¡Estamos, Seguimos, Siempre Estaremos!: Stories of Resistance, Rebirth, Resilience and Renewal in Borikén

¡Estamos, Seguimos, Siempre Estaremos! is a braided work of history and imagination that traces Borikén from first contact through conquest, enslavement, resistance, and spiritual survival. Grounded in documented history and guided by ancestral memory, the book follows the collision of Indigenous Taíno life, European empire, and African captivity as they shape the island that would become Puerto Rico.Through the quiet presence of Eligio, a watchful figure at the crossroads, and the recurring image of a woman in yellow who appears where survival gathers, the narrative explores how people endure when names are taken, laws betray, and faith is weaponized. Rather than offering heroes or villains, the story asks deeper questions about power, silence, belief, and the long work of remembering.Each chapter reveals how resistance often begins invisibly: in whispered language, altered rituals, shared food, and the refusal to disappear. This is not a story of victimhood, but of continuity. It honors those who survived not because history was kind, but because memory was stubborn.This book is an offering to the past, a reckoning with the present, and a reminder that even when everything is taken, something always remains.Teddy Guzmán is an educator, writer, and cultural historian based in Jersey City, New Jersey. A first-generation mainland-born Puerto Rican American, his work is shaped by a Borikén-rooted diaspora spanning the Caribbean, Northern Africa, and the Iberian Peninsula. His parents, Carlos Manuel (Papo) and Gloria Eneida (Goyín), met in Jersey City in the early 1970s and raised a vibrant, blended family of children and kin, integrating island traditions and ancestral memory into everyday mainland life. A lifelong student of local schools, Guzmán attended Nicolaus Copernicus PS 25 and Dickinson High School. He later earned a B.A. in Literature from New Jersey City University and a Master’s in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Phoenix, with current graduate studies in Literacy Education at NJCU as he explores doctoral paths to bring his expertise in diaspora studies to higher education.Having served Jersey City Public Schools for over two decades, Guzmán’s professional journey has evolved from substitute teacher and clerk to English Language Arts educator at Dr. Ronald E. McNair Academic High School, with impactful years spent at Dr. Conti PS 5 and Dickinson High. He is the founder of B BOLD B URSELF, an award-winning diversity and anti-bullying initiative, and has been instrumental in expanding SAT access and leading pandemic-era virtual workshops for the entire McNair community. His teaching philosophy, rooted in dignity and consistency, is embodied in his classroom library—named for his mentor, James Burke, who referred to him simply as “my friend.” Currently teaching Black Literature and Culture, Guzmán remains a staunch advocate for curriculum that reflects the lived realities of his students, viewing public education as a vital site for equity and transformation.As a writer and researcher, Guzmán operates at the intersection of archival history, oral tradition, and ancestral memory. His work explores the colonial fracturing of families and the ways Afro-Caribbean frameworks resist erasure through indigenous cosmology. His project, ¡Estamos, Seguimos, Siempre Estaremos!, centers on Borikén’s collective history, while a second forthcoming work traces the Guzmán and Ortiz family lineages across generations and silences. Much of his connection to the island was cultivated through research-intensive summers in spaces like Isla Verde, bridging metropolitan life with his ancestral land. This work represents over a decade of meticulous research and emotional honesty—an offering to those who remembered without permission and a testament to Borikén as a presence continually carried forward. Read more