Upcoming Debates in the UN

So, I know I mentioned before that a few countries are going to the UN to present debates about Puerto Rico's colonial status. José Delgado's blog on El Nuevo Día has fortunately come in to fill in the gaps (since most newspapers don't really care enough to say anything). Here's what he has to say. It will be starting June 9th and will involve international as well as Puerto Rican politicians from all three major parties (including Aníbal).

On the other hand... it's really doubtful it will accomplish anything. But it might be interesting...

El Día de Soy Americano - A Brief History of American Citizenship in Puerto Rico

So apparently the Puerto Rican legislature is trying to get a(nother) holiday celebrating American citizenship added to the calendar (for May 20th). Well, technically, it already existed, but they're reviving it. The other holiday celebrating American citizenship is March 2nd, "el Día de la Ciudadanía Americana", in case you were wondering.

El proyecto de ley indica que el 20 de mayo los puertorriqueños deberán “rendir tributo, observar y conmemorar públicamente la ciudadanía de los Estados Unidos”. Ins[is]ta, además, a las organizaciones patrióticas, cívicas y educativas a que hagan lo mismo.
The bill indicates that on the 20th of May, Puerto Ricans should "render tribute, observe and publicly commemorate United States citizenship". It also insists that patriotic, civil, and educational organizations do the same.

I do agree with a lot of the comments left behind by readers saying it seems like a waste of funds and legislative action (although what isn't...), however, it does also raise the question of the appropriateness of celebrating American citizenship.

American citizenship is a heavily contested issue. Most people don't realize that American citizenship was indeed imposed upon Puerto Rico with the Jones Act. While it was in a sense a "gift", as in it was optional, for all practical purposes it was mandatory, since anyone who didn't have it was sentenced to unemployment (after the switch American citizenship was required for jobs). So, although there were surely many dissenters (although there were many people excited about it as well, let's not forget), only a few hundred Puerto Ricans decided not to immediately become American citizens, about 400 if I remember correctly. This was 1917, after nearly 20 years under the United States.

Luis Muñoz Rivera, grandfather of Puerto Rican politics and father of an equally famous politician, Luis Muñoz Marín, the one who came up with the holiday being discussed now (and for whom the airport is named), left us with a quote that still is as thought-provoking for Puerto Rico today as it was in 1909 when he spoke to Congress:

If you wish to make us citizens of an inferior class--if we cannot be one of your States; if we cannot constitute a country of our own then we will have to be perpetually a colony, a dependency of the United States. Is that the kind of citizenship you offer us? Then, that is the citizenship we refuse.

The next large challenge to this setup comes from Juan Mari Brás in 1994, when he renounces his American citizenship in Venezuela in favor of a Puerto Rican citizenship. Because of the rules involved in renouncing citizenship, he would have to be deported to his birthplace, and yet he had just refused it. Therefore, in Puerto Rico he was both legally forced to be there and yet illegally in a land he wasn't a citizen of, a strange situation indeed. To add to the confusion, in 2005 the Puerto Rican State Department (finally?) awarded him with "Puerto Rican citizenship", which technically doesn't exist and is something that still hasn't been resolved with the U.S. government.

Anyways, history aside, what's most disconcerting to me is the need to celebrate American citizenship. Not that I think most people waste time and money celebrating, because I can't imagine they do (although I don't know, I've never been around for either of the dates). And I do think that Puerto Ricans benefit a lot from being American citizens, the many examples of which I don't think I need to recount here. But by making an official holiday it's kind of paying tribute to the colonial dependence and second class citizenship that Muñoz Rivera brought up a hundred years ago. After all, Puerto Ricans are Americans that are not protected by the Constitution; they can be drafted and yet have no vote in Congress to declare war; they have their own government but the U.S. has complete, if underabused, control over its every action. Statutory citizenship leaves Puerto Ricans in a strange place, where they are both the same and yet different from their fellow Americans.

I say, if Puerto Ricans want to celebrate American citizenship, let them celebrate it on July 4th with all the other Americans, as equals. There's no sense in celebrating inferiority.

A Super Short History of Puerto Rico, Part 2

For part 1, click here.

