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TIe FoIilicaI Silualion in Fuevlo Bico

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Manuel Maldonado Denis
THE POLITICAL
SITUATION
IN
PUERTO
RICO
Part
of the task of the new Latin American
historiography
has
been to
demystify
our
history,
to shatter
mercilessly
the
myths by
means of which the
ruling
classes have distorted the historical facts in
order that
history might
serve their aims of domination. A crisis within
Latin American
society
itself has been
necessary
for the most
flagrant
defects in the socio-historical
interpretations
of the
history
of America
to be
revealed. In
a
certain
sense,
we can
say
that traditional
historiog
raphy
and
sociology,
like the
very
societies which served
as their back
drop,
are
in a state of
profound
crisis. This is
true not
only
of Latin
American
history
and
sociology,
but of
sociology
and
history
in the
United States as well. All of the
concepts traditionally
used
as conve
nient
buttressing
for
a
social
interpretation
which favored those inter
ested in
maintaining
the status
quo,
when faced with the
contumacy
of
historical
facts,
have demonstrated their
deep-rooted shortcomings.
The
history
of the countries of the Caribbean is
a
good example
of
this. As an
"imperial
frontier,"
the Caribbean has been
subject,
in
ex
traordinary degree,
to
every
influence of the
imperialist
world
view,
just
as the latter was transmitted to its inhabitants
by
the various colonial
powers
which have ruled
us
throughout history.
The
stereotype
of the
Caribbean as a
placid,
sun-bathed
area
of
palm
trees,
whose inhabitants
exhaust themselves in
sex and rum has nourished not a
few
interpreta
tions of our
history
as one of
peoples
whose natural indolence condemns
them to the most
abject underdevelopment.
The colonial elites have
themselves contributed to this
contempt
for what is
ours
by offering
on
many
occasions theories about
our
character which do not differ
greatly
from the rationalizations offered
by metropolitan ideologists
to
justify
imperialist
domination. In an
excellent
essay
written
recently,
the
Dominican
sociologist
Franklin
J.
Franco has
helped
to unmask the
very
real anti-African
prejudice
evident in the
hispanophilism
of some of the
most cherished writers in the
history
of the Dominican
Republic.1
The
1
Franklin
J.
Franco. "La
ideologia
del
Trujillato," Ahora,
May
31,
1971.
221
The Massachusetts Review
same
thing
can be said for Rene
Depestre's analysis
of the
concept
of
"negritude"
in
Price-Mars,
for the
analysis
of the
ideology
of the Cuban
colonial elite done
by
Moreno
Fraginalls
and
Jose
Luciano
Franco,
and
for what the author of this article has
attempted
to do with
respect
to
the colonialist
ideology
in Puerto Rico.
One of the
great myths
devised
by
colonialist
ideology
has been that
which
pretends
to
exempt
the United States from
any
kind of
imperialist
designs
with
respect
to Latin America. The elaboration of this thesis
has remained for the most
part
in the hands of certain sectors of the
Latin American
intelligentsia,
which
has,
on
many occasions, managed
to maintain
an
accomplice-like
silence about
imperialist
intervention in
the internal affairs of
our
countries. Puerto
Rico,
perhaps
more than
any
other Latin American
country,
is
a
living example
of this. It is here that
the thesis of
"imperialism by
accident" has had its
most
outstanding
exponents.
It is in
our
homeland where the old
song
about our
being
a
"bridge
between the two
cultures of the
hemisphere"
has served
to
perpetuate
our
colonial condition and to sweeten the true character of
our
dependence.
The
"imperialism by
accident" thesis is
very simple.
The United
States entered the
Spanish-American
War not as a
consequence
of
any
expansionist
motives,
but because it had
suddenly
to assume the
respon
sibilities of
a
world
power.
The
empire acquired by
the United States in
1898?so
say
the creole
ideologists
of
imperialism by
accident?was in
fact
acquired
in
a moment of what the Americans call "absentminded
ness." As for the other acts of Yankee intervention in the
hemisphere,
these have been?if
anything?the product
of the errors committed
by
a
few
government officials,
but never the inevitable result of the
develop
ment of American
capitalism
itself.
