Puerto Rican military veterans known as the Borinqueneers are getting their own national day after Congress approved the National Defense Authorization Act during an unprecedented vote that overrode President Donald Trump’s veto of the sweeping military policy bill.
“With the vote of the U.S. Senate to override the veto of the President to the National Defense Authorization Act, our legislation is already Law to designate April 13 as National Day of Borinqueneers!!!!!,” Rep. Jenniffer González, Puerto Rico’s non-voting member of Congress, tweeted in Spanish on Saturday.
The designation of April 13 as National Borinqueneers Day “recognizes the bravery, service, and sacrifice” of the 65th Infantry Regiment, a U.S. Army unit that consisted mostly of soldiers from Puerto Rico, according to the new law. They fought in both World Wars and Korea. The regiment carried the name Borinqueneers, in reference to Puerto Rico’s pre-colonial name Borinquen. Keep Reading>>