So, the Spanish-American War ends after the U.S. blockades Puerto Rico for long enough that the people were very welcoming to the American troops. It doesn't help that they were promised the liberty that the Spaniards didn't give to them. Of course, as you might have noticed, that's not really what they got.

The first effect of the invasion was the complete devastation of the economy. Americans had no interest in Puerto Rico's strong coffee so almost all industry turned to sugar, causing the loss of a lot of jobs. American companies bought up farmland and forced many owners of small-property to lose their land and just added to the pockets of American corporations, who in turn invested their money back into the U.S. The population exploded because of new American medicines saving lives without anyone considering its effects or how to deal with consequences, particularly unemployment. The conversion from pesos to dollars was poorly organized and allowed many merchants on the island to charge up to 40% more for even basic foods. Even worse, food was increasing imported from the U.S., eventually making up about 75% of all food on the island, so even though PR could have grown a lot of its own foods it turned to more expensive American products.

However, it was the Americanization that really wrecked havoc on Puerto Rico. First off, all education was suddenly English-only, even though no one spoke English. Censorship began to silence newspapers. American governors disapproved of any thoughts of independence and encouraged Congress to think of Puerto Ricans as too racially impure to manage a government. Citizenship was imposed in 1916 with the Jones Act...

Let me take a moment here to explain. Citizenship was offered to Puerto Ricans as a choice, which is something that most people bring up when defending statehood. However, it should be noted, despite a tiny minority refusing it, most people were indeed forced to accept American citizenship, because no employer would hire someone without it.

Also... the Navy began to occupy large parts of the island around WWII and refused to leave afterwards since their bases were good training areas. This continued until 2004, when they finally left Vieques.

Puerto Rico at first attempted peaceful compromises with the American government but as Congress ignored them more and more many islanders became violent. There were occasional protests on the island, some of which ended in tragedy for a few nacionalistas. A few attacks also occurred on the mainland, like the 1954 shooting in Congress and an attempt on President Truman's life. In response, the FBI became heavily involved in the independence movement. They profiled and blackmailed many important pro-independence politicians. In a sense the FBI was very successful, as the movement for independence has faded away since the 70s and now lags behind statehood and continuing the Commonwealth.

A Super Short History of Puerto Rico, Part 1

All right, this is going to be Puerto Rican history in a nutshell.

Before Christopher Colombus arrived in Puerto Rico in 1493, the island, like much of the Caribbean, was populated by Taíno Indians. The Taínos became slaves for the Spaniards and were practically exterminated... there are a few different opinions to whether the Taíno is "extinct", I wrote a paper on this in Spanish so I'll be sure to upload that eventually. Anyways, in response to a lack of workers the slave trade was born. Other than this, Spain more or less ignored the island. It was attacked by the English, Dutch, and French for years and it was a popular place for pirates, notably Puerto Rico's own Cofresí.

About the time of the 19th century Spain began to get more involved with the island. At first they were heavily restricting freedom as all of their other colonies began to free themselves. To "end" unemployment and help out their sycophantical elite, Spain forced a really strange form of indentured servitude by placing imaginary debts on the peasants and forcing them to work it off. This was abolished in 1875, 2 years after the end of slavery. Meanwhile, illiteracy was at 83%, the highest in the West Indies. There was little electricity, almost no sewer system, a high death rate, and few roads. Not surprisingly, something had to be done.

The first consequence of this was El Grito de Lares, the rebellion of September 23rd, 1868 in the town of Lares. It was unsuccessful. I'll save the details for a later post since it's very important.

The second was the Autonomy Charter in 1897. It wasn't exactly because of Puerto Rico, but rather pressure from the United States worrying that problems on the island and on Cuba would affect the sugar market. The Charter gave Puerto Rico the right to vote for half of their parliament, free trade, creation of tariffs, and representation in Spanish Parliament. Most importantly, only the Puerto Rican legislature could change or remove the Charter. But only eight days into Puerto Rico’s first elected legislature, the U.S. military invaded Puerto Rico.

Well that's part one of this brief history of Puerto Rico. Part two should be up soon.