The
new
American
historiography?which
in the United States has
come to be called the work of "revisionist historians"?has
placed
all of
these notions in their
proper
perspective. Writing
about the
expansionist
policies
of the United States in
1890,
Walter La Ferber tells us:
To
Mahan,
William
McKinley,
Theodore
Roosevelt,
and
Henry
Cabot
Lodge,
colonial
possessions,
as
these
men
define
them,
serve as
stepping
stones to the
two
great
prizes:
the Latin American and Asian markets. This
policy
resembled
traditional colonialism much less than it did the
new financial and industrial
expansion
of the
period
between 1850 and 1914. These men did not envision
"colonizing"
either Latin America or Asia. But
they
did want to
exploit
these
areas
economically
and
give
them
(especially Asia)
the benefits of western
Christian civilization. To do
this,
these
expansionists
needed
strategic
bases
222
Political Situation in Puerto Rico
from which
shipping
lanes and interior interests in Asia and Latin America
could be
protected.2
When the United
States,
once
established
as a
republic, begins
its
ex
pansion westward,
Professor Van
Alstyne
tells
us,
its
imperialist experi
ence
does not differ
basically
from
England's,
since:
Both
empires
were creatures of natural forces?of
emigration
and coloniza
tion,
of commerce and
religion,
as well
as of the desire to
expand
their
politi
cal influence. But in neither case was
the
expansion
unintentional,
unplanned,
or
absent-minded. Each
[.
.
.]
was to
pursue
a
strategic pattern,
and the his
tory
of each shows the influence of much
planning
and of conscious direction.3
And William
Appleman
Williams
points
out that with the
development
of a
corporate economy,
the American leaders of the time
emphasized
increasingly
the role of
foreign
policy
in
solving
domestic troubles
and
consciously
initiated a
broad
program
of
sophisticated imperialism.
Under
lying
that
expansion,
and
sustaining
it
on
into the 20th
century,
was
the
central idea that overseas economic
expansion provided
the sine
qua
non
of
domestic
prosperity
and social
peace.4
The American intervention in the Dominican
Republic
in
1965,
like
that in Indo-China at the
present moment,
are
additional
chapters
that
could be added?if that
were
necessary?to
the
imperialist history
of
the United
States. The intervention in and
occupation
of Puerto
Rico,
which dates
uninterruptedly
from
1898,
offers the most
flagrant
illus
tration of the
perpetuation
on our
island of
a
classic form of
colonialism,
even
though
certain cosmetics have been
applied
with
an
end to cover
ing
up
its
more
visible blemishes.
The annexation of Puerto Rico to the United States in 1898
prompt
ed an
interesting
debate in the
metropolis,
when the "status" of the
recendy acquired
overseas
territory
was
considered
by
the
Congress.
As
a
curious
fact,
it is
noteworthy
that the
opposition
to overseas
expansion
did not come
only
from
a
few liberals who view with alarm the new
imperialist
role of the United
States,
but also from Southern racists who
feared that the
incorporation
of territories with
a
high percentage
of
Blacks
might
eventually
lead to their entrance into the Union
as
States.
2
Walter La Feber. The New
Empire:
An
Interpretation of
American Ex
fansion
1860-1898
(Ithaca:
Cornell
University
Press,
1963), p.
91.
8
Richard W. Van
Alstyne.
The
Rising
American
Emfire (Chicago:
Quad
rangle Books,
1965), p.
100.
4
William
Appleman
Williams. The Contours
of
American
History (Chica
go:
Quadrangle Books,
1966), p.
355.
223
The Massachusetts Review
When the first
organic
law
(which
was to take effect in Puerto Rico
as of
1900)
was
being
discussed in
Congress,
Senator Bate of Tennessee
exclaimed in
protest:
Under this
new
order of
expansion,
what will
happen
with the
Philippines
and Puerto Rico? Will
they
become states with
representation
here from
those
countries,
from that
heterogenous
mass of half-breeds that makes
up
their
citizenry?
That is
objectionable
to the
people
of this
country,
as it
should
be,
and
they
will
put
a
stop
to it before it can be realized.
Jefferson
was
the
greatest
of the
expansionists,
but neither his
example
nor his
prece
dent
provide
any justification
of
expansion
over
territory
located on different
seas,
over
people incapable
of
self-government,
over
religions
hostile to Chris
tianity,
and over
savages
addicted to cannibalism and
head-hunting,
as
is the
case on some of these islands.5
If
every representative
to the
Congress
did not
express
himself with the
same
frankness,
it is
indisputable
that American messianism did not
conceive that the
recently acquired
territories
might
be
capable
of
ruling
their
own
destinies.
