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Social or Structural Assimilation
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IDENTITY: THE ABIDING PROBLEM
torily, participation in political life; ability to find a suitable place to ive and to live in such a way that they may remain there; acceptance o the fundamental requirements of life in New York City; maintenance o t le essential requirements of public health; compulsory education of ren up to the sixteenth year; reasonable observance of law and reasonable respect for others. andc ‘'T' Obv,ously generalities, but they mean what Mills, Senior, live in° meant by 'heir definition of assimilation: the ability to p DS0Ciety as '"Conspicuously as its ordinary citizens. It means that Park- W°Uld nOt be Permitted to live as squatters in Central day wo™! haVe.their youn8 children in school instead of at work all ing a livfog Swon?d'rhemSelVeS by S°me ordinarily accepted way of mak”'ighb<“ T"''‘ ”
SOCIAL OR STRUCTURAL ASSIMILATION
point would be an and for eventual assimilate identity may be a r ’ •
rT~'I ' —J~* U4H1CU1
The other levels of social to Gordons pPuerto Ricans
The significant point of extentunity. To what the Puerto Ricans have analysis at this level does a Puerto Rican77 is the Puerto Rican community exist in mon -tion common, values and is e~ ive a sense of belonging, where consciousness ' ------is a bond of unity, in which face-to-face and in which the Puerto Ricans have psychosocial traditions is action om froi t leir identity as Puerto Ricans? To the extent to which not can Puerto Ri< taken place. community exists, social or structural assimilation has eration Puert^RT °f StronS Puert0 Rican community among first genplace in later ge'CanS.IS not an indication that assimilation will not take from which assimd aU°nS' A strong community has been the condition giants. Therefore 'On e^ectlveb’ proceeded among earlier immia strong Puerto R'^ C0ldd argue on the basis of earlier experience that tion is likely to o 'C3n ™mmun*ty would be evidence that social assimilaccur. Weakness of the Puerto Rican community at this unfavorable condition both for their own social life . ....... Jn- This is the point at which lack of strong major difficulty. Dara 1' assimilation could be described according ns"on gm „on himself finds little or no assimilation of ny evel.-“ He admits very little cultural assimilation,
2°Gordon, Assimilathn'in"^ FUCr‘° Rican Jou™y. °P- cit., Chap. 8. ,,On A'^r.can Life, of. cit., p. 76.
and partial civic assimilation. As will appear in later chapters, there was considerable evidence for both kinds of assimilation even in 1964, when Gordon’s book was published, and developments since that time have been rapid and extensive. The analysis of the final chapter of this book will indicate that the drive for identity is taking some unexpected and interesting turns at present. It is taking the form of a strong assertion of the significance of Puerto Rican culture, including language, and also of a definition of Puerto Rican interests around militant types of political and community action. The consequences of this new orientation are still unforeseen. But as it is described in the chapters to follow, it will enable us to study the Puerto Ricans in the midst of a process in which they face the traditional problem of identity, but seek to settle it in some new and imaginative way.
c H A P T E R F O R
THE ISLAND’
i nnn^Uert° *S an ls^and at die eastern end of the Caribbean Sea, t 1 S°Utheast of Florida- a small island, shaped like a rectangle, 100 miles from east to west and 35 miles from north to south. ]Q Wia4Q2IS<T°VereCl C°iumbus during his second voyage, on November P°nce de Leon began establishment of the Spanish ony on t le Island. He called it the Island of San Juan Bautista, and gave the name Puerto Rico to the excellent harbor on the northern coast, ya strange tiansfer, the names became reversed, the Island becoming nown as Puerto ueito Rico, Rico, and and the the harbor harbor city city as San Juan. The island was strategically d located at rt the eastern end of the Spanish J colonial empire, and was heavily fortified as a military outpost. For nearly 400 years, until 1898, it was to remain a Spanish colony.
Prelude to of The Island became the United States as a a possession result of the Spanish-American War. It was for
Uncertainty: mally ceded by the December 10, 1898. Treaty After of two Paris, years of military occupation, the Foraker
The Island Act established ment in Puerto the first civil Rico under governUnited States’ sovereignty in 1900. Under this
Background Act, the effective Island was vested government of the in the President of the United States, who appointed a governor and an executive council vision was made for the which acted as an upper house. Propopular election of a lower house. This was a measure t0 the l’’e Puerto *>uert0 Rican Rican people, people, who who had had expected expected a larger autonomy from the nation which had boasted that it had
Knoulion Mixer^P^' n° r?a^T g°°4 history of Puerto Rico is available in English. (New York: The’ ^*stor>' anfi Contribution—Social, Economic, Political but it is inadequTt ComPany. *926), is one of the few histories in existence, Rico: Selected Backernu^e, ?-C bcSt SOUrcc in En*,ish is thc volume Status of Puerto mission on the St t Studies Prepared for the United States-Puerto Rican Commissioner of Pucrto^R' Puerto Rico (Washington, D.C.: Office of the Resident Comvaluable sources of b 1^° ls regrcttable that this volume, one of the really development, and 3C &10und information on political status, education, sociocultural graphic Regions of ^ad such limited circulation. Rafael Pico, The Geoan excellent dcscrinri^ ^r^If0 ^R‘° Piedras: University of Puerto Rico Press, 1955), is P °n o the geographical features of thc Island. Henry K. Carroll,
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come to bring the blessings of liberal institutions to a former Spanish colony.
