The small country of Puerto Rico can be an unfamiliar territory to numerous people. People know it as beautiful island for travelling, but is that all it is? In this paper I would like to explore the issue of the "status question" encompassing Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico all together has already established trouble answering whether or not they should officially become part of the United States. The question stands if Puerto Rico should become more than just a commonwealth or should it stand alone as its own country with no outside influence.
Through interviewing my grandfather to start to see the ways in which Puerto Rico's status has damaged his life. Why have my grandfather see better opportunities in america rather than in Puerto Rico? Was this due to the change in life styles (farming areas became more industrialized) in Puerto Rico? What's his view of the position question considering family still live there?
In researching this subject I am hoping to learn about the various viewpoints of authors who have also taken involvement in this issue. I am hoping to learn the permanent and short-term effects of Puerto Rico's present autonomous point out and also learn if the United States influence is hurting or benefitting the island. Overall, I am hoping to set up perspective the inevitable issue that Puerto Rico is facing using their status and contribute information predicated on the readings of literature and articles and a firsthand bank account from a family group member's encounters.
Puerto Rico's recognized relationship with the United States started with the Spanish-American War of 1898. This conflict lasted ten weeks and was ended by a calmness treaty between your United States and Spain. On this treaty, called the Treaty of Paris, the United States bought Puerto Rico as well as the Philippines, Guam and Cuba. On March 2, 1917 Puerto Rico became a "free associated place" of america by the Jones-Shafroth Action that was made by america Congress and agreed upon by President Woodrow Wilson. Because of the Jones-Shafroth Work Puerto Ricans are born as American citizens although they aren't officially area of the 50 States. This means that Puerto Rican people can travel to america freely without a certified visa exactly like if it were a regular state. This sort of relationship with the United States gave the folks of Puerto Rico more opportunities to provide for their families. By becoming a United States citizen automatically at beginning recommended that Puerto Rican people could work in higher paying jobs found in the state governments. Many people migrated to the states and sent money back to their family members to help support them.
In 1947 the "free associated place" status improved directly into commonwealth status. Commonwealth status was ideal for a country initially stages of establishing a base in federal and law. There is educational and inexpensive advantages that created a way to obtain social strength. Also, commonwealth position offered more freedoms to Puerto Rico federal wise. It offered Puerto Rico a voting plan to vote for a governor as well as a vote for if Puerto Rico wanted to write a constitution. Puerto Rico eventually elected a governor known as Luis Mu±oz Marn who created a constitution with respect to the Puerto Rican people. On July 3, 1952 Leader Harry S. Truman approved the newly written constitution combined with the approval of congress. Many Puerto Ricans oppressed this movements because they sensed that america should not be mixed up in affairs of Puerto Rico. Two Puerto Rican men by the brands of Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo who have been part of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, tried to overthrow america government that existed inside Puerto Rico and also attempted to assassinate Chief executive Harry S. Truman but didn't achieve this.
Not everyone of Puerto Rico opposed america involvement, but some did revolt as a result of clash of ethnicities. The 32nd President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, created the "New Package" that was an idea to make Puerto Rico become more industrialized with new technology than agriculturally that for the most part was manually oriented. Farming technologies within america were brought to Puerto Rico to boost the farming rate as well as the developing rate. A Puerto Rican local by the name of Juan Pablo Montoya Sr. was devote charge to carry out the New Package in Puerto Rico and for the most part he been successful.
The United States controls nearly every aspect of Puerto Rico. These aspects include relationships with international countries which include trading, military services including the air push, marines, army and navy, the united states control buttons the agricultural system, mining and largely everything the United States controls as a regular express. Puerto Rico is bound to what they can do on the politics side; there's also lots of advantages to being part of the United States such as armed service protection and economic stableness. Puerto Rico is divided in half as a result of this. Although Puerto Rico is cared for as circumstances it generally does not necessarily obtain the same rights among the 50 says.
Puerto Rico doesn't have equal representation. They cannot vote for the president and don't have a voting rep inside your home of Associates nor america Congress. Also Puerto Rico has no say in the area of revenues towards the 50 states. This triggered and concern with some Puerto Rican people. They presumed if the United States were going to treat Puerto Rico as circumstances with managing the authority of almost all of the country they should be treated equally in the conditions of representation, this where Puerto Rico commonwealth position suffers. Puerto Rico's authorities was managed by america but Puerto Rico leaders wanted a rise in self-government.
The folks of Puerto Rico tend to be split on whether or not Puerto Rico should become a point out or not. This is a very important concern because this question has been preventing Puerto Rico to move frontward to other issues. This status question almost creates a barrier between the Puerto Rican people and america; both sides seem to be confused about how to go about this issue. The federal government did try to solve this status issue democratically by using voting ballots but still this issue has troubled the people of Puerto Rico for a long time and this question must be replied forever. I believe they are preventing this question because the individuals come to mind that the results of the response could change their lives significantly but I believe this is for his or her own good.
