IX.

History

Archaeologists believe that the island of Puerto Rico was first settled in the 1st century ad. When the Spanish arrived in 1493, the island was inhabited by an agricultural people belonging to the Arawakan language family. The Spanish called them Taínos, but they were also known as Island Arawak. The Taínos called the island Boriquén (or Borinquén). They lived in settled villages, in small, thatch-roofed houses or huts known as bohios. Their main furniture was the hamanca (hammock). They molded clay into plates, jars, and other domestic items, decorating them with engraved or painted designs.

Taíno agriculture was simple, but it produced a sufficient and balanced diet. The Taínos grew cassava, which they ground into flour for bread called casabe. Other crops included pineapples, sweet potatoes, and tobacco, which the Taínos smoked during religious ceremonies. In the rivers and the sea, they fished and gathered clams and snails. They also hunted rodents and iguanas.

Taíno society centered around the village, whose chief was called cacique. Taíno society was matrilineal, meaning that family lineage was traced through the female line. The cacique was succeeded not by his son but by the eldest son of one of his sisters. There was a large degree of equality between men and women in Taino society. In many instances a cacica, or female chief, served as the head of a village.

A.

European Conquest and Settlement

Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer in the employment of Spain, landed on Puerto Rico in 1493 and claimed it for Spain. He named the island San Juan Bautista. However, Columbus quickly left the island and went to the adjacent island of Hispaniola. San Juan Bautista remained unsettled by Europeans until 1508, when Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León colonized it. He became the island’s first Spanish governor in 1510. His primary responsibility was to defend the Spanish settlement on Hispaniola by protecting the Mona Passage between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico (as San Juan Bautista became known). The Mona Passage was the principal gateway to the Caribbean, and the main sea routes to the Spanish possessions in the Caribbean and Central and South America passed through its waters.

When Spanish settlers arrived in 1508, about 30,000 Taínos lived on the island. However, the number of Taínos quickly decreased. They died because of lack of resistance to European diseases and mistreatment by the Spanish; they also fled to escape the colonists. In 1511 the Taínos, who had been forcibly put to work as laborers, revolted, but the Spanish quickly subdued them. Some Taínos were assimilated through intermarriage with Spaniards. By 1550 fewer than 100 Taínos of pure blood remained, but these, too, soon perished. In 1513 Spain authorized the importation of African slaves to Puerto Rico.

B.

Spanish Rule

In the early 16th century Spanish settlers focused on mining gold in Puerto Rico, but the sources quickly became exhausted. With a scarce population and a meager economy, Puerto Rico became little more than a military outpost, guarding trade routes and Spanish armies traveling to the American mainland. Ships carrying gold and silver from the Americas to Spain passed by Puerto Rico as well. For three centuries the Spanish governor, whose chief concern was the strategic military role of the island, governed the small population of Puerto Rico with strict authority. The wealthier settlements in New Spain (the Spanish colony in Mexico) paid an annual subsidy known as the situado, which supported Puerto Rico’s administrative and military expenses.

Many people in Puerto Rico supported themselves through farming. Most of Puerto Rico’s farmers were landowners with small farms. They grew subsistence crops such as cassava, corn, vegetables, fruit, and rice. Whenever possible, they sold any surplus produce in town markets to Puerto Rico’s military personnel, stationed especially in San Juan, and to ships that stopped at Puerto Rican ports. The island began to produce sugarcane in the early 16th century.

None of this farming made the colony a rich one, and it continued to depend on the subsidy from New Spain. Nevertheless, a merchant class evolved to carry out the trade with the ships and between the towns. A wide variety of businesses sprang up. Merchants of many kinds—grocers, artisans, wholesale import-export merchants, and distributors—became important to the economy. By the end of the 18th century Puerto Rico supported several cities with populations of more than 5,000 inhabitants, including the capital, San Juan.

For the first 250 years after European settlement, the Spanish authorities ran the Puerto Rican economy under a policy known as mercantilism. Under this system, the Spanish government permitted its colonists to trade only with Spain, prohibiting trade with other Spanish colonies and with foreign nations. This restrictive system favored Spanish merchants much more than it did Puerto Rican farmers and merchants. Spain purchased agricultural products from Puerto Rican farmers and merchants at low prices, but sold items imported from Spain to the colonists at high prices.

Throughout this period, Puerto Rico had a thriving illegal trade with other Spanish and foreign colonies. The center for smuggling was the southern port of Ponce. Colonists, and often the governing authorities on the island, bypassed government restrictions to conduct this illegal trade.