In 1917, the political status of the Island was modified by the Jones Act, which granted United States citizenship to the Puerto Ricans, and provided for the popular election of both houses of the legislature. The Act also provided for the popular election of a Resident Commissioner who would represent the Puerto Rican people (without voting rights) in Congress. Appointment of the governor, however, as well as appointment of the commissioner of education, the attorney-general, and members of the Supreme Court of the Island, was kept in the hands of the President of the United States. Congress also kept a veto power over all acts of the Island’s legislature, a power which it never chose to exercise.
In 1947 the Congress of the United States amended the Act of 1917, granted the Puerto Ricans the right to elect their own governor, and provided that the governor appoint all officials except the auditor and the members of the Supreme Court. The first governor elected by popular vote was Luis Munoz Marin, who took office in January 1949.
Under the leadership of Munoz Marin, a new political status, called the Free Associated State of Puerto Rico, was instituted. This provided for widespread autonomy of the Island, and established a relationship of Puerto Rico and the United States similar to the status of a commonwealth. The constitution of the Free Associated State was approved by Congress and enacted into law on July 25, 1952. The day is called Constitution Day, and is celebrated as the most important civil holiday of the year.
However, the problem of civil status is still one of the most troublesome questions in Puerto Rico. There has always been a small but very vocal group demanding complete independence; these are represented by the Independence Party. There is a slowly but steadily increasing group organized as the Party for Statehood; and there is the majority voice, the
Report on the Island of Puerto Rico (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1900), was the report prepared after the American occupation of the Island, and served as the basis for the formation of American policy toward the new possession. Rexford G. Tugwell, the last mainland governor of Puerto Rico, wrote a pessimistic analysis in The Stricken Land (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1946). The Annals (publication of the American Academy of Political and Social Science), Vol. 285 (January, 1953), Puerto Rico, A Study in Democratic Development, is a study of political, economic, and social developments of the early 1950's, but has some chapters which provide a sketchy coverage of the period 1900-1940. Earl Parker Hanson, Transformation: The Story of Modern Puerto Rico (New York: Simon and Schuster, Inc., 1955), and Puerto Rico: Land of Wonders (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1962), are about the only popular histories of the period of the 1930’s and 1940’s. Unfortunately, they arc often enthusiastic testimonials by a devoted friend of Puerto Rico and Munoz Marin, rather than serious histories. Gordon K. Lewis, Freedom and Power in the Caribbean (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1964), is a very good, although partisan, analysis of Puerto Rico’s ambiguous political and economic status.
PRELUDE TO UNCERTAINTY: THE ISLAND BACKGROUND
nembers of the Popular Party, demanding continuation of the present • us o t te Island as a Free Associated State. A commission on status was appointed by the Congress of the United States in 1963, held hearings or tree years, and submitted its report in the summer of 1966? It stated a vantages and disadvantages of each position as determined by the i eanngs, and recommended a plebiscite to be taken during 1967 in which alternadies MnS eXpreSS freely their choice from amOng the three
genuine they seek to
rather pr°b'ern °f status is not a simple matter of government, but ence in ' ' rootet^ Problem of identity. The proponents of independare >6 ? Puer'° Ricans wil1 not really know who or what they cultural ' i 1 3 ’e t0 reta‘n and strengthen a sense of national and that if PueTUnleSS they are completely independent. They insist vehicle an i ° *C? becomes a state> it will lose its culture and the great even under thl"?^ Asso'1-11^ Spanish IanSuage- They insist that’ of the Republ’ Associated State, they are neither first class citizens statehood insist dX’ Se.nUmely ‘"dependent people. The proponents of
States as a stat °n y. dlrougl‘ first-class citizenship in the United they seek Ti* 6 ° / b,n'on w ‘d they have the genuine identity which language anil's^ S° *ns‘st dlat provision for retention of the Spanish are a state T1 Pan'S' Cldtural traditions will be possible even when they
Rico have e conv,nced that only through statehood can Puerto freedom proC°n°miC and P^'dcal security and stability together with constitution P°nentS °f dle Associated State look upon their present alternatives It ? Cr.e,dtlVe acl“evement providing the best of both other people with it naJes Pl*erto Rico to maintain a specific identity as a to have ill ti S. °"n 'anguage, culture, and traditions, and enables them
The P S °f a Close identity with the United Statesshowed a pref”0 R‘CanS '°‘Cd Jl,Iy 19G7‘ T,le results of the Plebiscite for statehood tbe Free Associated State; second preference was ponents of in 1" " ° lndependence ran a poor third. However, most prowas not a gen'1 ePen^enCe bOyCOttcd dle ldeb’sc*te> since they claimed it while, the intense P eblsc*te’ but merely an expression of opinion. Mean°f a people i tbe controversy reflects the anxiety and uncertainty political and'' C anf>er °1 losing themselves, and seeking to discover the sens S°fla| ’nstltut,ons which will enable them to preserve a e o K entity in the presence of rapid changes with which arose, the Puerm p I US>’ bef°re any 9u«tion of large scale migration identity "CanS lad been facing a crisis of national and cultural
Status of plleri0 Rico . . Report of the United States-Puerlo Rico Commission
