A few days ago, Monica Puig won Olympic gold in tennis, the first athlete competing under the flag of Puerto Rico ever to do so. I was sitting at my computer when I heard the news and a bolt of electricity shot through my body. I cried the first time I saw Puig on the medal stand and heard "La Borinqueña" in the background, and cry every subsequent time I watch the clip. It took me back to my childhood, when my entire neighborhood sat around the television set and watched Wilfredo Benitez and Wilfredo Gomez win world championships in boxing. The sense of pride is indescribable.
Yet my passport tells me I am an American citizen. My passport is wrong.