After 1765 Spain introduced new fiscal and administrative policies to make Puerto Rico a more profitable colony capable of supplying greater tax revenue to the Spanish treasury. The government encouraged immigration and redistributed unused land to individuals willing to cultivate the soil. It worked to improve the island’s defenses and its infrastructure, such as roads and bridges. Spain also ended trade restrictions between Puerto Rico and other Spanish colonies.

B.1.

Sugar and Slaves

Puerto Rico’s economy underwent a major transformation with the introduction of large sugar plantations. Puerto Rico began growing sugarcane on the island in the early 16th century, but it did not become a dominant crop until the 19th century. By mid-19th century, the island had more than tripled the amount of sugar it was exporting. Along with Cuba, Puerto Rico became one of the leading Spanish sugar colonies.

There were several reasons why Puerto Rico’s sugar industry grew at such a rapid pace. One was the Haitian Slave Revolt, in which slaves in the nearby French colony of Saint-Domingue (on the island of Hispaniola) rose in rebellion against their masters in 1791. This uprising inspired a political revolution that led to the formation of the independent nation of Haiti in 1804. At the time of the revolt, Saint-Domingue was the world’s leading producer of sugar. By 1804 Saint-Domingue’s sugar production had declined sharply as a result of the turmoil and economic instability resulting from the revolt.

Without Saint-Domingue’s sugar on the world market, sugar prices rose. In response, Puerto Rico began to produce more sugar. Furthermore, many of Saint-Domingue’s French sugar planters immigrated to Puerto Rico, mainly to the western region of Mayagüez, and they brought with them money and expertise. The Spanish government helped expand Puerto Rican sugar production in 1815 by passing the Cédula de Gracias, which relaxed trade restrictions with foreign nations. They also encouraged whites and free blacks and mulattos to immigrate to the island, bringing their slaves with them.

Large-scale sugar production was heavily dependent upon slave labor, and Puerto Rico began to import more African slaves. Although slaves began to be imported in the 1500s, shortly after Spain authorized slavery, they remained a small part of the population for the next three centuries. In 1765 there were only about 5,000 slaves in the colony. By 1830, with a new emphasis on sugar cultivation, there were more than 30,000 slaves. Although the size of the slave population increased, Puerto Rico did not become a society whose central character was determined by sugar and slaves. In fact, between the mid-1800s and the abolition of slavery in 1873, the number of slaves actually decreased.

Because farmers cultivated several other important crops in addition to sugar, Puerto Rico had a much more balanced economy than colonies with stronger sugar sectors. Coffee, which small landholders could grow, became an important crop during the 19th century. In addition, a large population of farmers without slaves continued to grow tobacco, fruits and vegetables, and other subsistence crops.

The Puerto Rican slave population during the 19th century never amounted to more than roughly 10 percent of the island’s population. In several geographical regions, however, like Ponce and Mayagüez, the proportion of slaves was much higher and the slave system was harsher. Conditions for slaves varied greatly according to where they worked and what they did. Throughout the Americas, slaves on sugar plantations in general suffered the most brutal labor conditions of all slaves. Slaves who lived in the larger cities, such as San Juan, and worked as artisans, water carriers, or street vendors, to mention only a few possibilities, generally did not labor under as extreme conditions.

B.2.

Colonial Society

Before the abolition of slavery in 1873, Puerto Rico was largely an agricultural society composed of a few large landowners and many small, peasant farmers. In the agricultural regions, society was traditional, life was slow-paced, and people had few opportunities for social mobility. Puerto Rico also had many towns and cities, however, where greater economic opportunity and social mobility existed. In the main cities, including San Juan, Ponce, and Mayagüez, there were import-export merchants, smaller wholesalers and distributors of goods, many small retail grocery stores, and a range of artisans’ shops.

Puerto Rican society was legally divided into castes. The upper caste was composed of whites, who enjoyed full legal rights. The middle caste was made up of the free people of color (gente de color), who possessed fewer legal rights than the whites. These free people of color, or coloreds, could be blacks or mulattos. The third caste was that of slaves, who were given very few legal rights.

Puerto Rico never had a very large slave population, but it did have a large population of free people of color. Some of them were former slaves who had been emancipated by their masters or had purchased their freedom. Most free people of color were of mixed white and black heritage, the result of intermarriage or informal relations between the races. Free people of color were prohibited from becoming doctors or lawyers, or from becoming members of the civil and church bureaucracies. They were required to serve in the militia, but in segregated units. These sharp and demeaning restrictions limited the range of opportunity available to them. On the other hand, the law extended certain legal and economic rights to this large segment of the population. They could own property, houses, stores, and even slaves. They could also be members of all the craft guilds, some even becoming master craftspeople.

