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OPINION
Historic Puerto Rican Vote for Change
by Luis A. Ferre*
December 14, 1998
Significantly, within three days of the centennial of the Treaty
of Paris in which Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the United States,
our island's electorate voted for Congress to continue the process
of resolving the island's political status.
In addition, voters in Sunday's plebiscite overwhelmingly rejected
the territorial commonwealth status quo, in effect since 1952,
providing for limited self-government but also denying our 3.8
million US citizens voting representation in Congress and the
ballot for the president who, as commander-in-chief, has sent
them into battle since WW I.
Just as clearly voiced was the desire of the electorate to
make permanent their ties with the US and to provide constitutional
safeguards for their statutory American citizenship: A goal only
attainable with statehood.
The island's Americans citizens are clearly unhappy with the
present relationship, which relegates them to second class citizenship
and allows Congress to continue to pass discriminatory legislation
limiting federal programs so long as they remain on the island.
Is it no wonder that nearly three million Puerto Ricans have
moved to the mainland seeking the benefits of statehood denied
them at home? Not even the prospect of federal taxation, currently
inapplicable in Puerto Rico, has deterred this drive for enfranchisement
and equality.
Now Puerto Ricans of all political persuasions have spoken
loud and clear that they can no longer support a political status,
territorial commonwealth, that denies them an equal voice and
equal participation in their government.
The strong showing of the "none of the above" option
underscored the voter's desire for Congress to take control of
this process and clearly define the real options available to
the people of Puerto Rico in order to rectify this situation of
inequality.
It remains for Congress and the American people to recognize
our self-determination decision and to finish the process that
will lead to a permanent political status: Either independence
or statehood.
Nonetheless, statehood was the overwhelming choice of those
who voted for a specific status option. Statehood is, for me,
the only political status that will make this quest a reality.
The road to statehood, which a majority of the island's residents
will ultimately decide to choose over independence, necessarily
requires a transition period in which Congress and Puerto Rico
will work together to define the terms and conditions that must
be satisfied to see that goal achieved.
Our devotion to the Constitution and democracy is second to
none and over 200,000 Puerto Ricans have defended it abroad since
1917. Over seventy percent of registered votes turned out for
the plebiscite (compared to just thirty-seven percent of mainlanders
in the November mid-term elections).
Still some national leaders think that our language, culture
and economic attainment are either drawbacks to admission to the
Union or foreclose the possibility.
Yes, we do want to preserve our language and culture. Yes,
we also want universal English fluency and full integration within
the American mainstream. But, as any casual visitor can attest
Puerto Rico is as much American as it is Hispanic. And no one
will deny that English fluency is the route to economic opportunity
in Puerto Rico as in the rest of the world.
Yes, we want to close the economic gap between Puerto Rico
and the states. No one here is happy with a per capita income
one half Mississippi's. But our economic progress, or lack thereof,
is a direct result of the uncertainty of our territorial status.
As Hawaii and Alaska most recently proved, full integration into
the United States brings with it accelerated economic growth including
investment, jobs and rising standards of living.
Since America does not have an official language, retaining
both English and Spanish as our official languages is clearly
consistent with the Tenth Amendment which reserves to the states
those powers not delegated to the federal government. Similarly,
our heritage is secure as it is shared with the 30 million mainland
Hispanics who, by 2005, will be the nation's largest minority.
Perhaps the most significant single impediment to universal
acceptance in Puerto Rico has been skepticism that Congress will
act favorably on a statehood petition. It hardly needs explaining
given the combination of congressional intransigence and 100 years
of neo-colonial status.
That makes the plebiscite's results all the more historic.
This vote for change in general, and statehood specifically, was
made possible because Congress has become more receptive to the
idea of statehood as it has simultaneously determined that the
status quo is impermanent and incapable of providing constitutional
equality.
This attitude is the result of a recent series of hearings
and reports exploring Puerto Rico's current status and alternative
political options that would both redress the second class status
of the islanders and terminate this last vestige of US colonialism.
Surely, despite the unavoidable obstacles inherent in the self-determination
and statehood admission's processes, enthusiasm for the latter
option will grow in Puerto Rico in direct proportion to its acceptance
in Congress just as it did in Alaska and Hawaii.
Nevertheless, for statehood to ultimately succeed the American
people and their citizenry brethren in Puerto Rico must be convinced
of its mutual benefits. The United States will be enriched by
a Puerto Rico state, here and abroad, and that Puerto Ricans will
finally be full participants in the American dream.
I am confident that once Congress has assumed its responsibilities
under the Constitution's Territorial Clause and defined the real
status options available to the people of Puerto Rico, they will
choose statehood.
Inevitably, as the facts of statehood become known to all Americans,
no matter where they live, they, too, will embrace it.
Born in 1904, a citizen of the US by law in 1917, I look forward
to celebrating my own centennial under a fifty-one star flag.
*Luis A. Ferre, a former governor of Puerto Rico, is the founder
of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party and currently serves
as the Republican State Chairman of Puerto Rico.
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