Racism,
the Social Darwinism then in
vogue,
could
not
conceive that
peoples
like our own
might
be
capable
of
managing
their
own
affairs. It was
necessary, therefore,
to assume their
guardian
ship,
since some
nations,
like some
men,
had not
yet
reached their
maturity. Consequently,
it was incumbent
upon
the countries made
up
of the
superior
races to lead them
by
the hand for their own
good.
So it was in Puerto Rico. When General Nelson W. Miles issues his
famous
proclamation
on
assuming
the
military occupation
of the
island,
his
phrases
are cloaked in the rhetoric of
democracy.
General Miles
spoke
of
obtaining
for the inhabitants of Puerto Rico "the
privileges
and
blessings
of the liberal institutions of our
government,"
but it is not until
1900?two
years
later?that
a
civil
government
is established in Puerto
Rico. Puerto Rican
leaders,
who had had
a
brief taste of
self-govern
ment under the "Charter of
Autonomy"
of
1897,
were faced first with
the establishment of a
military
government
and then with the
adoption
of
an
organic
law?not ratified until 1900?which in matters of
gov
ernment
represents
a
retrogression
for the Puerto Rican
people.
The refusal
to allow a more
generous
regime
of
self-government
was
based
on
the
premise
that
we were not
yet capable
of
governing
our
selves. The author of the first
organic
law which will
prevail
in Puerto
Rico
by
an act of
Congress
from 1900 to
1917
says
this with absolute
clarity
in
a
speech
before the
Congress:
5
Congressional Record, Senate,
April
2, 1900, p.
3612.
224
Political Situation in Puerto Rico
The
people
of Puerto Rico differ
radically
from
any
other
people
for whom
we have
legislated
in the
past. They
have had
a
different
experience,
par
ticularly
in matters of
government. They
have not had
any experience
which
?by
the
light
of the
testimony
given
before
our committee
during
the hear
ings
that were
held?qualifies
them for the
great
task of
organizing
a
govern
ment with all the
important
bureaus and
departments
which the
people
of
Puerto Rico need.6
Once that intention
was
declared,
Puerto Rico was to remain sub
ject
to a
regime
of
political inferiority
which would last to the
present
day.
The scene
is
now set for the next act of economic
penetration by
powerful
American
corporate
interests. The
application
to Puerto Rico
of the
import
duties in force in the United States deals
a severe blow
to local
agriculture.
Devaluation of the
currency
by 40%
of its
original
value serves to secure
American control of the
economy: by
a
simple
stroke of the
pen
it
simultaneously
reduces the value of all land and the
purchasing
power
of the Creoles. This devaluation?as Professor
Jose
Antonio Herrero has
recently
indicated?has
even more
disastrous
con
sequences
for the Puerto Rican
economy
than the hurricane of 1899.
Deprived
of its traditional
European
markets
as a
result of the new
situation created
by
the
change
in
sovereignty,
Puerto Rican coffee
suffers
a severe
blow from which it is
never to recover.
According
to the
study
carried out
by
the Diffles in
1931, by
1899
native farmers
were owners of
93%
of the farms in Puerto
Rico,
with
the result that "a
large
number of
people forming
part
of the rural
population
were owners of their own
homes and were
permanent
resi
dents of the island."7 Of the total land area
of Puerto
Rico?3,435
square
miles?41%
was
devoted to
coffee,
15%
to
sugar
cane,
32%
to
foodstuffs,
and
only
1
%
to the
growing
of tobacco. With the
open
ing up
of Puerto Rico to the economic
penetration
of the
large
Ameri
can
sugar consortiums,
by
1930
44%
of the total cultivable
area on
the
island
was devoted to
sugar production. During
the first three decades
of United States colonial
domination,
absentee investment rose to
$120,000,000.8
By
the same
period, 60%
of the
sugar production
was
controlled
by
four
large foreign corporations;
and much the same can
be said of tobacco
(80%), public
services and banks
(60%),
and
6
Speech of
Hon. John B. Foraker
of
Ohio in the Senate
of
the United
States
(Washington:
Government
Printing Office,
1900), p.
6.
7
Bailey,
W. Y. and
Justine
W. Diffie. Porto Rico: a
Broken
Pledge
(New
York: The
Vanguard Press, 1931), pp.
21-22.
8
Harvey
S. Peloff. Puerto Rico's Economic Future
(University
of
Chicago
Press, 1950), p.
28.