Just as in many other places during the 18th and 19th centuries, a social class system began to evolve. At top were the white merchants and other white storekeepers and farmers with large farms. Storekeepers, some artisans, farmers of medium-sized farms, and professionals and civil servants formed a middle group. Most people belonged to the lower group, which included farmers of small farms and unskilled laborers. At the bottom of society were slaves. Social mobility was greater for whites than it was for free blacks and mulattos.

B.3.

The Loyal Colony

Puerto Rico remained loyal to Spain between 1810 and 1826, when most of the Spanish colonies in America achieved independence. There were many reasons why a strong independence movement did not develop on the island. First, many Spanish loyalists immigrated to Puerto Rico from nearby colonies, such as Venezuela, when the independence movements began. They often settled on the island, bringing with them families and enough wealth to begin new lives.

Second, although Puerto Rico did not have a very large slave population, it was large enough to cause many whites on the island to be fearful that an independence war might trigger a slave uprising similar to the one that had occurred in Saint-Domingue. The planters from Saint-Domingue who settled in Puerto Rico contributed to this attitude.

Finally, Puerto Rico was heavily garrisoned with Spanish troops who would have made a successful independence movement extremely unlikely. The island hosted many troops who were sent there to recuperate from military campaigns on the American mainland, as well as many naval ships that docked for repair and provisions.

Yet there were some separatists who wanted the colony to strike out for independence. In 1812 the authorities uncovered a planned rebellion before it could be carried out, and they executed two rebel leaders. During the following years, several Puerto Rican creoles (Puerto Ricans of Spanish heritage) were suspected of planning uprisings against the Spanish government in Puerto Rico and were deported or imprisoned.

By 1830 all Spanish American colonies were independent except Puerto Rico and Cuba. Spain rewarded its two loyal colonies by lifting economic restrictions. In 1815 Spain issued the Cédula de Gracias, a royal decree designed to improve the Puerto Rican economy. The decree reduced import taxes, known as tariffs, on items imported from Spain. This in turn increased imports of such items as agricultural equipment, which helped expand the sugar industry. Spain also permitted trade with friendly nations, which opened up trade between Puerto Rico and the United States.

The decree also encouraged whites and free people of color to immigrate to the island. It granted free white immigrant heads of households about 2.5 hectares (about 6 acres) of land, with another roughly 1.2 hectares (about 3 acres) for each slave they brought with them. Free black and mulatto immigrants who were heads of households received about 1.2 hectares (about 3 acres). If they brought slaves with them, they were granted additional allotments equal to about 0.6 hectares (about 1.5 acres) for each slave.

Spain was not as liberal towards Puerto Rico in the political sphere. During the period when many Spanish colonies became independent, the governor of Puerto Rico ruled with an iron hand and attempted to quash any liberal sentiment that called for greater self-government on the island. Spain’s new constitution of 1837 deprived Puerto Rico of representation in the Spanish parliament, which had been granted under the constitution of 1812. The new constitution stated that Spain would govern Puerto Rico by Leyes Especiales (Special Laws), which, supposedly, would be more attentive to the colony’s needs than traditional governmental means. However, Spain never implemented the Special Laws, and Puerto Rico remained under the near-absolute rule of the Spanish governor.

Between 1837 and the 1860s there was very little political unrest in Puerto Rico because the Spanish government and military maintained strong control over the island. Dissidents organized a separatist movement in 1838, but the government discovered the movement, executing several participants and imprisoning others. Additionally, some slave rebellions took place during this period.

The situation changed during the 1860s, when representatives from Puerto Rico were invited to Spain to help formulate new laws to better conditions in the colony. The Puerto Rican representatives supported laws to improve economic and political conditions and to abolish slavery. However, the representatives left Spain having only received vague promises that Spain might enact the laws. After having offered Puerto Ricans the possibility of change, the Spanish government had shattered the hopes of many Puerto Ricans.

Growing numbers of people began to support autonomy (self-government in internal matters) or even independence. Their reasons were varied. Some were dedicated abolitionists (individuals committed to ending slavery). Others were more concerned with the need to liberalize the political or economic systems. In addition, many Puerto Ricans who were born on the island came to resent the privileges extended to new immigrants from Spain. These immigrants received preferential treatment in areas ranging from hiring for government positions to the availability of credit.

