On Monday, officials will send registered users a survey asking them to submit a picture of themselves, email, professional or personal information and invite others to join the network, Otero-Santiago said. That information will be fed into a database that will start crafting the digital map.
The network, called Parranda, will integrate other existing social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. But the new platform\’s founders hope to help unite a scattered community, and build a site that will allow Puerto Ricans in the diaspora to discuss real solutions to the high crime rates, high unemployment, and the rapid brain drain in the U.S. Commonwealth island.
With more Puerto Ricans living in the United States today than in Puerto Rico, one group is gearing up to launch a social network that seeks to connect Puerto Ricans. “The idea is to create a bridge between Puerto Ricans living in the U.S. and those living in Puerto Rico,” Natascha Otero-Santiago, one of the founders of the social network, told VOXXI.
Parranda to pinpoint where Puerto Ricans live Otero-Santiago said that beginning Christmas Eve, Puerto Ricans will have access to the beta version of an online network dubbed Parranda, named after a popular Puerto Rican Christmas tradition. The network will begin with a mapping project that will pinpoint where Puerto Ricans live across the U.S.
La parranda navideña siempre ha sido ocasión para compartir y socializar entre puertorriqueños de todos los pueblos y clases sociales. Ahora mediante una nueva iniciativa virtual, los puertorriqueños podrán llevar su parranda, más allá de las costas de la Isla para alcanzar los hogares de millones de puertorriqueños fuera del País.
Founded by eighteen Puerto Rican entrepreneurs, scientists, and business leaders — from San Juan to Silicon Valley — Parranda will launch a beta version this Christmas of an online network with an initial focus on constructing a digital map of where all Puerto Ricans live. Later projects will include an online mentoring program, a crowd-funding capability, and a broad range of applications that serve the economic, civic, and cultural development of the island and its people.
It is perhaps the most memorable and enduring of the Puerto Rican Christmas traditions. Though it is known in other parts of Latin America, the Puerto Rican “parranda,” where family and friends go to someone’s house at night, sing Christmas songs with maracas and guiros, eat and drink a bit, and then take the host family with them and go on to next house, is truly synonymous with a boricua Christmas. Aside from the music, the “coquito” and the revelry, it is mostly about connecting.
A new social network dubbed Parranda is hoping to gather Puerto Ricans on the island and throughout the world to “remap, remake, and remobilize the Greater Puerto Rico.”
The following release was just published today and I say, “Fantástico.” It is time for Puerto Ricans to stand up, get connected, and work together for a greater Puerto Rico. You can give Parranda Puerto Rico a like on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.
This post is also available in: Spanish