225
The Massachusetts Review
shipping companies (100%).9
As
can be
seen,
the
process
of concen
trating
wealth in the hands of the
large
Yankee
corporations
converted
us into
a
sugar-producing colony.
This
single
crop economy,
moreover,
created
a vast rural
proletariat
that labored
mercilessly
for
wages
which
fell below the level of subsistence. The
study
undertaken
by
the Brook
ings
Institution
(1930),
at the
request
of the colonial
government
it
self,
indicates that
by
that time Puerto Rico was "a
community
of
agricultural workers,"
and concludes
by saying: "Generally speaking,
birth, sickness, accident,
and death
are
endured with little
attempt
at
alleviation. In the mountain homes of the
jibaro
one
all too often finds
that illness and
suffering
are
accepted
with
an
impotent
fatalism."10
This
"impotent
fatalism" which
many
colonialist
ideologues attempt
ed to attribute to our
people's
innate
characteristics,
was the direct result
of the conversion of Puerto Rico into
a source for
imperialist exploita
tion. If the
Spanish
had extracted
profit through
the use of
slavery
and
other forms of
servitude,
it was now
being
extracted
through
the ex
ploitation
of
cheap
labor and the
raw
materials available in
our
country.
By
the
beginning
of the
thirties,
the alienation of the Puerto Rican
national
patrimony
had reached
a
point
where the nationalist leader
Pedro Albizu
Campos
could
say
in 1932:
Yankee
imperialism
has led us
morally
to
despise
ourselves;
materially,
it has
converted us from
proprietors
into
peons,
and from
peons
into
beggars
con
demned to die.
At that moment a
small
group
of the weak Puerto Rican
bourgeoisie
was
acting
as
intermediary
between the island and the
large
Yankee
sugar
consortiums.
Thus, just
as in the 19th
century,
the essential flaw
of the Puerto Rican
bourgeoisie
becomes once more
apparent.
This lack
of
a
nationally-oriented bourgeoisie
has been
a constant in the economic
development
of Puerto Rico and
one
of the
primary supports
of
our
dependence.
One could
say
of the Puerto Rican
bourgeoisie
what Fanon
says
of the
bourgeoisie
in colonial and neo-colonial countries.
The national middle class
[he writes]
discovers its historic mission: that of
intermediary.
Seen
through
its
eyes,
its mission has
nothing
to do with trans
forming
the
nation;
it
consists,
prosaically,
of
being
the transmission line be
tween the nation and a
capitalism, rampant
though
camouflaged,
which
today
9
Dime,
of. cit., p.
150.
10
Victor S. Clark
(editor).
Porto Rico and its Problems
(Washington,
D.C.: The
Brookings Institution,
1930), pp. 13, 21, 27,
37.
226
Political Situation in Puerto Rico
puts
on the mask of neo-colonialism. The national
bourgeoisie
will be
quite
content with the role of the Western
bourgeoisie's
business
agent,
and it will
play
its
part
without
any
complexes
in a most
dignified
manner. But this same
lucrative
role,
this
cheap-Jack's
function,
this meanness of outlook and this
absence of all ambition
symbolize
the
incapacity
of the national middle class
to fulfill its historic role of
bourgeoisie. Here,
the
dynamic, pioneer aspect,
the characteristics of the inventor and of the discoverer of new
worlds which
are
found in all national
bourgeoisies
are
lamentably
absent. In the colonial
countries,
the
spirit
of
indulgence
is dominant at the core of the
bourgeoisie;
and this is because the national
bourgeoisie
identifies itself with the Western
bourgeoisie,
from whom it has learnt its lessons. It follows the Western
bourgeoisie along
its
path
of
negation
and decadence without ever
having
emulated it in its first
stages
of
exploration
and
invention, stages
which
are
an
acquisition
of that Western
bourgeoisie
whatever the circumstances. In its
beginnings,
the national
bourgeoisie
of the colonial countries identifies itself
with the decadence of the
bourgeoisie
of the West. We need not think that
it is
jumping
ahead;
it is in fact
beginning
at the end. It is
already
senile
before it has come to know the
petulance,
the
fearlessness,
or
the will to suc
ceed of
youth.11
On the
verge
of the Great
Depression,
Puerto Rico finds itself under
the domination of
a
colonial
regime
whose
principal
collaborators be
longed
to this
dependent bourgeoisie
class
which,
in
spite
of its
weakness,
was
nonetheless
capable
of
acting
as a sort of drive-shaft for metro
political power.