The Puerto Rican voters were asked to select from five options: statehood, independence, a continuation of Puerto Rico's current common riches status, free association and none of them of the above. Amazingly "none of them of the above" received the majority of the votes so nothing was done. I think that the Puerto Rican people have to be more educated on the five selections for your final decision to be made. The politicians know the outcome of the options but the people do not. I think that the outcome of the solution could change their lives significantly and could immediately affect the path as a country. If freedom is chosen as the best solution the question remains if Puerto Rico could support themselves as an unbiased nation. Also if self-reliance is chosen Puerto Rico would have to start to determine, laws, military options, economic stableness, etc.
My grandfather Eligio Rivera was born on December 15, 1933 in Coamo, Puerto Rico. He left to america at the age of 16 to discover a good paying job. He disliked working on a family possessed plantation and he didn't want to do that his very existence. He decided that there was a better opportunity in america for work but he never forgot his family back Puerto Rico. He frequented Puerto Rico frequently and provided for his family with the amount of money he earned in the us. I made a decision to interview him because he had experience with the partnership between Puerto Rico and america since he was back and forth frequently.
The first question I asked if there is a notable difference when Puerto Rico's status altered to a commonwealth. He told me that he performed visit a difference but it needed a while for changes that occurs. He told become more before commonwealth position there was more of a military services presence throughout the country and there were much stricter guidelines. He told me about the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party and how they used to hold weekly riots because they disliked the United States presence however the United States would not budge. Then i asked him if he thought the Puerto Rican Nationalist Get together had good intentions. He told me that for the most part they were very violent people and they didn't appear to care who they injure to get what they wanted. He explained if u disagreed with their views you were told to remain out of the way.
Another question I asked if there have been any United States influences that he saw. He explained that Puerto Rico became more current. I QUICKLY asked him what he meant by that and he discussed that the dirt and grime streets became concrete and block signs travelled from written out to cheap "neat" lettering. He also said that more factories were popping up in the country and more machinery was being unveiled to help careers in the same way farming. Also he noticed that the hospitals were getting better in conditions of drugs and in conditions of the large quantity of medicines which were available. I then asked a follow up question because I needed to learn if he thought that the outside influences from the United States were good or bad for the country. He said that generally these influences were good because it helped give more jobs to the folks of Puerto Rico in a period where people had little money also drugs were becoming more affordable so the poor could now manage to pay for medication. He really believed that the United States had good motives to create a more industrialized and economically sensible Puerto Rico.
Another question I ask was why did he see a much better opportunity in america rather than in Puerto Rico. He said that he had a couple of friends of his who visited the United States to consider better job opportunities. His friends would try to persuade him to come quickly to the United States because that they had a job lined up for him. Finally at age 16 he made his decision to leave Puerto Rico and go to NEW YORK where a good paying job was looking forward to him. My follow up question was if this was a result of the change in life styles where the farming areas in Puerto Rico became more industrialized. He explained that there were higher paying careers in the United States because they were rebuilding their market after the great depression. The new factory careers and the farming careers had very little payouts and he needed to make a tough decision. I asked him if he had any regrets giving his family Puerto Rico and chasing a job in the United States. He told he did not because he received adequate money which helped his struggling family in Puerto Rico. He told me he would did whatever it had taken to make certain his family was healthy rather than eager. Eventually his brothers and sister followed my grandfather's footsteps and also arrived to NY to work plus they made a good living and reinforced their family in the process.
My last question to him was; I wanted to know what is his judgment of the position question considering members of the family still live there. He explained that he was for statehood. He explained that Puerto Rico has already been treated as a state. They follow the same laws and regulations as america and are handled by them. He told me that it was unfair that folks in Puerto Rico don't have any voting rights for presidency and representation in the federal government was unfair. He argued that Puerto Rican born natives are a USA citizen at birth and because they are not part of the 50 states shouldn't give the USA the to say Puerto Rico cannot vote even though they follow the leader. He explained that he believes there are a few downsides to statehood. He told me that the economy is not what it used to be and he scared that the United States debt could hold to Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is struggling right now worse than the United States. His fear is that rather than making Puerto Rico better it'll crush their overall economy. Another fear of his is that Puerto Rico would lose its culture. My grandfather discovered Spanish before British. He fears that English will need over and the native language would be lost. He agrees that English should be educated but as another language. He wants speaking spanish to continue to be spoken in category rooms.
Despite these worries he also agrees that a decision must be produced about the position. He told me that the politicians in Puerto Rico have concentrated on this theme for too much time now and they do very little target on a few of the more important subjects including the countless amount of job slices that are going on right now. The unemployment rate has been skyrocketing in recent years but instead their main concentrate is the status of Puerto Rico.
Recently, a United States House of Representative bill was handed call the H. R. 2499.
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