The Status Debate An Example Of Nationalist

The Status Debate: An Example Of Nationalist Politics For Puerto Ricans Essay, Research Paper

Puerto Rico and its people have endured a long history filled with colonialism and ambiguous rule. It is a nation whose citizens have endured years of imperial rule, enslavement and forced dependence on other countries for its existence. It is a nation which has changed drastically from the days when Tainoes were the exclusive inhabitants of the island. Unfortunately, Puerto Rico can no longer stand alone as its own country. Years of Spanish colonization have kept many Puerto Ricans at a “blue collar” level. Industrialization of the island, begun when the United States acquired Puerto Rico in the Spanish American War, has gradually forced Puerto Ricans to abandon their way of life, a way of life which once allowed many Puerto Ricans to reap the agricultural benefits of the island. Now, what was once an island where Puerto Ricans produced more than they could consume, has been reduced to an environmentalist’s nightmare. Fields which once produced tropical fruits and vegetables as well as sugar and coffee have now been nearly destroyed by the harmful effects of industrialization. “The heat from the petrochemicals . . . ate away at the roots and in four years killed the plants and baked the dirt. That is not sand you see, it’s dirt clay baked white. If you were to try to walk up that mountain, the soles would burn off your shoes.” (Lopez, 1987: 75) Industrialization brought jobs which earned Puerto Ricans higher wages than they could earn in the fields. Thus, many abandoned the fields for factories, creating a shift to dependence on American industry in Puerto Rico for survival. Islanders could no longer feed their families on the fruits of the land. The promises of Operation Bootstrap had now forced Puerto Ricans to use American food stamps to buy imported American goods, for “even when industrialization was in place, ‘Bootstrap’ never generated the number of jobs eliminated by the death of agriculture” (Lopez, 1987: 95), ever increasing Puerto Rican dependence on the United States for survival. With the passage of the Jones-Shaforth Act in 1917, Puerto Ricans were now US Citizens and could travel freely between the island and mainland United States. The US Government made it easy for Puerto Ricans to relocate to New York City by offering very cheap transportation on “Marine whaler” boats. The government also gave tax breaks to companies who would hire the new wave of immigrants mainly located in three areas: “the Brooklyn Navy Yard where cheap labor was in demand; to the Bronx, where an impressive development of small factories sprung from postwar industrialism; or to New York’s garment center, where needle trade jobs were being abandoned by the previous generation of immigrants.” (Lopez, 1987: 97) Gradually Puerto Ricans spread to other communities in the United States, especially to other areas of New England such as New Jersey, Massachusetts and Connecticut. There are also significant Puerto Rican communities in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Alaska, Hawaii and other western states, formed partly as a result of Puerto Rican soldiers remaining in those areas following their military tours of duty. However the Puerto Rican population in New York City today is larger than the Puerto Rican population of San Juan, one of Puerto Rico’s largest cities. Now, the Puerto Rico of a hundred years ago has drastically changed from the Puerto Rico of today. It is considered an unincorporated territory as the result of the Supreme Court decision in Downes vs. Bidwell in 1901. Under this decision, Puerto Rico is owned by the United States but is not a part of the United States. Thus Puerto Rico remains in an ambiguous state, labeled as a commonwealth. Out of this tumultuous history of colonialism and conquerors, a debate has risen among Puerto Ricans both on the island and on the mainland which is now first and foremost in importance: the status question.

The status debate involves three main opinions on what the fate of Puerto Rico should be supported by three respective political parties. The first of these, the Partido Nuevo Partista (PNP) advocates statehood as the future for Puerto Rico. About 45% of the Puerto Rican population in is support of statehood. The US government is historically notorious for stalling this issue for a number of reasons. In 1963, Kennedy promised Munoz a Status Commission which, after three years could only decide on a plebiscite in 1967. Every state in the US has a white, English-speaking majority, and the US government does not know how to make a 98% Spanish-speaking territory a state. Those who side with the PNP are conservative, anti-Communist, and antiunion, and members include intellectuals, politicians and industrialists. [They] shared a concern about the situation on the island: the increasing activity among university students demanding reforms, the constant strikes and the flowering of the independence movement, and corporate flight and the difficulties in recruiting new business to the islands. Out of these concerns the fulcrum of the PNP platform was developed: statehood for Puerto Rico. (Lopez, 1987: 121)

The PNP wants to implement the status of Puerto Rico as the fifty-first state of the United States by convincing their Resident Commissioner to draft a bill with a lawmaker in Congress for statehood. As a state, Puerto Ricans would get more repre