Search

This article compares two conjunctures in Puerto Rico's modern history: 1928 through 1940; and 2006 through 2020. The first created conditions that led to Puerto Rico's post-World War II economic growth. The second is marked by a watershed moment in which a massive peaceful popular uprising forced a governor out of office. In both conjunctures, the federal government and the insular administration failed to anticipate and manage the crisis, and also failed to lift a traumatized Puerto Rico from the ravishes of economic depressions and hurricanes. The 1928-40 conjuncture resulted in a realignment of the insular political and economic order that endured for decades. A colony in crisis moved the United States to intervene to restore stability in the 1930s. Although the 2006-20 conjuncture resembles the first, its transformative impact on Puerto Rico's political future is uncertain. However, unprecedented protests in summer 2019 revealed the depth of popular antipathy to the prevailing political order and rejection of the traditional political parties. The colonial situation is so vexing that Congress may be compelled to rework the antiquated colonial formula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses the case of Bolı'var Ochart, a midlevel member of the Socialist Party of Puerto Rico, to explore the ways that labor leaders navigated the Puerto Rican polity after the 1898 US occupation of the archipelago. The Socialist Party radically challenged the new carceral logics through its prison reform stance. Since it was the only political party in which most of its leadership had all been imprisoned, it also offered a space for formerly incarcerated, self-educated workers to become career politicians. Ultimately, this essay tells the story of how Ochart went from being a convict to receiving an executive pardon, publishing a groundbreaking book, and later becoming an elected official. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an interview with Puerto Rican artist and archeologist Diógenes Ballester. Topics discussed include his extensive and precise knowledge of the history of art and how it intersects with the socio-political realities of Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans; and his studies in political history of Puerto Rico and the art history of the world.

