Rep. Nydia Velázquez marches on

Puerto Rico's big day is coming up, and we're not talking about the parade. Or, not just the parade. On June 11, the same day Boricuas will be marching up Fifth Avenue, Puerto Ricans will be voting in the latest referendum on the island’s political status.

Rep. Nydia Velázquez was born in Puerto Rico and now represents parts of Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. She joined the Slant Podcast on Monday to talk about the island’s future and whether statehood could fix its financial problems. She also explained why she’ll be marching in the parade, despite the controversy over honoring former prisoner Oscar López Rivera as a “National Freedom Hero.”

RELATED: Is WABC souring on the Puerto Rican Day Parade?

“For many of us, Oscar López Rivera is our Nelson Mandela,” she said. “The only crime that he committed in my view was to love Puerto Rico and to pursue the freedom of Puerto Rico.”

Velázquez explained that the parade and the referendum are connected, with conservative forces in Puerto Rico using the recognition of López Rivera to energize the base to come out and vote.

“I have never seen, for many years, a controversy such as this one,” Velázquez said. “What it puts into play is the political divisions among Puerto Ricans over the political status.”

Velázquez also talked about how she is strategizing as a Democrat in Donald Trump’s Washington, and whether she thinks impeachment is in his future.

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