Puerto Rico always had a shady history in terms of its status as nation. From being an island of people who kept to themselves, to being colonized by the Spanish crown, Puerto Rico for a very long period of time hasn’t been able to reach sovereignty. By the late 1800’s, Puerto Rico had been stagnating economically under the Spanish crown. When the U.S. got possession of the island during the end of the Spanish American war, the people of Puerto were more than receptive to their new imperial leaders. The United States came to Puerto Rico with the promise of instilling a democracy in “all of its glory”. However, the way the United States went about handling Puerto Rico was far from what they had promised them when they first arrived, and had affected Puerto Rico’s economy, political system, and social/foreign relations negatively.
The United States initially seemed like they had Puerto Rico’s best interest in mind. When they first arrived, they promised they would “resurrect Puerto Rico like Lazarus (Fernandez, 1996). They promised them that under the U.S., Puerto Rico will face an age of unimaginable prosperity, far superior to that of when they were under Spanish rule. The U.S. gained control of Puerto Rico during a time when they were at their lowest. Their economy was in shambles after the fall of the sugar industry. The U.S. had hoped to boost their economy and increase the standard of living. However, they believed that Puerto Rico wasn’t ready for self-government and so they declared that Puerto Rico would remain under U.S. control until they could govern themselves. U.S. claimed it would be a learning period for Puerto Rico, the duration of which would be unspecified. They would be subject to the power of Congress, and would have to assimilate U.S. culture and politics, along with its laws, language, and institutions (Trias-Monge). All of this in the hopes of increasing the standard of living in Puerto Rico, to the extent in which they would be able to govern themselves. Although it may sound as if the U.S. was trying to make Puerto Rico a self-sufficient nation, they made no mention of Puerto Rico losing its status as a colony of the United States. The U.S. had no intention of losing the colony they had won from the Spanish American war. They still wanted to benefit from Puerto Rico, and this self-interest is what would impact Puerto Rico negatively in the years to come.
The state of Puerto Rico’s economy as a result of U.S. colonialism portrays how their self-interest negatively affected Puerto Rico. Although the U.S. directly enlarged the industries in Puerto Rico and opened up more trade, it held a heavy hand over the economy of Puerto Rico, exploiting the island for their own self interests. When the U.S. opened up trade in Puerto Rico, it mainly meant that Puerto Rico would primarily be trading with the U.S., being that many of the resources that were available in the U.S. weren’t available in Puerto Rico. This trade led to Puerto Rico relying heavily on the U.S. for sustenance, while boosting the U.S. economy. How did this trade impact Puerto Rico directly? Well for one the importation of U.S. goods increased the cost of living in Puerto Rico. In addition, it made the value of Puerto Rican goods closer and closer to nothing. Not only that, but because of the heavy reliance of U.S. goods, many businesses opened that mainly sold U.S. goods, further increasing Puerto Rico’s reliance on the U.S. (Fernandez, 1996). As for the U.S., not only did it gain wealth from exporting goods to Puerto Rico, it also controlled most of what was produced in Puerto Rico. For example, in the agricultural industry, the tobacco business was mainly done by Puerto Ricans, however, roughly 80 percent of the actual production was controlled by the U.S. after 1898 (Dietz, 1986).
On top of owning most of the manufacturing in Puerto Rico, the U.S. was also responsible for the hazardous conditions and less than livable wages in the plantations, particularly the sugar and coffee plantations. Since the markets for these goods were outside of Puerto Rico, the United States being the main market, the producers wanted to make the minimum wage for the laborers as low as possible (Dietz, 1986). In addition, the working hours were also horrifying. The average work week at a plant could reach almost 80 hours. Many of these industries relied heavily on manual labor, however nothing was ever done to improve the conditions of their workers, leading to many people working themselves to death or dying from hazardous conditions. These less than livable wages and working conditions led to a halt in social movement. Manual laborers were trapped under their social class, unable to move away because of the situation they were placed in. Labor strikes were a common phenomenon in Puerto Rico under U.S. control. However, they proved to be futile in changing the working conditions and wages in these plantations as Puerto Rico became so dependent on the U.S. for its survival, it came down to either being complacent and surviving, or “biting the hand that fed them” (Dietz, 1986). The United States’ expansion of its market for these goods came at the expense of Puerto Rico and its people. Although the economy of Puerto Rico was expanded under U.S. control, it also widened the helplessness the people of Puerto Rico felt.