Currents of unrest soon came together in Puerto Rico’s most famous uprising, which occurred in the town of Lares in 1868. In the uprising, known as El Grito de Lares (the Cry of Lares), several hundred men declared the independence of Puerto Rico and established a provisional government. But the Spanish government easily suppressed the revolt in a matter of days.

However, changes in the Spanish government soon had an impact on Puerto Rico. In September 1868 an insurrection in Spain deposed the Spanish queen Isabella II. A constitution establishing a constitutional monarchy was adopted in 1869, and a new king, Amadeo, accepted the throne in 1870.

As the Spanish government became more liberal, the abolitionist movement in Puerto Rico found support in Spain. In 1870 the Spanish parliament passed the Moret Law, which ordered the emancipation of all government-owned slaves in Puerto Rico, as well as slaves over the age of 60 or under the age of 2. The government in Puerto Rico soon emancipated about 10,000 slaves. By this time, the issue for slave owners was not whether there would be complete abolition, but whether the government would provide compensation when abolition occurred. In 1873 Spain abolished all slavery in Puerto Rico. The remaining slaves, about 30,000, were set free, but they were required to serve a three-year apprenticeship to their former masters. The government paid compensation to the slave owners over a ten-year period. Former slaves became known as libertos (Spanish for “freed”).

Spain also enacted political reforms, which had a profound effect on Puerto Rico. The colony was represented in the Spanish parliament for the first time since 1837, and the island’s press had greater freedom to discuss important issues. In this more liberal atmosphere, Puerto Rico’s first political parties were formed. The first was the Liberal Reformist Party (Partido Liberal Reformista), followed by the Liberal Conservative Party (Partido Liberal Conservador). The Liberal Reformist Party favored assimilation—that is, it wanted Puerto Rico to become a province of Spain rather than a colony. The Conservative Party wanted to maintain the island’s colonial status.

Dissent within the Liberal Reformist Party led to the creation of the Puerto Rican Autonomist Party (Partido Autonomista Puertorriqueño) in 1887. The Autonomists desired self-government for Puerto Rico in internal matters while maintaining Puerto Rico’s close association with Spain. The first leader of the Autonomists was Román Baldorioty de Castro. When Baldorioty de Castro resigned due to poor health, Luis Muñoz Rivera, a liberal newspaper editor, emerged as the party’s most influential member. The Autonomist Party decided to try to align itself with the Spanish Liberal Party, one of Spain’s two mainstream parties, to achieve Puerto Rican self-government. The proposed alliance caused great dissension within the party and led to a split in party ranks. From the split, Muñoz Rivera created the Liberal Fusionist Party (Partido Liberal Fusionista), and members of the party went to Madrid to discuss the terms of the island’s self-government with the Spanish Liberals.

International events contributed to the fulfillment of Puerto Rican self-government. In 1895 a major rebellion against Spanish rule erupted in Cuba that eventually led to the Spanish-American War (1898). As the rebellion spread, Spain made efforts to keep Puerto Rico loyal. In 1897, following the assassination of the Spanish prime minister, a new government came to power in Spain led by the Spanish Liberal Party.

The new Spanish government lost no time in decreeing three fundamental reforms for Puerto Rico. It granted all Puerto Rican citizens full political and civil rights, extended the vote to all Puerto Rican male citizens who were 25 years of age or older, and gave Puerto Rico local self-government within the Spanish system.

The Autonomic Charter, as the reforms were known, granted Puerto Rico a governor-general, a cabinet, and a bicameral legislature. At the same time, it maintained the island’s representation in the Spanish parliament. The Spanish monarch appointed the governor-general, who could dissolve the legislature and suspend constitutional guarantees. Although the governor-general had extensive powers, the legislature had considerable influence in domestic affairs. The legislature consisted of an elected House of Representatives and an Administrative Council, of which 8 of its 15 members were elected. Elections took place under the new system, and the Puerto Rican legislature met for the first time in 1898.

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.

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.

E.

Commonwealth Status

The new constitution gave Puerto Ricans much greater control over their own affairs. It maintained an elected governor as chief executive, and an elected, two-house legislature. The governor would appoint officials in the executive and judicial branches (except the judges of the U.S. District Court). The governor and the legislature had authority over the commonwealth’s education, health, and social welfare systems, while the U.S. government maintained control of the island’s defense, trade agreements, postal system, and foreign relations. Furthermore, branches of the U.S. military kept a presence on the island at U.S. military installations.

