Puerto Rico and Independence
TOTH, CHARLES W.
Puerto Rico and Independence Almost all Puerto Ricans are opposed to using violence to obtain their freedom By Charles W Toth San German, Puerto Rico "There is no doubt," said Puerto | Rican...
...Since the American occupation, the impact of the United States has been tremendous, but four centuries of Spanish influence have hardly been neutralized...
...The success of the party is largely the result of political errors committed by the Nationalists, for it fills the vacuum caused by the need for a party which expresses a desire for independence...
...Governor Munoz speaks for the great majority of the people...
...Charles W. Toth is a member of the Department of History at the Polytechnic institute of Puerto Rico...
...The underlying feeling toward the United States is one of friendliness, based on close association, gratitude and understanding...
...The rapid rise of the Partido Independentista in the past few years may be considered an indication of the direction which the people of Puerto Rico plan to take on the question of independence versus statehood...
...Its members are devoted to the idea of "eventual" independence...
...More than 95 per cent of the people here see no need for using violence as a means of solving the status question...
...to others, it may seem incredible that any area or group would not jump at the opportunity to become a part of the United States...
...With great wisdom, Puerto Ricans realize that adopting "Give us liberty or give us death" as a slogan would mean, under present conditions, "Give us liberty and you give us death...
...Overpopulation, and the acute economic problems with which the island is faced, would spell social disaster of the first magnitude if Puerto Rico were cut loose at this time...
...Appropriate" refers to that time in the future when Puerto Rico will be economically able to afford independence...
...They would accept independence tomorrow, but only with the promise of certain guarantees by the United States—guarantees which are almost entirely economic in nature...
...Puerto Rico and Independence Almost all Puerto Ricans are opposed to using violence to obtain their freedom By Charles W Toth San German, Puerto Rico "There is no doubt," said Puerto | Rican Governor Luis Munoz Marin in January, "that the clear and vigorous command of this people is to continue with the United States in a union of love and affection, of genuine mutual interests, and of respect to our own personality as Puerto Rican people as much as to the citizenship which we bear in common with the people of the United States...
...For an insignificant minority—estimated at from 1 to 3 per cent—the status issue demands an immediate solution, even if it is necessary to resort to violence...
...the Puerto Ricans, at this point, have no desire to go the way of Alaska or Hawaii...
...The party was responsible for the abortive revolt of 1950, which also produced the unsuccessful attempt upon the life of ex-President Truman...
...This group belongs to the Partido Nacionalista, a party composed of fanatical nationalists seeking immediate and complete independence from the United States...
...The Partido Nacionalista is today illegal...
...The Partido Popular, under the leadership of Governor Munoz Marin, has deferred the question of independence until some more "appropriate" time...
...The Partido Independentista, although running a poor second, is the fastest growing political party in Puerto Rico...
...Interestingly enough, the revolt was not snuffed out by American marines, but by the common sense of the Puerto Rican people...
...This feeling against becoming a forty-ninth state, however, is not at all based on ingratitude or selfishness...
...The party was outlawed because its ill-advised revolt proved a source of great embarrassment to the people of Puerto Rico—a people who, though emotional, are also rational, courteous and patient...
...There is a great deal of truth in the comment that every Puerto Rican is really at heart an independentista...
...The Spanish colonized Puerto Rico a century before the Pilgrims even thought of a Plymouth colony, and their control ended only a little more than half a century ago...
...Even the members of the small Partido Estadista, composed mostly of business and professional people who want to make Puerto Rico a state, are imbued with a kind of positive nationalism which would make Texans look placid indeed...
...Except on the question of status, the Partido Independentista has a program very similar to that of the leading political party, the Partido Popular...
...In short, this party would like to retain all the economic advantages (and more) that are now enjoyed, while being at the same time a completely independent state...
...To some, this may seem an act of sheer ingratitude...
...It stems, rather, from the character of Puerto Rican society in its present stage of development...
Vol. 37 • March 1954 • No. 11