At the base of the social
pyramid,
on the other
hand,
there
was the immense
majority
of the rural and urban
proletariat
and
a
petit bourgeoisie
of
professionals, intellectuals,
small
merchants,
etc.
When the
depression
rocks the
metropolitan economy,
the crisis also
sends tremors
through
the foundations of the colonial
regime prevailing
in Puerto Rico. The
depression
underscores
even more the true charac
ter of our
colonial
dependence
and shatters the
myths
about the
omnip
otence of the United States. Nationalist radicalism
gains
considerable
force
on the island and the
empire
decides to
change
its tactics
by
ex
tending
to
Puerto Rico a
whole series of economic aid
programs which,
without
fundamentally altering
our
colonial
status,
would, nevertheless,
be broad
enough
to
relieve somewhat the most
flagrant injustices
of the
system.
But that will be all. The structures
capable
of
perpetuating
dependence along
the lines of classical colonialism will remain in force.
When in 1940
a
reformist
party using
radical rhetoric comes to
11
Frantz Fanon. The Wretched
of
the Earth
(New
York: Grove
Press,
1968), pp.
152-153.
227
The Massachusetts Review
exercise colonial
power?the Popular
Democratic
Party
led
by
Luis
Muiioz Marin?the
political
situation in Puerto Rico has not
changed
one
iota.
Just
as in
1900,
the fundamental
power affecting
the Puerto
Rican nation resided in the
Congress
of the United States. From that
moment
on,
new
forms of economic
dependence begin
to evolve within
the old structural framework of the old
political dependence.
Indeed,
the
Popular
Democratic
Party
will ride the crest of the wave
of New Deal reformism which Franklin D. Roosevelt initiates in the
metropolis.
From the
very
beginning,
this
appears
to
allay
our
people's
nationalist
yearnings
and their desire for social
justice.
By
1948 the situation
begins
to take
a
different turn. The
program
known as
"Operation Bootstrap,"
whose
general theory
is to
promote
a
program
of industrialization for Puerto
Rico, begins
to take
shape.
To
lay
the foundation for this "hothouse
capitalism" plans
are made
to take maximum
advantage
of the
special
circumstances
by
which
our
island, although
a
territory
of the United
States, was, nonetheless,
exempted
from
paying
any
taxes to the United States
Treasury Depart
ment.
Thus,
the industrial tax
exemption?under
the direction of
Teodoro
Moscoso,
the first director of the Administration for Economic
Development?is
converted into
one of the basic inducements for at
tracting (primarily American) capital
to Puerto Rico. The other induce
ment was
cheap
labor. This is the
beginning
of the Administration for
Economic
Development's program,
which of course would be converted
?together
with the "suitable industrial climate"?into
one of the
prin
cipal
attractions of
our Puerto Rico.
Companies establishing
themselves
on the island
were
exempt?for
a
period
of
up
to
17
years?from
pay
ment of
any
taxes to the Puerto Rican
Treasury.
As the reader
can well
imagine,
the return on investments
was
extraordinary.
As
recently
as
1966,
The Wall Street Journal could
rejoice
in the
following descrip
tion of Puerto Rico
as an
investor's
paradise:
The
alarming
rate of
unemployment
in Puerto Rico?estimated
at between
12 and
30%'?is helping
to attract
industry
at a
record
pace
from the United
States,
where the labor
shortage
is
currently
severe. On the one
hand,
local
income and
property
taxes,
as well as excise taxes and license
fees,
are often
suspended
for
up
to 17
years, depending
on a
company's product
and on the
extent to which it aids in the industrialization of the area. In
addition,
the
Puerto Rican
government
offers
generous
subsidies for
everything
from trans
portation
to
job-training.12
12
The Wall Street
Journal,
December
27,
1966.
228
Political Situation in Puerto Rico
The
emphasis
on
industrialization
displaced
the Puerto Rican
agri
cultural sector.
Deprived,
moreover,
of the tariff
protection
which
sovereign
nations
enjoy,
this sector
begins
to fall into
a
precipitous
de
cline from which it has not recovered to this
day.
The
sugar industry,
until 1940
our most
important industry, today
lies in ruins with the
systematic closing
of one
sugar
mill after another.
Coffee, tobacco,
live
stock,
tropical
fruits have all suffered the
impact
of this
process
of de
struction of Puerto Rican
agriculture.
The
dependent
nature of
our
economy is,
consequently,
accentuated each time
that,
in the words of
Professor Gordon K.
