Puerto Rico

C

The Spanish-American War

Just as Puerto Rico gained its new government, however, the Spanish-American War broke out between Spain and the United States. Eight days after the legislature convened, American forces invaded Puerto Rico, and the short period of autonomy ended abruptly.

During the Spanish-American War, U.S. troops landed at Guánica, on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. No serious fighting occurred on the island, and the war was over a few weeks later. Under the 1898 Treaty of Paris that ended the war, Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the United States. The United States set up a military government for Puerto Rico, while the U.S. Congress was given authority for determining the future status of Puerto Rico.

D

United States Control

In 1900 the U.S. Congress passed the Foraker Act, which established civil government in Puerto Rico but did not clearly define the colony’s relationship with the United States. Under the Foraker Act, the people of Puerto Rico became subject to U.S. federal law. However, they did not become citizens of the United States, and they were exempted from paying federal income taxes.

Under the new civil government, the president of the United States appointed the governor of Puerto Rico (all Americans until 1946); the governor’s Executive Council, executive officers who served as the upper house of the legislature; and the justices of the island’s Supreme Court. The lower house, the House of Delegates, was popularly elected. However, the governor or the U.S. Congress could veto any law passed by the legislature. An elected resident commissioner represented the island in the U.S. House of Representatives, but the commissioner could not vote on legislation. In addition, Puerto Rico was not permitted to arrange any commercial treaties.

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The Foraker Act deeply disappointed the many Puerto Ricans who desired either statehood or independence. For them, the situation would soon worsen. In 1901, in the so-called Insular Cases, the Supreme Court of the United States held that Puerto Rico and other territory acquired as a result of the Spanish-American War was “unincorporated territory” of the United States. This decision meant that Puerto Rico belonged to, but was not part of, the United States. Furthermore, the court held that the Constitution of the United States did not necessarily apply to Puerto Ricans. By the end of 1901, Puerto Ricans were even more disappointed over their status with the United States.

D

1

Efforts to Establish a Free Status

Puerto Ricans began a long series of efforts to decide on and establish a dignified, free status for the island. By 1909 opposition to the Foraker Act was so intense that, as a protest, the Puerto Rican legislature refused to enact any legislation at all. By this time, many Puerto Ricans were talking about independence.

After several years of debate about the island’s status, in 1917 the U.S. Congress passed the Jones Act. This act granted Puerto Ricans U.S. citizenship and allowed them to elect both of Puerto Rico’s legislative chambers, replacing the appointed Executive Council with an elected Senate. However, the president still appointed the governor, executive officers, and Supreme Court judges. Furthermore, the U.S. Congress could annul any Puerto Rican legislation.

After the United States gained control of the island, the economic situation also changed dramatically. Puerto Rico, which for years had conducted most of its trade with Spain and other European countries, now found itself cut off from its traditional trading partners. After 1900 sugar became Puerto Rico’s main export crop. The U.S. government granted the island’s sugar tax-free entrance into the U.S. market. United States investors jumped at the opportunity and invested heavily in Puerto Rican sugar estates. By 1930 the island’s sugar production had risen by about 1,000 percent. Puerto Rican farmers exported almost all of their sugar to the United States, where it was refined and sold. Most of the profits from sugar sales went to sugar-refining companies in the United States.

There was another fundamental problem with Puerto Rican sugar production after the United States took control of the island. Investors from the United States soon played a dominant role in the sugar industry, and large businesses squeezed out independent local farmers. Sugar companies bought up parcels of land and consolidated them into large estates. By 1930 U.S. companies owned or had rights to about 25 percent of all of the island’s sugarcane land, and corporations controlled more than 45 percent of all of the land. Puerto Rico’s small landowning farmers had little place in this era of modern, large-scale agriculture.

D

2

Growing Discontent

In the late 1920s and 1930s, economic and natural disasters struck the island. San Felipe, a hurricane that hit the island in 1928, destroyed a quarter of a million homes, and another hurricane struck in 1932. During the worldwide depression of the 1930s, the situation worsened. Puerto Rico depended heavily on the sale of its exports, especially sugar, but world prices for these commodities dropped severely. The depression caused unemployment to mount. The situation was also made worse by the increase in the size of the island’s population, which had expanded since 1900 as a result of improved health conditions and a rising birthrate. During the 1930s, much of the island’s population suffered from severe economic deprivation. The establishment of various relief programs as part of the New Deal policies of U.S. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt did little to alleviate suffering on the island.

A movement to establish Puerto Rican independence erupted during this period, led by Pedro Albizu Campos and his small Nationalist Party. Albizu Campos, a fiery public speaker, was a graduate of Harvard Law School and had served in the U.S. Army. Unsuccessful at the polls in 1932, the Nationalists demanded independence at once, as a right to be taken violently if necessary. They marched in protest against the island legislature. Assassins killed the chief of police of San Juan in 1936, a murder that was attributed to members of the Nationalist Party. The worst violence occurred in Ponce in 1937, when police stopped a Nationalist Party parade. It is not clear who was responsible for the outbreak, but about 20 people were killed and 100 wounded. Albizu Campos was arrested and sentenced to prison terms on several occasions for advocating and planning violence against the U.S. government.

In response to this agitation for independence, two bills were introduced in the U.S. Congress in 1936 and 1937 demanding independence for the island. Neither bill passed. Opponents argued that Puerto Rico’s economic and social conditions had to be improved before its status could be settled.

D

3

The Statehood Question

In 1938 Luis Muñoz Marín, son of autonomist leader Luis Muñoz Rivera, founded the Popular Democratic Party (Partido Popular Democrático, PPD). A highly intelligent individual and an excellent writer, Muñoz Marín had lived for many years on the mainland and was bilingual. He was also a gifted politician.

In 1940 the PPD gained control of the Puerto Rican legislature by a small margin. The party pledged to improve conditions in Puerto Rico, leaving aside for a time the question of the island’s status. With the support of the United States, the PPD greatly contributed to Puerto Rico’s economic growth through the industrialization program known as Operation Bootstrap, which began in 1947.

Even as the economy improved, however, Puerto Rico continued to focus on the crucial issue of its constitutional status. In 1946 local autonomy increased when U.S. president Harry Truman appointed the first native Puerto Rican governor, Jesús Piñero, a former resident commissioner. In 1949 Muñoz Marín became the first elected governor after the U.S. Congress amended a law to allow Puerto Ricans to elect their own governor. He was reelected in 1952, 1956, and 1960.

Muñoz Marín and the PPD were determined to achieve a relationship with the United States that was more favorable to Puerto Rico, but it wanted to do this through peaceful means. Not all Puerto Ricans agreed, and in 1950, two nationalists attempted to assassinate President Truman in Washington, D.C.

The PPD had pledged to seek authority for Puerto Ricans to write their own constitution, but it also sought to maintain existing economic relations with the United States. The U.S. Congress responded to the PPD’s efforts by passing a law allowing the people of Puerto Rico to write their own constitution and establish their own government. A constitutional convention convened to prepare the document. In March 1952 Puerto Rican voters approved the constitution in a popular referendum, and on July 25, 1952, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico was officially established.