Puerto Rico Research Paper

Political Science Department

Honors Projects
Macalester College

Year 

A New State of Puerto Rican Politics:
Framing the Plebiscites on Status
Justin D. Bigelow
Macalester College, [e-mail]

This paper is posted at DigitalCommons@Macalester College. http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/poli honors/5

A New State of Puerto Rican Politics:
Framing the Plebiscites on Status

Justin Bigelow
Political Science Department
Macalester College
Advised by Professor Paul Dosh
April 2007

Table of Contents
List of Illustrations

i

Acknowledgements

ii

An Introduction

1

Chapter 1: A Brief History of Puerto Rico

11

The Spanish Epoch and Transitional Period

12

The U.S. Epoch

15

The
The indigenous rebellion of 1511 was suppressed as the
1

Nelson Hernández, “Desarrollo de la nación de Puerto Rico” (lecture, La Universidad del Sagrado
Corazón, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1 February 2006).

13 surviving Taínos fled to the mountains of central Puerto Rico, leaving Spain unfettered control of the Puerto Rican coastal plains. Nationalism scholar James Blaut cites 1511 as the last year Puerto Rico can be considered an independent, sovereign territory.2
Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, Spain slowly developed Puerto Rico’s economy by emphasizing the island’s sugar and ginger exports. The economic development of Puerto Rico necessarily increased the population on the island, including new migrants from Spain, slaves from Africa, and native born Puerto Ricans. Still, every aspect of life on Puerto Rico was mandated by the Spanish Crown or its appointed
Spanish Governor; Spaniards born in Puerto Rico were systematically denied roles in the local government. From 1508 through 1898, the appointed military and civilian governors implemented Spain’s oppressive taxation of Puerto Rican goods and
While the plebiscite yielded an incredible 60.4 percent of the vote in favor of commonwealth status as compared to the 39 percent of voters in favor of Statehood, these margins are almost universally deemed unreliable.
There was an organized effort by those in favor of Puerto Rican independence to boycott the plebiscite, believing that they would not receive fair treatment in the electoral process. Likewise, a faction of statehood advocates also boycotted the plebiscite. For these and other reasons, the plebiscite itself is widely viewed as invalid.
[The] referendum held in 1967—which affirmed the present commonwealth status—was tainted by blatant interference by United States intelligence agencies documented and denounced as ‘hanky-panky’ in a
White House memorandum issued during the Carter administration.15
Though the results of this plebiscite are inconclusive, a new political party was born in the process. When, in 1966 PPD Governor Roberto Sánchez Vilella announced that a plebiscite was to be held the following year, the leader of the minority party, the
Republican Statehood Party (PER or Partido Estadista Republicano) announced his plan