Lewis,
"Puerto Rico
produces
what it does not
consume and
consumes
what it does not
produce."
The industrial sector's
elephantine growth
can be felt in the
heavy
concentrations of
population
in urhan centers and in the slow but
sys
tematic
depopulation
of rural areas.
What the
Brookings report
once
described as "a
community
of
agricultural
workers" is
anything
but
that
today.
More than
60%
of the Puerto Rican
population today
lives
in urban areas. This rural-urban
migration
has?since the Second
World War?also manifested itself in the massive exodus of Puerto
Ricans to the United States. One of the
policies
of the
Popular
Demo
cratic
Party
was to stimulate that
emigration, justifying
it on
the basis
of the so-called
"escape
valve"
theory.
A
prominent
Puerto Rican
demographer
has called attention to the fact that this constitutes "one
of the
largest
exoduses of
population
ever
recorded in
history"
and that
as a
consequence
"if
we
add to the total number of
emigrants
the num
ber of children
they
would have had
on
the island had
they stayed,
we
reach the conclusion that between 1940 and
1960,
Puerto Rico lost
about one
million
people
as a
result of that mass
migration."
The
same
source
points
out that
during
the decade of the 50's
70%
of the mi
grants
were
between the
ages
of 15 and 39.13 This
enormous
displace
ment of the
population has,
of
course,
turned Puerto Rico into a
country
with
a third of its
people living
outside its own
borders. With an
almost
criminal nonchalance the colonial
government
has decided to wash its
hands of the whole
emigrant question,
and each
day
there embark hun
dreds of
agricultural
workers who will fatten
a reserve
army
made
up
of the worst
paid
of all the workers in the
metropolis.
What has increased
considerably
with the
program
of "industrializa
tion
by
invitation" has been the
tertiary
sector of the
economy,
that
is,
the bureaucratic and
professional
middle class which
proliferates
as a
13
Jose
Luis
Vazquez
Calzada. "La
emigracion puertorriquena:
solucion o
problems,"
Revista de Ciencias
Sociales,
vol.
VII,
no.
4,
diciembre 1963.
229
The Massachusetts Review
consequence
of the
new
governmental programs.
This class has become
an
extremely important
factor
tending
toward
political
conservatism,
constituting,
as it
does,
a
prominent
sector of the
population
in our
urban
areas,
particularly
in the
larger
cities. This class
is,
at the
same
time,
an
essential
support
of
a consumer
economy which,
in
a
country
that under the circumstances
hardly produces anything?more
than
90%
of all essential articles in Puerto Rico have to be
imported?
follows
patterns
of
consumption typical
of the
metropolitan
middle class.
If there is
any
class which has absorbed the
imperialist
worldview,
it
is the Puerto Rican middle class. If there is
any
sector of the Puerto
Rican
population
in which
we
find the
phenomenon
of alienation as a
consequence
of
colonialism,
it is in this
one.
On the other
hand,
it is from the middle class that that stratum of
intellectuals whose
concept
of the world
frequently
clashes with that
upheld by
the members of their
own
class comes. But this sector is
a
numerically
small
minority
when
compared
to the enormous
contingent
formed
by
the inhabitants of the numerous suburbs which
proliferate
around our
large
cities.
In
large
cities like San
Juan
the rural exodus to urban centers has
given
rise to a whole slum
population,
so
aptly
described
by
the late
Oscar Lewis in his
book,
La Vida. This
marginal
sector is of
great
numerical
importance, particularly during
elections for control of
the
municipality
of San
Juan.
It is from the
depths
of that
community
that the urban
"Lumpenproletariat"?a
force which the
present govern
ment has used
very
skillfully
of late in its
repression
of the
independence
movement?emerges.
The industrialization of Puerto Rico has taken
place primarily
near
large
urban centers. This has
meant,
perforce,
the
depopulation
of the
countryside,
with the result that
we can
already
find in effect several
"ghost
towns" in the interior of the
island,
somewhat
analogous
to
the
"Dead Houses" which
Miguel
Otero Silva describes in
one
of his novels
about Venezuela.
This,
in
turn,
has created
an enormous
disproportion
between the standard of
living
in the
city
and that of the
countryside.
Unemployment?incredibly high
in
any
case if
we
consider that it is
estimated at
30%?reaches truly alarming proportions
in some of the
towns in the interior of the island.
