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writing for godot

Make More of a Fuss Over Puerto Rico

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Written by Carlos T Mock, MD   
Sunday, 26 June 2011 09:47
I was five years old when President Kennedy visited Puerto Rico. I remembered it like it was yesterday. The Island declared it a holiday so that everyone could come and see the Presidential entourage parading through the streets of San Juan. They even named a room after him at the Governor’s Mansion (La Fortaleza).

It takes a pretty distracted country to forget about a colony. But I think it’s fair to say that the people of the US have managed to pull off just such a feat of collective amnesia when it comes to Puerto Rico.

I was reminded of this when Barack Obama toured our Homeland for a few hours on Tuesday. It marked the first official visit by a US president to Puerto Rico in half a century and that is a remarkable statistic.

After all, the US owns Puerto Rico – and has - since 1898. The island was conquered during the Spanish-American War and is today a self-governing “commonwealth” of the US. Its people are US citizens: they share common citizenship, currency , and defense (just ask how many young Puerto Ricans have given their lives for American causes). Puerto Rican elect their local officials, but they are unable to vote for the president and members of Congress who oversee matters including defense policy and agriculture because they don't pay federal income taxes—although local taxes are as high as in the US.

Nor does the international community show much interest in the plight of Puerto Ricans, either. Conditions on the island are tough unemployment exceeds 16 per cent and drug violence has produced a higher murder rate than that of Mexico. But Puerto Rico just hasn’t made the list of disputed territories that tug on the heartstrings of the global chattering classes – even of the anti-US variety.

Not everyone in Puerto Rico has been happy with these arrangements. In 1950, two Puerto Rican nationalists attempted to assassinate President Harry Truman, setting off a gun battle on the streets of Washington that left a police officer and one would-be assassin dead. In 1954, other Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire from the gallery of the House of Representatives, wounding five members of Congress.

Two years ago, Governor Luis Fortuño was propelled to a landslide victory on the island with a mandate to take the “commonwealth” through a series of referendums to try to resolve the association between Puerto Rico and the US—perhaps creating the 51st state.

The charismatic 51-year-old Republican, who is thought to have national political ambitions, has since pushed an ambitious reform program. He has cut spending, increased university fees and sold off assets, including an airport and a toll road concession.

Puerto Ricans mourn when they talk about being fired from their job in the Puerto Rican government. Like many of the 12,000 state employees who lost their jobs during a tough austerity program on the island, they thought they had a position for life. So, many Puerto Ricans are angry, and the governor’s approval rating is slipping in advance of next year’s election. “What is the cost of balancing the budget?” asked Eduardo Bhatia, a Democrat in Puerto Rico’s senate.

Now plagued by a steadily worsening murder rate, more Puerto Ricans are second-guessing their evening plans, contemplating moving to the mainland (the latest “brain drain”) and sending away for gun permits in larger numbers to protect themselves. And the police are rolling out new strategies they hope will bring things under control.

So far this year, there have been 525 murders in Puerto Rico, a number that is outpacing last year’s 983 homicides, the second-highest ever, and the 995 in 1994. New York City, with a population a bit over twice that of Puerto Rico, reported 199 murders through the middle of this month, with a total of 536 in 2010.

High murder rates are not unusual in Puerto Rico. Between 1980 to 2005 the average annual homicide rate was 19 per 100,000 in Puerto Rico and 8 per 100,000 on the mainland.

The silence about Puerto Rico at home and abroad is particularly peculiar because Puerto Ricans have played such a prominent role in the media capital that is New York. Hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans came to the city during the last century. Some came in search of works; others were given a one way ticket and no support, to make the local government of the then Luis Muñoz Marín, look good at reducing poverty statistics in the Island. But it created havoc in NYC, stories which were captured in 1956 By Pedro Juan Soto in his short story collection: “Spiks.” There has been further immigration to the mainland, the so call “brain drains” of the 80’s, 90’s, and just recently: making it impossible to imagine the New York area or its sprawling Spanish-speaking barrios without them.

But for all the familiarity New Yorkers have developed with the local Puerto Rican community there has been a profound lack of connection with the history of Puerto Rico or the conditions on the island that drove its residents so far away. Even New Yorkers with immigrant backgrounds are not above viewing the Puerto Rican influx as some sort of historical accident – like the Puerto Rican Day parade that blocked Jerry Seinfeld and his friends in one of the episodes of his television situation comedy.

After all these years, Puerto Rico remains a mystery to the people who own it. Let’s hope it doesn’t take another 50 years for someone to notice us....

Carlos T Mock is a Puerto Rican living in Chicago and has published four books. You can find more information on Mr. Mock at: www.carlostmock.com.
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