The island of Puerto Rico has a rich culture and a storied history. This history is also plagued by legal and political ambiguity which is still visible in recent Federal and Supreme Court jurisprudence. The purpose of this article is to conceptualize the complicated legal and political relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States--from Puerto Rico's colonial inception to the Insular Cases,1 which defined Puerto Rico's status as a territory to its current political stalemate. Further, these decisions created a familiar Plessy v. Ferguson-type legal doctrine in the form of second-class citizenship for the inhabitants of Puerto Rico. First, this article will briefly discuss the history of Puerto Rico, from its colonial incarnation of Spanish rule to the signing of the Jones-Shafroth Act, which established United States citizenship for the people of Puerto Rico. Next, this article will detail the inconsistency that the federal courts have shown to Puerto Rico. In Puerto Rico v. Sánchez-Valle, Justice Breyer's dissenting opinion demonstrated how the majority oversimplified Puerto Rico's judicial autonomy. To further exemplify this inconsistency, Puerto Rico went from having the ability to construct its own Constitution in 1952 to the 2016 Supreme Court decision in Puerto Rico v. Franklin California Tax-Free Trust, which denied Puerto Rico the ability to control its own debt management during its fiscal crisis. Lastly, this article will argue that there still remains the unfortunate reality of Puerto Rico's political status as an unincorporated territory, which is further aggravated by the recent diaspora of its inhabitants forced to leave their beloved island due to the effects of natural disasters and political antagonists. The ambiguity espoused by the federal courts and the Supreme Court places Puerto Rico's people in an indeterminate position as to whether their United States citizenship entitles them to the same protections as citizens on the mainland, or whether it stops short. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2016 the Congress of the United States approved the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA), with the stated purpose of creating an oversight board that would address the restructuring of Puerto Rico's debt, and facilitate the rapid creation of critical infrastructure. This board, locally known as "La Junta," has been challenged by heterogeneous resistance comprising organized political movements, intellectual discussions, and practices of everyday resistance. I argue the current political imaginary is filled with arguments and actions that are going beyond the national liberation frame (or colonial entrapment) towards a decolonial "national consciousness." This essay has three aims. First, by discussing different colonial norms and discourses established throughout the twentieth century, I will introduce the concept of "colonial entrapment" as the dominant paradigm of PR-USA colonial/racial relations. Second, drawing on Fanon's work on colonial violence, revolution and decolonization, I will discuss how it seeks to overcome colonial entrapment and thus how it may provide effective theoretical and practical tools for a resistance movement with a wider intersectional approach as provided by the lens of national consciousness. Thirdly, I will conclude by underlining the post-Hurricane Maria scenario and how it reflects the continuity of colonial entrapment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the Spanish-American War of 1898, the United States invented a new tradition of territorial expansionism with a corresponding constitutional doctrine to rule Puerto Rico and other unincorporated territories. For more than a century, the United States has relied on this racist constitutional interpretation to legitimate the separate and unequal rule of Puerto Rico. Drawing on an analysis of the Congressional Research Index for all legislative sessions between 1898 and 2018, this note describes all the territorial government and incorporation bills introduced in Congress throughout this period. Although upward of 134 status bills for Puerto Rico were introduced, and in some cases debated, in Congress, only eleven provide for the creation of a territorial government or the incorporation of Puerto Rico. All but one of these bills were introduced prior to the enactment of the Puerto Rican Constitution of 1952. For more than a century, Congress has refused to enact territorial legislation that expressly incorporates Puerto Rico and repudiates the racist doctrine of territorial incorporation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Puerto Rico is in political crisis. Evidence of this crisis is the precipitous drop in voter turnout in the 2016 elections after more than three decades of small but steady decline. Some political observers and practitioners have attributed this decline to the emigration from the island, a product itself of an enduring economic crisis engulfing Puerto Rico. However, emigration is not a factor in the decline of electoral participation in Puerto Rico. Based on statistical analyses of aggregate voting and population data, results show that Puerto Rico's decline in voter participation is not attributable to emigration. Rather, an extant legitimacy crisis of the political system and its political class might be a more proximate and likely explanation for the drop in electoral participation in 2016. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hurricane Mari'a uncovered the vulnerabilities and frailties of Puerto Rico's electric infrastructure--in particular, the anachronism of the present fossil-based, centralized generation in a Caribbean island with an excellent, distributed solar resource. However, transitioning to a different, more resilient and sustainable infrastructure requires much more than just bringing technological gadgets to communities or implementing microgrids. Without an understanding of Puerto Rico's social contexts and its energy policy history, any transformation initiative is at risk of failure, or as has happened in the past, will mostly benefit the many outsiders anxious to make business while leaving Puerto Ricans with technological nightmares or unintended consequences. This paper strives to remind policymakers (local and federal) of recent local policies and discuss how their outcomes exemplify the challenges that need to be addressed for a transition to a more distributed, sustainable and resilient electric infrastructure while truly fostering local socio-economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the author comments on the articles in this issue, including one on economic stagnation, political crises, and the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA).

This article provides an overview of PROMESA in the context of an erratic historical pattern of U.S. policy implementation toward Puerto Rico and offer an analysis of the congressional political and legislative dynamics that led to the enactment of the law. PROMESA's core components were and are contentious to various constituencies affected by the legislation, especially to those directly affected by severe austerity measures and bondholders who have lost substantial value in their investments. PROMESA received divided support from the Puerto Rican people and its elected officials when enacted and represents a new reality and challenge to the Puerto Rican people both on the island and stateside. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last several decades, nationalist movements in liberal democracies have challenged their community's relationship with the state. One such case that has drawn relatively little attention is Puerto Rico. A peculiar feature of Puerto Rican politics is that powerful nationalism coexists with several distinct status options: a reform of the current Commonwealth, statehood (becoming an American state), free association and independence. This article examines the various sources for Puerto Rican nationalism and discusses the relationship between nationalism and each of the status options. It also explains why none of the options has succeeded in gathering majority support amongst Puerto Ricans and why, therefore, the constitutional status quo has so far remained on the island. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898, Puerto Rico has been under the control of the United States. As an unincorporated territory of the United States, Puerto Rico has a separate identity that manifests itself in various ways. One of the most evident ones is through language, Spanish being the lingua franca for more than 90% of Puerto Ricans. But its nationalist stance is also found in symbols, such as its anthem. Although Puerto Rico adopted an official anthem in 1952, there has been a continuing quest for one that truly expresses the territory. The 'Star-Spangled Banner' is sometimes played but there is a more interesting story regarding 'La Borinqueña', the official anthem of Puerto Rico. Two opposing versions of this anthem exist. What is the story behind them? What is the meaning of each of those versions? Which version is the official version? This paper will address those questions and link them to the particular political status of Puerto Rico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the history of Puerto Rican politics in association with international law and relations as of 2017, and it mentions the removal of Puerto Rico from the United Nations' (U.N.'s) list of Non-Self Governing Territories in 1953, American territories, and the claim that Puerto Rico does not meet the U.N. standards for self-governance. A commonwealth relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico is examined, along with self-determination.

