 6,000 immigrants who have been granted licenses. Though Puerto Rico’s Trump-supporting governor, Jenniffer González-Colón, has reassured the Dominican community in Puerto Rico that they will be safe from the mainland anti-immigrant rhetoric, recent federal actions suggest otherwise. In an interview with NPR, ICE’s top leading investigator on the islands of Puerto Rico, Rebecca González-Ramos, stated that close to 500 immigrants have been arrested for deportation in the four months since President Trump’s return to power. It has recently been revealed that fewer than 80 had criminal records. But it will not end here. González-Ramos has also stated that since January, it has been her job to track down the around 20,000 immigrants without immigration status. She declared their mandate … “is 100 percent. So everybody that’s in the United States, and in this case in Puerto Rico, without an immigration status, needs to be removed or deported.”
An attack on the Dominican people is an attack on the Latin unity that La Gozadera has promoted and has persevered despite decades of systemic racism. The song’s celebration and the connection that it fosters within the Latin community are especially relevant and necessary today as deportation policies threaten to rupture those very bonds.
For Puerto Ricans, there is a stronger connection and duty to their Caribbean neighbors that goes beyond a symbolic meaning or bond. Undeniably, there is a relationship rooted in a cultural, historic, and anthropological history. These communities have long coexisted and shaped traditions with each other, a link that goes deeper and is more authentic than the imposed relationship with the United States.
Though Puerto Rico remains a modern-day colony of the United States, this forced relationship does not legitimize the United States’ influence over Puerto Rican identity. These policies are not a means to purify the Puerto Rican land or strengthen identity. Instead, they reflect the will of a federal government and its use of power to sow division into the relationships between Puerto Ricans and their Dominican brothers and sisters. They are weaponizing identity to divide the Latin community and turn Puerto Ricans into border agents acting on behalf of a federal system that has never granted them full rights. These policies are not protecting the Puerto Rican citizens; they are policing belonging, redefining the community the Latinx movement has created to do President Trump’s bidding. So we must ask: whose presence is truly illegal in Puerto Rico, the Dominican neighbors that have lived and worked beside them, dancing at the same “fiesta de latinos”, or the colonial powers that have long exploited the island without granting it full rights?
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