Puerto Rico under Colonial Rule

Puerto Rico under Colonial Rule PDF Author: Ramon Bosque-Perez
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 079148338X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Book Description
Puerto Rico, one of the last and most populated colonial territories in the world, occupies a relatively unique position. Its lengthy interaction with the United States has resulted in the long-term acquisition of expanded legal rights and relative political stability. At the same time, that interaction has simultaneously seen political intolerance and the denial of basic rights, particularly toward those who have challenged colonialism. In Puerto Rico under Colonial Rule, academics and intellectuals from the fields of political science, history, sociology, and law examine three themes: evidence of state-sponsored political persecution in the twentieth century, contemporary issues, and the case of Vieques.

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico PDF Author: José Trías Monge
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300076189
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 276

Book Description
Former Attorney General and former Chief Justice of Puerto Rico, Jose Trias Monge describes his island as one of the most densely populated places on earth, with a severely distressed economy and limited political freedom--still considered a colony of the U.S. Monge claims the island has become too dependent on U.S. money and argues for decolonization and movement toward more independence. 28 illustrations.

War Against All Puerto Ricans

War Against All Puerto Ricans PDF Author: Nelson A Denis
Publisher: Bold Type Books
ISBN: 1568585020
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 402

Book Description
The powerful, untold story of the 1950 revolution in Puerto Rico and the long history of U.S. intervention on the island, that the New York Times says "could not be more timely." In 1950, after over fifty years of military occupation and colonial rule, the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico staged an unsuccessful armed insurrection against the United States. Violence swept through the island: assassins were sent to kill President Harry Truman, gunfights roared in eight towns, police stations and post offices were burned down. In order to suppress this uprising, the US Army deployed thousands of troops and bombarded two towns, marking the first time in history that the US government bombed its own citizens. Nelson A. Denis tells this powerful story through the controversial life of Pedro Albizu Campos, who served as the president of the Nationalist Party. A lawyer, chemical engineer, and the first Puerto Rican to graduate from Harvard Law School, Albizu Campos was imprisoned for twenty-five years and died under mysterious circumstances. By tracing his life and death, Denis shows how the journey of Albizu Campos is part of a larger story of Puerto Rico and US colonialism. Through oral histories, personal interviews, eyewitness accounts, congressional testimony, and recently declassified FBI files, War Against All Puerto Ricans tells the story of a forgotten revolution and its context in Puerto Rico's history, from the US invasion in 1898 to the modern-day struggle for self-determination. Denis provides an unflinching account of the gunfights, prison riots, political intrigue, FBI and CIA covert activity, and mass hysteria that accompanied this tumultuous period in Puerto Rican history.

Morality and Power

Morality and Power PDF Author: María del Pilar Argüelles
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 270

Book Description
This book endeavors to explore the national purpose of the United States and of Puerto Rico. The author studies Puerto Rico from the time of 1898 to the late 1940's. She looks at the doctrine of national self-determination while analyzing the effects of colonialism in Puerto Rico at a time when worldwide decolonization prevailed. The author also investigates the hypocrisy of the United States' 'commitment' to democratic rule and its position as a colonial power. Research methods include the study of relationships between policymakers in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, and the analysis of political pressures and ideologies. The author also makes use of interpretive literature in order to further explore decolonization, national self-determination, and the role of the United States in the international system. This study of morality and politics will enlighten and educate students of nationalism, politics, and international relations.

American Empire and the Politics of Meaning

American Empire and the Politics of Meaning PDF Author: Julian Go
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822389320
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 392

Book Description
When the United States took control of the Philippines and Puerto Rico in the wake of the Spanish-American War, it declared that it would transform its new colonies through lessons in self-government and the ways of American-style democracy. In both territories, U.S. colonial officials built extensive public school systems, and they set up American-style elections and governmental institutions. The officials aimed their lessons in democratic government at the political elite: the relatively small class of the wealthy, educated, and politically powerful within each colony. While they retained ultimate control for themselves, the Americans let the elite vote, hold local office, and formulate legislation in national assemblies. American Empire and the Politics of Meaning is an examination of how these efforts to provide the elite of Puerto Rico and the Philippines a practical education in self-government played out on the ground in the early years of American colonial rule, from 1898 until 1912. It is the first systematic comparative analysis of these early exercises in American imperial power. The sociologist Julian Go unravels how American authorities used “culture” as both a tool and a target of rule, and how the Puerto Rican and Philippine elite received, creatively engaged, and sometimes silently subverted the Americans’ ostensibly benign intentions. Rather than finding that the attempt to transplant American-style democracy led to incommensurable “culture clashes,” Go assesses complex processes of cultural accommodation and transformation. By combining rich historical detail with broader theories of meaning, culture, and colonialism, he provides an innovative study of the hidden intersections of political power and cultural meaning-making in America’s earliest overseas empire.

