Puerto Rico. An island in the Greater Antilles called “Borinquén” by the Taino (Arawakan‐speaking) people who were living there when Christopher
Columbus landed in 1493, “Puerto Rico” (“wealthy port”) was the name given to the island by the first Spanish governor of the island. One of the most densely populated places in the world, Puerto Rico is today home to 3.8 million people. The island's principal economic activities include pharmaceuticals, electronics,
agriculture, and
tourism.
A Spanish colony for more than four hundred years, Puerto Rico was ceded to the United States by the Treaty of Paris (1898) that ended the
Spanish‐American War. After a period of U.S. military government, Congress by the Foraker Act (1900) declared the inhabitants “citizens of Puerto Rico, and as such, entitled to the protection of the United States.” This act also provided for a governor and executive council to be appointed by the president; a popularly elected legislative assembly; and an elected Puerto Rican resident commissioner who could introduce legislation and speak, but not vote, in the U.S. House of Representatives. Amid continuing Puerto Rican demands for greater autonomy and representation, the Jones Act (1917) replaced the legislative council with an elected upper house and extended U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans. However, Puerto Rico remained, in the words of the U.S.
Supreme Court in
Downes v.
Bidwell (1901), an “unincorporated territory.” In essence, still a U.S. colony.
Despite efforts for greater autonomy and a concerted independence movement in the 1920s and 1930s, not until the 1940s were Puerto Rico's self‐government aspirations partially realized. In 1947 Congress permitted Puerto Ricans to elect their governor. Luis Muñoz Marín, the first Puerto Rican elected to this office (1949–1965), spearheaded a program of industrial development called “Operation Bootstrap” (“Operación Manos a la Obra”). Transforming an agricultural economy based on sugar, coffee, fruit, livestock, and dairy products, this program used tax incentives to attract U.S. corporations. Operation Bootstrap did bring economic betterment, but the island's population density and class divisions left many Puerto Ricans in
poverty.
Emigration, which began shortly after U.S. acquisition, has been one of the major features of the island's twentieth century history. Early migration took thousands of Puerto Ricans to
Hawai'i, as well as to parts of the Caribbean. After
World War I, migration to the mainland United States increased, concentrating in Florida as well as in urban areas of the northeastern United States, especially New York and New Jersey. At the end of the century the number of Puerto Ricans living on the mainland (almost 3 million) rivaled that on the island itself.
In 1950 the island won the right to draft and enact its own constitution. The constitution, which became law in 1952, established the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an anomalous status the island still retained at the end of the twentieth century. As the Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico (Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), it is self‐governing territory but subject to the authority of the United States. Aside from the nonvoting resident commissioner, Puerto Ricans lack representation in Congress.
As the twentieth century ended, Puerto Rico's long‐term status remained unresolved. A referendum approved by the U.S. Congress and held in December 1998 placed the question of political status before the Puerto Rican electorate for the second time that decade. Forty‐seven percent voted for statehood; independence and two other variants on Commonwealth status received a total of 4 percent of the vote; while 50 percent voted for “none of the above,” producing a result that amounted to an ambivalent endorsement of the status quo.
See also
Exploration, Conquest, and Settlement, Era of European;
Immigration;
Insular Cases;
Protectorates and Dependencies.
Bibliography
Gordon K. Lewis , Puerto Rico: Freedom and Power in the Caribbean, 1975.
Katherine Bjork