This situation of
unemployment
and
underemployment,
in addition
to
creating
a vast
army
of labor
reserves,
is
exploited by
the
govern
ment itself
through
such
practices
as the distribution of
surplus
food
provided by
the United States
Department
of
Agriculture,
which the
people
call "The Dole."
According
to statistics
prepared by
the De
230
Political Situation in Puerto Rico
partment
of
Agriculture,
one out of
every
three
people
in Puerto Rico
is
a
recipient
of "The Dole."
This,
naturally,
exacerbates the habit of
dependence,
and is made to seem to be a
gift
from the
generous
U.S.
Without
a
doubt,
a
kind of labor
aristocracy
which
enjoys relatively
high
salaries does exist. But it constitutes a
minority
of the
working
people
who,
in
addition,
are
practically non-unionized?only 18%
of
Puerto Rico's total work force
belongs
to
any
sort of labor
organization
or
union. This
fact,
as can be
inferred,
influences
negatively
the devel
opment
of the class
struggle
and is
a
retarding
factor with
respect
to
the demands of the
working
masses. This
is, moreover, part
of the over
all
policy designed
to
discourage
the formation of labor
unions,
by
which
the
programs
of the Office of Economic
Development
have been
guided.
In
attempting
to outline above the
general
features of the Puerto
Rican
economy
and
society,
I indicated the
essentially intermediary
nature of the Puerto Rican
bourgeoisie
and
petit-bourgeoisie.
This be
comes even more
evident if
we
consider the fact that
78%
of the com
panies
established in Puerto Rico
are
American owned. The
steps
to
dispose
of our
national
patrimony formerly
undertaken
by
the
sugar
companies
are now
the work of the
petro-chemical companies.
At this moment a debate is
taking place
in Puerto Rico
concerning
the eventual fate of the rich
copper deposits
located in the
very
center
of our
island. These
deposits?whose discovery represents
a
flat denial
of the colonial thesis that we are a
country
without natural resources?
have aroused the
greed
of the
large
copper
extracting corporations
for
that
very
rich vein in our
national
patrimony.
In
any
case,
the
problem
remains the same: our
people
lack the
power
to make those decisions which best serve their interests. The
constricting
framework of the colonial
regime effectively
circumscribes
the field of action
open
to the Puerto Rican
people, placing
them in
a
strait
jacket
which condemns them to
immobility. Seventy-one
years
have
passed,
and the
powers
granted
to the American
Congress
in
1900?as outlined below
by
Yamil Galib in
a
report
he
presented
in
1965?are still in effect:
By
virtue of that unlimited
power,
the
Congress
[of
the United
States]
re
cruits
our
young
people
and sends them off to
war;
determines,
by
means
of
immigration laws,
who can enter and leave our
territory;
maintains a
fed
eral court here which indicts and tries Puerto Ricans under federal
laws;
controls radio and
television,
and without its consent no
transmitting
tower
can
be erected nor
any
message
be sent or received
through
these
means
of
communication. It censors
books and works of art
through
its
agents
in the
federal
customs,
and it controls our commerce and our
economy,
in so far
231
The Massachusetts Review
as
it is
able,
by
means of the
monopoly
it
enjoys
in the consumer market.
It maintains an
absolute and incredible control
over
maritime and air service
between the United States and Puerto
Rico,
which
imposes
a
surcharge
on
our
country
estimated at between 40 and 50 million dollars
annually.
It has exclusive control of all matters
dealing
with
bankruptcy,
naturaliza
tion and
citizenship.
It holds unlimited
power
of
expropriation
of our lands
and
properties;
and
although
it
can be
argued
that this
power
has not
always
been exercised
abusively,
the fact that there
are no
limits established to curb
it is unmistakable
proof
that our
territory
and our wealth
are at the
mercy
of and continue to be the
possession
and
property
of the United States.
It
delegates
our air and sea
rights.
It is
solely responsible
for the conduct
of our
foreign
affairs. It forbids
us from
fixing
our own tariffs
by
virtue of
the
power
granted
to it under Article III of the Federal Relations
Act,
thereby
reserving
for itself the
only weapon
we
might
have used to
protect
our
pro
ducers from ruinous
competition
with the
extremely powerful producers
of
the United States.
We, consequently,
find ourselves in the
paradoxical
situa
tion
whereby
a
poor country buys
at
prices
set
by
the richest
country
in the
world and
whereby
in that
exchange
of
goods
we accrue an
annual unfavor
able balance of trade which fluctuates between 250 and 300 million dollars?
a
balance which has been unfavorable for Puerto Rico since the Americans
set foot on our soil.