Constructing A Colonial People

Constructing A Colonial People PDF Author: Pedro A Caban
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429969953
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 297

Book Description
Constructing Colonial People provides a new and comprehensive interpretation of how the United States attempted to transform Puerto Rico from a neglected backwater of the Spanish empire into one of its key props in establishing hegemony in the western hemisphere. The book looks at the formative three-and-one-half decades of U.S. colonial rule, when the colony's key institutions, economic structures, and legal doctrines were transformed. Policy papers, speeches, newspaper articles, and memoirs from the period inform the study with particular detail and insight. Cabán further examines the dynamics of U.S. expansionism during the Progressive Era and examines the normative and ideological constructions that were used to rationalize a campaign of territorial acquisition and colonial administration. He also demonstrates how the military and subsequent civilian regimes directed a process of institutional transformation, state building, and capitalist development.

Colonial Subjects

Colonial Subjects PDF Author: Ramon Grosfoguel
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520927544
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Book Description
Colonial Subjects is the first book to use a combination of world-system and postcolonial approaches to compare Puerto Rican migration with Caribbean migration to both the United States and Western Europe. Ramón Grosfoguel provides an alternative reading of the world-system approach to Puerto Rico's history, political economy, and urbanization processes. He offers a comprehensive and well-reasoned framework for understanding the position of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean, the position of Puerto Ricans in the United States, and the position of colonial migrants compared to noncolonial migrants in the world system.

Land Reform in Puerto Rico

Land Reform in Puerto Rico PDF Author: Ismael García-Colón
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780813033631
Category : Land reform
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
In 1941 a land redistribution plan was aimed at empowering landless workers by placing them in houses and building communities for them. Garcia-Colon assesses the technical and political aspects and the ways the Puerto Rican people resisted accomodated, and influenced the development this plan brought about.

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico PDF Author: Jorge Duany
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190648694
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 209

Book Description
Acquired by the United States from Spain in 1898, Puerto Rico has a peculiar status among Latin American and Caribbean countries. As a Commonwealth, the island enjoys limited autonomy over local matters, but the U.S. has dominated it militarily, politically, and economically for much of its recent history. Though they are U.S. citizens, Puerto Ricans do not have their own voting representatives in Congress and cannot vote in presidential elections (although they are able to participate in the primaries). The island's status is a topic of perennial debate, both within and beyond its shores. In recent months its colossal public debt has sparked an economic crisis that has catapulted it onto the national stage and intensified the exodus to the U.S., bringing to the fore many of the unresolved remnants of its colonial history. Puerto Rico: What Everyone Needs to Know(R) provides a succinct, authoritative introduction to the Island's rich history, culture, politics, and economy. The book begins with a historical overview of Puerto Rico during the Spanish colonial period (1493-1898). It then focuses on the first five decades of the U.S. colonial regime, particularly its efforts to control local, political, and economic institutions as well as to "Americanize" the Island's culture and language. Jorge Duany delves into the demographic, economic, political, and cultural features of contemporary Puerto Rico-the inner workings of the Commonwealth government and the island's relationship to the United States. Lastly, the book explores the massive population displacement that has characterized Puerto Rico since the mid-20th century. Despite their ongoing colonial dilemma, Jorge Duany argues that Puerto Ricans display a strong national identity as a Spanish-speaking, Afro-Hispanic-Caribbean nation. While a popular tourist destination, few beyond its shores are familiar with its complex history and diverse culture. Duany takes on the task of educating readers on the most important facets of the unique, troubled, but much beloved isla del encanto.

Colonial Migrants at the Heart of Empire

Colonial Migrants at the Heart of Empire PDF Author: Ismael García-Colón
Publisher: University of California Press
ISBN: 0520325796
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 349

Book Description
Colonial Migrants at the Heart of Empire is the first in-depth look at the experiences of Puerto Rican migrant workers in continental U.S. agriculture in the twentieth century. The Farm Labor Program, established by the government of Puerto Rico in 1947, placed hundreds of thousands of migrant workers on U.S. farms and fostered the emergence of many stateside Puerto Rican communities. Ismael García-Colón investigates the origins and development of this program and uncovers the unique challenges faced by its participants. A labor history and an ethnography, Colonial Migrants evokes the violence, fieldwork, food, lodging, surveillance, and coercion that these workers experienced on farms and conveys their hopes and struggles to overcome poverty. Island farmworkers encountered a unique form of prejudice and racism arising from their dual status as both U.S. citizens and as “foreign others,” and their experiences were further shaped by evolving immigration policies. Despite these challenges, many Puerto Rican farmworkers ultimately chose to settle in rural U.S. communities, contributing to the production of food and the Latinization of the U.S. farm labor force.