The article discusses the concept of territorial federalism in association with the history of the structural relationship between the U.S. Congress and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico) as of 2017, and it mentions America's Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA) and legal developments involving Puerto Rico and the U.S. Supreme Court. American democracy and popular sovereignty are assessed, along with the legal status of American territories.

This article explores the meaning of the Bolshevik Revolution and the founding of the Communist International (Comintern) as revolutionary icons for the "workerist" environment in Puerto Rico between 1919 and 1936. The analysis focuses on the constructions, discursive mechanisms and allegorical references to these topics through a selection of items from the local internationalist-oriented workers press, covering three stages (1919-1921, 1927, 1934-1936) in the development of local communist radicalism. It presents examples on the construction of the concepts of bolshevism and international communism beyond the ideological and political context, suggesting an evolution from an anarchistic type of workers culture to one increasingly based on class struggle. The sources, taken from both the radical workers press and official Communist Party publications, provide a preliminary picture of revolutionary attitudes and dreams that would serve as the cultural and genealogical basis for local communism at a crucial stage in the island's process of ideological and political formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Municipal distress presents some hecdy questions about what democracy really means when cities and states become unable to provide essential services and meet financial obligations. This article explores questions about the role of a bankruptcy judge in Chapter 9 to displace elected officials, the federal government's responsibility (or not) in Puerto Rico, and when states intervene :n local government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article talks about Luis Rafael Sánchez's La guaracha del Macho Camacho novel that continues to radically re-imagine Puerto Rican politics. It mentions about the established hierarchy, rendering ridiculous the repetitive cycle of status referenda and economic and political stagnation that dominate Puerto Rico as a Commonwealth.

Does monitoring corrupt activities induce a sustained reduction in corruption? Using longitudinal data on audits of municipal governments in Puerto Rico, we show corruption is considerably lower in municipalities with timely audits--before elections. However, these municipalities do not exhibit decreased levels of corruption in subsequent audits, even while mayors in these benefit from higher reelection rates. Our results suggest that audits enable voters to select responsive but corruptible politicians to office. Audit programs must disseminate results when they are most relevant for voters--shortly before an election--and ensure that these programs are sustained, long-term commitments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on Puerto Rico and the U.S. Congress. It says that the country came under sovereignty of the U.S. in 1898. It adds that the Foraker Act of 1900 ordered a civil government to replace military rule, establish the conditions for relations between local and federal governments, and gave an elected, non-voting delegate, a resident commissioner, to the U.S. Congress, up to this day.

This article explores how Quaker political interventions -- between the Foraker Act (1900) and the Jones Act (1917) -- shaped insular policy debates over the extension of citizenship, and self-government in Puerto Rico. I do so by examining the debates held at the Lake Mohonk Conference of Friends of the Indian and other Dependent Peoples (LMC) over U.S. Puerto Rico policy development within the context of an emerging U.S. imperialist state. I contend that LMC Quakers in their pursuit of liberal egalitarian outcomes accepted the dominant and divisive Christian racialist assumptions of the times producing some unintended consequences in terms of the development of U.S. policy toward Puerto Rico that still resonate today. These consequences include: dissent among Puerto Rican delegates to the LMC that strained U.S. Puerto Rico affairs more broadly, a decline in Quakers' political influence in insular policy development, and increased the likelihood for an ascriptive inegalitarian form of political membership (statutory collective U.S. citizenship) in Puerto Rico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]