Congress
maintains control over the
sugar
industry.
It does
not allow
us to
participate
in commercial treaties
negotiated
between the United States and
other
countries,
not even with
regard
to those
aspects
of them which affect
us
adversely;
it controls the mail
system,
and
currency,
and establishes the
fundamental
norms and
regulations
by
which the
banking
industry
must abide.
It
places
its
army, navy,
and air force
on
the
land,
sea and in the air over
Puerto Rico without
consulting
us or
seeking
our
consent,
even for the sake
of
maintaining
the
appearance
of
a
system
with democratic
pretensions.
In
short,
it can be said that
everything
which
directly
or
indirectly
affects
life in Puerto Rico is in the hands of the
Congress
of the United States.
This domination exercised
directly
over those matters which determine
the life of Puerto Ricans makes us?not a
neo-colony
like the Domini
can
Republic
or
Haiti?but
a
colony
in the classic sense of the word.
It could be
maintained,
moreover,
that the classic outline of
imperial
ism is
perfectly applicable
to our
island. There
is,
on the
one
hand,
the
military
intervention and
occupation
of the
territory by
a
foreign
power.
This has been
a
reality
in Puerto Rico since 1898. There
is,
on the
other
hand,
the
exploitation
of the labor and natural
resources of the
colonized
country,
under conditions unfavorable
to that
country.
This
situation of
dependency
is further accentuated
by
an
insidious
process
of cultural assimilation which threatens
to
destroy
Puerto Rican national
232
Political Situation in Puerto Rico
culture. It is this cultural
offensive,
aimed at the total eradication of
any
sort of Puerto Rican national
consciousness,
which constitutes the
principal strategy
of
imperialism
in Puerto Rico. For American cultural
penetration
has had as its
objective
the alienation of the Puerto Rican
from his own
culture and the
breaking
of his ties with
Spanish-speaking
countries?particularly
those of Latin America. It is this
systematic
process
of cultural annihilation which constitutes the most insidious and
onerous
mechanism for
perpetuating
in Puerto Rico
a
colonial situation
which stands out as an
anachronism in our
time. This will be the sub
ject
of a
forthcoming study,
but before
closing,
I would like to
quote
a
passage
from Professor Gordon Lewis' book
on
Puerto Rico:
From the
very beginning,
the Puerto Rican child has been
taught
American
rather than Puerto Rican
history.
He
grows
and
develops
in
a
colonial at
mosphere,
where the mass media has
presented
the masses with a
culture that
is not their own
and to which
they
have been
taught
to attribute
everything
that is worthwhile in their existence. Even the
linguistic
symbols
of merit
and
authority
are
those of the dominant
power. Thus,
the Puerto Rican stu
dent still
manages,
only
too
frequently,
to address his teacher
as
"Mr.",
rather than maestro or
frofesor,
as if he were North American. And this is
not
only applicable
to the
past for,
as
Rene
Marques
has
pointed
out,
the
inherited sense of
helplessness
in the individual Puerto Rican is still
psycho
logically
inculcated
through
modern methods of education that are somewhat
more
subtle than those used
previously.
Since in colonial situations the
respon
sibility
for
resolving
the inconvenient
aspects
of communication between the
ruled and the rulers has
always
been
per
force that of the
ruled,
Puerto
Ricans have been
compelled
to learn
English
rather than the Americans
Spanish.
The
deprecation
of the local culture has
encouraged
a
corresponding
self-deprecation
in the individuals that make it
up.
For some it has taken the
form of a
blind submission to the American
style, expressed
in an
urgent
drive,
frequently only
half-understood
by
its
victims,
for identification with
and
incorporation
into the elite of the
governing power;
the
feelings
of
guilt
thereby
engendered
have
frequently
been covered
up by
the device of identi
fying
Puerto Rico with "Western Civilization" rather than with the United
States,
so
that terms such
as
"the crisis of the
West,"
"Western
culture/'
"the Free World" and so on
play
a
therapeutic
role in the
psychology
of
that
type
of Puerto Rican. For
others,
on the other
hand,
the
response
to a
situation so
basically
intolerable to sensitive
spirits
and so
powerfully
but
tressed
by
all the institutions of the
society, private
and
public, political
and
economic,
has been
a retreat into
feelings
of
bitterness,
inferiority,
and
chauvinism.
Translated
by Seymour
Pollock
233