Owned—and disowned—by the United States

by Loida C. Velazquez

My husband’s childhood friend has disowned his adult daughter. From what I gather, he is not pleased by her choices and the way she wants to live her life. He does not talk about her anymore and continues to live his life as if she did not exist. This situation reminds me of the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States of America.

Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory as part of the Treaty of Paris at the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898. At that moment, Puerto Rico went from being a colony of Spain to a “possession” of the United States without ever experiencing a sense of independence.

Puerto Ricans were made American citizens in 1917, just in time to participate in World War I. After World War II, Puerto Rico transformed itself into a well-developed society where American factories replaced farms, schools and medical care were made available to virtually all citizens, a large middle class emerged, and thousands of tourists streamed in to bask in the Caribbean sun.

All of that happened under the very first governor appointed by the United States who was sympathetic to aims of the few Puerto Rican leaders in the island government, Rexford Guy Tugwell. Tugwell governed the island from 1941 until 1946, and during those years worked closely with a Puerto Rican senator, Luis Munoz Marin, laying the grounds for an ambitious socio-economic reform plan that culminated in Munoz Marin becoming the first elected Puerto Rican governor.

Under the direction of Munoz Marin, Puerto Rico and the United States developed further their relationship, giving the island more opportunities for self-government that culminated with the establishment of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in 1952. The new constitution stated that “Puerto Rico is part of but does not belong to the United States”—whatever that means! The island’s proximity to Cuba and its position at the entrance to the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean gave the U.S. government an opportunity to have a military presence in the area.

Since then, two forces have dominated the island’s government: pro-commonwealth and pro-statehood. Only a small number of Puerto Ricans still consider themselves pro-independence. Yet that group led the movement that caused the Navy to stop using the Puerto Rican island of Vieques as a training center for target practice, using live ammunition, after a civilian was accidentally killed in one of its operations.

Today, very few people in the U.S. know that Puerto Rico, the same as in the states, had elections on Nov. 2, but has yet to determine who is going to be its new governor.

We know what happened in the Ukraine, but no local or national news mention that the people on the island of Puerto Rico are embroiled in a tug-of-war over the elections. The pro-commonwealth candidate won the election by a very small majority of votes, and now the pro-statehood party claims that the elections were tainted and wants to change the mix vote practice that has been used in Puerto Rico in previous elections without causing any problem. The tug-of-war on the island is between the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico and a judge from a U.S. federal court. Although the case sits now in the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, only one step away from the Supreme Court, it never should have left the island.

The political repercussions of these elections are far-reaching. Local political historians are calling it the most significant political battle in Puerto Rico since the 1950s. The fight over Puerto Rico’s gubernatorial election last month has brought the issue of the island’s official relationship with the United States front and center once again.

On one side of the official battle is the Popular Democratic Party candidate Anibal Acevedo Vila, whose party favors the free association with the United States. On the other side are the New Progressive Party and its candidate, Pedro Rosello, who not only favors statehood for Puerto Rico but also has promised to deliver Puerto Rican statehood within four years! His strategy, he says, will be to sue the U.S. government by making a civil rights claim, using the same legal principles as the school-desegregation cases of the 1950s. He would argue that Puerto Rico is a victim of “geographical segregation,” because it has no voting member of Congress and no electoral votes in presidential elections.

As in the Ukraine, Puerto Ricans are out on the streets protesting the way this process is being handled, but here in the states no one has the foggiest idea about a situation that is affecting the 3.8 million American citizens who live in the United States’ “disowned daughter,” the island of Puerto Rico.

Loida C. Velazquez is an adjunct professor and HEP Program director at the UT College of Education, Health and Human Sciences

December 16, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 51 © 2004 Metro Pulse