Business As Usual

by Vince Winston

Casually watching television a few years ago, I remember a commercial ad about crazy laws in the United States. It was publicity for a new website called dumblaws.com that would showcase unusual, uncommon and/ or silly laws. Things such as “one cannot catch a fish with their bare hands (Kansas),” “you may not drive barefoot (Alabama)” and “no vehicle without a driver may exceed 60 miles per hour (California) were some of their showcased laws. Never thinking such laws as this truly were enforced or given any credibility, I found this not to be evident in Puerto Rico.

It was roughly 10am on the 6^th day of January, a particularly warm and cloudy morning in Juana Diaz, when it began to rain. A small group of my classmates and I, hoping to gain protection from the rain, rushed into Walgreens to purchase an umbrella so that we could enjoy The Three King Parade without getting wet. We approach the aisle that had umbrellas and other similar items, but it was blocked by a small portable aisle on both ends. Not thinking more than this being a simple barricade due to a spill (or something related), we carefully entered and retrieved a few umbrellas. While at checkout, we were told that it was against the law to sell “commerce” to customers at that time. We were dumbfounded by this information.

After speaking with our tour guide, Francisco Jusino, we were informed that it was against the law for a business to sell non-essential commerce to a customer before 11am on Sundays and Holidays. Additionally, most non-essential businesses were to not open until 11am on these days, but Walgreens evaded this law as this were deemed a pharmacy. Upon further conversations with our tour guide and a little research, we found this law to be true. Religious groups enacted these “blue laws” as they did not want people to have distractions from going to church and spending time with their family. With this law in place, it would give them ample time to do so.

This strong religious influence on the law shows the presence and importance that religion still plays in the Puerto Rican culture. For a tourist this may seem as an inconvenience, but to the people of this island it is business as usual.