Politics was another area of Puerto Rican society that the U.S. greatly impacted. Puerto Rico had been under the rule of the Spanish crown for a very long time, and so they were under their laws and political system as well. The United States claimed that the reason why they couldn’t allow Puerto Rico to have their own government was because they were under the Spanish crown for too long, making them too primitive to govern themselves. In other words, Puerto Ricans were not as civilized as Americans, and so they needed to be controlled and shaped to become acceptable under American standards. Even though it seemed like the U.S. wanted to civilize Puerto Ricans to help them govern themselves, this was not actually the case, as can be seen by the passing of the Foraker Act. What seemed like an act that would give rights to the people of Puerto Rico turned out to just be another attempt by the U.S. to exert their control over the island. The Foraker Act stated that male suffrage would not be in effect unless it is approved by U.S. legislature. In addition, it gave the U.S. Congress the ability to veto any law passed by the Puerto Rican government, which isn’t self-government at all (Trias-Monge, 1997). It is like how a parent will allow their child to play freely but will stop them from going outside the sand box or playing with certain toys. The U.S. retained the last say in everything that happens in Puerto Rico through this act. On top of all this hypocrisy, the United States leaders didn’t even let Puerto Rican representatives join any Congressional hearings regarding Puerto Rico, showing how the United States completely disregarded the island’s needs and say in what was happening to their island (Trias-Monge, 1997). As a result of all of this, politics in Puerto Rico became more of a fantasy league: it doesn’t exist. Regardless of what the U.S. promised, Puerto Ricans had no rights, no political status, and no freedom. This further proved that Puerto Rico in the eyes of the United States was nothing more than property.
One of the biggest things impacted by U.S. colonialism in Puerto Rico was the Puerto Rican identity. The United States had a very low opinion of Puerto Ricans already, and because they had a such large influence in Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rican’s identity became clouded. According to some accounts from U.S. House speakers, Puerto Ricans were seen as uncivilized, and that they wouldn’t want U.S. citizens mingling with Puerto Ricans, as it would create the opportunity for intermingling between the two people. This would lead to “a generation of smaller minded individuals” (Guerra, 1998). Since U.S. culture was already being imposed on Puerto Ricans, many of them were raised with the idea that they were of a primitive class and culture. In response to these negative views from the U.S., Puerto Rican nationalists redefined Puerto Rican identity to defy U.S. views. They looked back at the “jibaro’, or peasant, and used this to exemplify “the pure Puerto Rican”. The jibaro portrayed what a pure Puerto Rican was, and was used to defy U.S. cultural assimilation. However, this acceptance of the jibaro as the true Puerto Rican identity was not agreed upon by everyone. According to Jose Luis Gonzales, this concept of pure Puerto Rican identity is misinformed, as Puerto Rican’s weren’t originally just peasants under Spanish rule. They had their roots in Taino culture, which even the jibaros of the past even accepted. Whatever the case, this only further supports the confusion in terms of Puerto Rican identity that the U.S. created as a result of their colonialism. They caused Puerto Ricans to forget about where their culture really originated from. The Jones Act was passed in order to give Puerto Rican’s U.S. citizenship in the United States but did little to assist in the issue of Puerto Rican identity. In fact, this change of heart in terms of the status of Puerto Ricans had little to do with changing sentiments for Puerto Rico. This citizenship that was granted did not come with the political rights that come with being a citizen, and so even after all of this the Puerto Ricans were once again isolated.
In addition to the confusion in their identity, the U.S. also created a split between Puerto Ricans who resided on the island, and Puerto Ricans who moved to the U.S. It created a conflict of “who is more Puerto Rican?”. Puerto Rican nationalists called all those who moved off the island and moved to the U.S. as “Nuyorican”. According to the nationalists, Nuyoricans aren’t truly Puerto Rican as they have assimilated the culture of the U.S. and have lost the Spanish language, which is imperative to the Puerto Rican culture. This separation even sparked the debate of whether language is important to culture and culture can survive without it. The U.S. created so much confusion on the island of Puerto Rico, that the people began to shun their own people for not being “purely Puerto Rican” as a result.
Overall, Puerto Rico has had a long and unsuccessful road in terms of freedom and self-government. After breaking free from the chains of the Spanish Crown, they found themselves in a new kind of prison under U.S. control. The U.S. promised Puerto Rico that they would rebuild it, make it a new haven for it’s people, and allow them to govern themselves. The betrayed Puerto Rico in every aspect. The U.S. took Puerto Rico for its own and used them as cattle to drive their own economy up, while making the conditions of Puerto Rico go down. U.S. colonization introduced a new problem in Puerto Rico that was not seen under Spanish rule: a confusion in Puerto Rican identity. The U.S. had such a great impact on Puerto Rico, that it left Puerto Ricans shunning their own people and forgetting parts pf their own culture. They brought nothing but chaos to the island of Puerto Rico, and the outlook for the future doesn’t look any better with the current political climate in the U.S.