Recognizing 20th Annual Crucian-Rican Tramp and Big Breakfast

Floor Speech

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Ms. PLASKETT. Madam Speaker, I rise to share the unbreakable ties between the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, demonstrated this week through the Annual Crucian-Rican Tramp and Big Breakfast, a powerful reminder that Virgin Islands culture is inseparable from our Latin Caribbean heritage.

Puerto Rican immigrants began coming to the Virgin Islands by the thousands in the late 1800s, cutting cane alongside Crucians, whose ancestors endured the same cane fields. Families planted roots, building communities throughout the island and on St. Thomas. They established social clubs and created businesses.

Spanish became our second language. Our children grew bilingual. Our families intertwined. Our kitchens became sacred ground, where callaloo met asopao, fungi sat beside mofongo, and johnnycakes shared the table with bacalaitos.

Yet, before the migration to St. Croix were the boats of enslaved Crucians, who were fleeing slavery by making the dangerous trip to Vieques and Culebra. This isn't fusion. It is family, Caribbean people who refused to let colonial borders divide us, who recognized in each other the same bloodlines and the same determination to thrive.

The Crucian-Rican Tramp celebrates this truth: We are stronger together.

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