The Case for Puerto Rican Self-Determination

On February 3, 2020, I stood outside the Drake University building where one of the Iowa Caucuses was taking place. That morning, I had driven up from Humboldt Park, Chicago, squeezed into a rental van with a group of four other members of the Puerto Rican Agenda of Chicago, an advocacy group for Puerto Rican issues. Along with several other Puerto Rican Agenda and Power 4 Puerto Rico members, we were traveling to different primary state locations to advocate for Puerto Rican self-determination, to urge American voters to give Puerto Rican’s the dignity of choosing their future for themselves. During the five-hour car ride, we discussed strategies to engage white voters in Iowa to caucus for a Democratic presidential candidate with a plan for Puerto Rican self-determination. Self-determination, to me, means my family members who have called Puerto Rico home for generations and who have sent men to wars for the U.S. would get the dignity to choose the future political status of the island.

With Puerto Rico’s colonial past and ongoing inadequacy of funding from the U.S. government, a growing contingent of Puerto Ricans are pushing for independence. Others are instead advocating for statehood. Either way, self-determination maintains that it is a Puerto Rican decision to make. As we stood outside the convention center in the freezing cold, handing out informational pamphlets and asking voters if they had a moment to talk about self-determination, I felt hope for the future of Puerto Rico and sadness that so many voters didn’t even take a moment to learn about the issue.

Hurricane Maria

On September 20, 2017, Category 4 Hurricane Maria struck the Caribbean, hitting Puerto Rico and killing an estimated 4,600 Puerto Ricans. Despite the fact that Puerto Rico is a U.S. Territory — subject to U.S. regulations and dependent on U.S. aid — the U.S. government had a far slower and smaller response to the damage in Puerto Rico than it did to hurricanes in the contiguous U.S. that same year. This “remarkable disparity in the speed and generosity of federal response” is likely to blame for the high death toll Puerto Ricans faced.

Hurricane Maria came on the heels of Puerto Rico declaring bankruptcy and sent the island into a humanitarian crisis. 3.4 million American citizens on the island faced severe food, water, and fuel shortages and no electricity for months. In response, the U.S. government literally threw a few paper towels at the problem. Puerto Rican authorities asked Congress for $94 billion in aid to cover damages. Puerto Rico was allotted $5 billion of $36 billion that the federal government allocated for Hurricanes Maria, Harvey, and Irma, with the remaining $31 billion going to Hurricanes Irma and Harvey mainly in the contiguous U.S.

A year after Hurricane Maria, tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans were still living under blue tarps that were meant as temporary shelters. With 44% of Puerto Ricans living below the poverty line (compared to 12% U.S. national average), the compounded economic collapse, and destruction from Hurricane Maria, Puerto Ricans are living in poverty and not getting the assistance they need from their government due to their status. The only way to solve these problems is to have a comprehensive and decisive election of self-determination for Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rican History with the United States

Puerto Rico has been a U.S. territory since 1917, when the Jones Act granted U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans. Partial self-governance was established in 1947 when Puerto Ricans were allowed to elect their own governor, and the Puerto Rico Commonwealth Bill was signed in 1950 by President Truman. From 1493, when Columbus ceded Puerto Rico for the Spanish, to 1898, when the Spanish ceded Puerto Rico to the U.S. after the Spanish-American War, Puerto Rico has not been a free country.

Puerto Rico has been largely self-governing since the early 20th century, still contributing financially to American social programs and sending men to war for the U.S. military. However, Puerto Ricans are not eligible to vote in presidential elections and do not have senators in Congress. The single Puerto Rican congressperson has no voting power. The island has a population of roughly 3.4 million people and a vibrant culture shaped by Spanish, American, Afro-Caribbean, and Indigenous cultures on the island. For more than 1,000 years before Columbus, Puerto Rico’s native Taíno tribe — referred to as Borinquén or presently, Boricua — inhabited the island. Puerto Rico has been a colony of the United States, experiencing the exploitation of their culture and land for the benefit of the U.S. without any say in its own future.

Why a Referendum is Not Enough

On November 3, 2020, Puerto Ricans voted overwhelmingly in favor of statehood and elected a pro-statehood Governor. However, this does not mean Puerto Rico will necessarily become a state: Congress has to pass a bill to establish Puerto Rican statehood — something they have yet to do because of the relatively little knowledge both Democrats and Republicans have about the political status of the island. In addition to support from politicians, all non-Puerto Rican U.S. citizens must also support Puerto Rican statehood for change to occur. Referendums on statehood are thus no substitute for self-determination — as these citizens and officials don’t know about the island or their political status, they shouldn’t have a say in its future. A referendum vote also fails to include all the options that diverse voices have advocated for, and, as the referendum doesn’t trigger action by Congress, leaves the future of the island up to interpretation. For example, the DOJ has refused validate the November 2020 election, citing that it was misleading.

Self-Determination for Puerto Rico

Of the democratic presidential candidates, more than half of them supported Puerto Rican self-determination. The fact that high-profile politicians and presidential candidates acknowledge this issue is a huge step in the right direction. While many Americans still do not understand the importance of self-determination, it is ultimately a decision that will be made in Congress, so congressional support is essential. Representatives Velazquez and Ocasio-Cortez also introduced a bill in 2020, H.R. 8113, the Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act of 2020. The bill’s express purpose is to “recognize the right of the People of Puerto Rico to call a status convention through which the people would exercise their natural right to self-determination, and to establish a mechanism for congressional consideration of such decision, and for other purposes.” The importance of self-determination is to allow the Puerto Rican people on the island to determine for themselves — not have the country that colonized them determine for them — whether they want statehood or independence.

The Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act would allow the Puerto Rican people the right to a free and fair election. The self-determination act would allow Puerto Ricans to directly elect delegates to negotiate with the congressional commission, ensure voters are informed of their right to vote and the implications of the status vote, and guarantee the Puerto Rican people’s democratically elected assembly and congressional commission cannot be dissolved until a status option is chosen and ratified. and the Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act has support of 18 U.S. congresspersons, as well as that of the League of United Latin American Citizens.

No Path Forward Without Self-Determination

Political Status Options for Puerto Rico

Current Commonwealth	Enhanced Commonwealth	Statehood	Independence
U.S. Citizenship, can join military, and move between the U.S.	Right to vote for U.S. president and elect voting representative	Businesses benefitting off of current status would lose that advantage	Puerto Rico could struggle without international aid
Quasi-independent constitutional government	Maintain Commonwealth status	Equal status to other states	No financial support from the U.S.
Mostly exempt from income tax but pay Social Security	Voting representation requires constitutional amendment	Tax and social program benefits would equalize	Loss of U.S. citizenship
U.S. heavily finances the Puerto Rican government	Bill of rights to the Constitution of Puerto Rico	Comparable representation in Congress	Recognized sovereign nation
Territory overseen by the U.S. Congress	Allows independent membership status in world organizations	Congress could impose language requirements	Loss of access to U.S. military bases
United Nations debates if Puerto Rico is a colony	Congress maintains territorial possession

The question of which option is best for the Puerto Rican people is a decision for residents of the island to make. In the U.S., non-Puerto Rican citizens, Puerto Rican diaspora, and peoples with Puerto Rican heritage have historically supported statehood because they would not survive financially as an independent nation. The argument for self-determination is not an argument about the financial viability of the island becoming independent or the legal ramifications involved in becoming a state; it is about a colony who has had little to no say in their history for over 400 years being given the autonomy to make the decision for themselves. The case for self-determination is an argument for righting the inhumanity of colonization to the Puerto Rican people and allowing the dignity to determine their future for themselves.