Are Puerto Ricans, Puerto Ricans?

The political status of Puerto Rico germinates confusion, as it does not provide for full self- determination as a Sovereign State or as a nation Sad as it may be, the nation of Thomas Jefferson (the best American exemplar of hostility to every form of tyranny), has denied Puerto Rico equality among the states, or its independence. And, that a substantial number of Puerto Ricans have become confused and find it desperately difficult to logically recognize their self-identity is not altogether hard to understand when it is clearly displayed that they do not have clarity of a nationality. That is, Puerto Rico is not a sovereign nation; and, still more confusing after much judicial interpretation, Puerto Rico is neither a State nor an incorporated Territory. And, that technically and arbitrarily the inhabitants of the island are Americans only serve to reflect the inconsistencies of the situation, considering the fact that Puerto Rico merely appears to be a possession of the United States. Evidently, it is quite naive to call Puerto Ricans Puerto Ricans, as it is simply an adjective that denotes a certain nationality; and, it is something that realistically cannot be affixed to Puerto Ricans as they never had a nation to anchor them with a nationality. Of course, arguments may be made that Puerto Rico became an autonomous nation on February 9, 1898 when an autonomous government was inaugurated under the provisions of the Constitucion Autonomica para Puerto Rico (Autonomous Constitution for Puerto Rico), which was signed by the Spanish Queen, Maria Cristina, on November 25, 1897;and, the same provided for direct representation of Puerto Rico in the Spanish Cortes, and gave Puerto Rico the power to make treaties and trade with other nations other than Spain. Unfortunately, Puerto Ricans elected a legislative body on March 27, 1898, but its autonomy ended on July 25, 1898, when American troops occupied Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico falls in a limbo category politically. Thus the issue of nationality resonates ambiguously in the minds of many Puerto Ricans. Puerto Rico became a Spanish province and the island-born free people became citizens of Spain, as provided by the Constitucion de Cadiz (Constitution of Cadiz), as of July 14, 1812fortunicity.com. And, as a quite brief interlude, with El Grito de Lares, on September 23, 1868, an insurrectionist group of 600-1000 men took over the township of Lares and declared and independent Puerto Rico Republic, elborucua.com but within 24 hours the revolt was crushed by Spanish troops. At the conclusion of the Spanish American War of 1898, the self-government Constitution provided by Spain on November 25, 1897 ceased to exist, and the fate of the Puerto Ricans changed drastically by a bilateral treaty between the United States and Spain. El Tratado de Paris de diciembre de 1898, Articulo 9 (The Treaty of Paris of 10 December 1898, Article 9), states: “Los derechos civiles y la condicion politica de los habitantes naturales de los territorios aqui cedido a los Estados Unidos se determinara por el Congreso.” Thus, Article 9, provides that, “all civil rights and political status of the native population within the territories granted to the United States shall be determined by Congress.” With the Treaty of Paris, the issue of denationalization and the removal of Spanish citizenship are contentious matters. However, the hard and simple truth is that Puerto Rico born inhabitants were stripped both of their citizenship and nationality with El Tratado. That is, they became neither Americans nor Spaniards; and, the only recognition that they had was that they were the native population of the island of Puerto Rico. El Tratado was not a benign document. Under the judicial Power described under Section 2, Article 3, of the Constitution of the United States, all treaties made by the United States with other countries, are constitutionally binding on the United States. Thus the people of Puerto Rico were in effect thrown to the whims of the federal courts and the United States Congress. The Treaty effectively made the islanders non-citizens; and, as well, removed them from the umbrella of a nationality. That is, they sustained a complete denationalization blow by the Treaty signatories. The damaging effect incorporated by the denationalization process was well illustrated by the Supreme Court 356 U.S. 86(1958), when in a legal opinion, it stated “...use of denationalization as a punishment is barred by the Eight Amendment. There may be involved no physical mistreatment, no primitive torture. There is instead the total destruction of the individual’s status in organized society. It is a punishment more primitive than torture, for it destroys for the individual the political existence that was centuries in the development.”