However, commonwealth status did not satisfy all Puerto Ricans; some still insisted on independence. In March 1954 four nationalists fired shots into the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives, wounding five members.

The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico achieved rapid economic and social improvements throughout the next decade. The island’s unemployment rate declined (although it was still high by U.S. standards) while private investment to the island increased. In addition, Puerto Rico’s gross national product (GNP, the total value of goods and services flowing through the economy) increased by an average of 5 percent a year between 1950 and 1960. This was a very impressive rate of economic growth, and the electorate apparently approved of the progress. In the elections of 1956 and 1960 the party responsible for commonwealth status—the PPD—won a majority of the votes.

On July 25, 1962, the tenth anniversary of the commonwealth, Governor Muñoz Marín proposed a referendum to determine the future status of Puerto Rico. However, Muñoz Marín had come to the conclusion that for the PPD to be a vital political force in the future, it needed new leadership. Muñoz did not seek reelection as governor in 1964. The party’s new candidate, Roberto Sánchez Vilella, became Puerto Rico’s second elected governor. The referendum was held in 1967, with more than two-thirds of the people approving commonwealth status.

In the 1970s Puerto Rico’s economic growth stopped under the impact of worldwide inflation and a recession in the U.S. economy. The GNP declined, and unemployment, high in the best of times, rose sharply. Largely because of these economic problems, the PPD candidate was defeated, and the candidate of the New Progressive Party (PNP), Carlos Romero Barceló, was elected governor in 1976. Romero, a firm advocate of statehood for Puerto Rico, chose to play down the statehood issue. After the 1980 elections, he retained his office by only a narrow margin while the PPD scored impressive victories in legislative and mayoral contests.

Rafael Hernández Colón, the PPD candidate, overwhelmingly defeated Romero Barceló in 1984 and won reelection in 1988. Four years later the governorship and control of the legislature passed to the pro-statehood PNP led by Pedro Rosselló. Rosselló had promised during his campaign to reduce taxes for the middle class and small businesses and to hold a referendum regarding Puerto Rico’s ties to the United States.

The referendum, authorized by the U.S. Congress, was held in November 1993. Of the choices of commonwealth, statehood, or independence, Puerto Ricans voted—by a very narrow margin—to maintain their commonwealth relationship with the United States. The final tally was 49 percent for commonwealth, 46 for statehood, and 4 for independence. (About 1 percent of the votes were null.)

The Puerto Rican economy suffered several setbacks in the mid-1990s. Hurricane Hortense swept through the island in the fall of 1996, killing at least 20 people and causing extensive damage to homes, businesses, and crops. In 1996 the U.S. Congress, facing budgetary problems at home, voted to end tax breaks for American companies that established businesses or invested profits in Puerto Rico, and to phase out over a ten-year period incentives for companies already established in Puerto Rico.

Rosselló remained a popular governor and was reelected for a second term in 1996. In December 1998 voters took part in another referendum to decide the island’s future status. Although Governor Rosselló and the PNP urged voters to support statehood for Puerto Rico, about 53 percent of voters rejected statehood.

In April 1999 a U.S. Marine jet pilot accidentally killed a Puerto Rican civilian during a practice bombing run at the naval bombing range on the island of Vieques. This incident aroused widespread opposition to the U.S. military presence on Vieques, and more than 85,000 people marched in San Juan to protest the resumption of any military exercises on the island.

In November 2000 Sila M. Calderón of the PPD was elected governor of Puerto Rico. Calderón, the first female governor of the commonwealth, pledged to work to halt the U.S. Navy’s exercises on Vieques and to remove the Navy presence from that area. In June 2001 U.S. president George W. Bush announced that the Navy would end military exercises on Vieques by May 2003. The land formerly controlled by the Navy became a nature preserve, making up nearly two-thirds of the island.

Calderón surprised voters by announcing in 2003 that she would not seek reelection in 2004. Aníbal S. Acevedo Vilá, who had been Puerto Rico’s nonvoting representative in the U.S. Congress, won the 2004 gubernatorial contest as the candidate of the PPD. In March 2008 Acevedo faced a 19-count federal indictment on charges of violating election financing and campaign laws. The indictment alleged that Acevedo illegally used campaign funds for personal expenses and received large donations from business executives in amounts that violated campaign financing laws The business executives allegedly received government contracts in exchange for their contributions. Acevedo denied the charges, which he claimed were politically motivated.