Puerto Rico - An American State 113 Years in The Making; Part I

Throughout my lifetime, I have had to explain to my American countrymen exactly what is the correlation between Puerto Rico and the United States.  It boggles my mind how little the average American knows regarding the politics that have given puertoricans their current U.S. Citizen status. Some aren't even aware that puertorricans are in fact U.S. Citizens.  Let this blog serve as Legal Notice to all my fellow Americans, we are indeed, real bona fide Americans; with some stipulations, of course.

As with all my blogs, a brief history into the subject matter is necessary and my pleasure to oblige.

The island of Puerto Rico is merely 110 miles long by 40 miles wide.  Among its territory is included the smaller surrounding islands of Vieques, Culebra and Mona.  It is the smallest of the Greater Antilles Islands, in the Caribbean Sea; an unincorporated territory of the United States, located east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands.

Discovered by Christopher Columbus, November 19, 1493, on his second voyage to the Americas; it is so small in land mass that he just simply sailed right by it the first time.  Puerto Rico was originally named by Columbus, Saint John the Baptist (San Juan el Bautista).  As time went on, due to popular common usage, the name of its principal port and the island were reversed.  Sailors and merchants referred to the entire island as Puerto Rico (Rich Port) and the northeastern port where they made their fortunes as San Juan.

The indigenous people that inhabited the island at the time of discovery, were Arawak Indians known as Tainos.  Mostly hunters and fishermen, whom by archeological findings, are theorizied to have traveled from the region of the Orinoco river, on the northern South American area of what is today known as Venezuela.  They called the island "Borike", meaning "Land of the Valiant Lord", in Spanish, Borike became "Borinquen", a phrase still commonly used by and for modern day puertoricans.  "Boricua" or "Borinqueno" is used to describe a person born on the island or of puertorican heritage.  The island is also popularly known in Spanish as "La Isla del Encanto" which means "The Island of Enchantment" in English.  It is the main reason why I proudly proclaim that we, the United States, have a little piece of paradise in our own backyard, Puerto Rico.

As is now so commonly known with the history of the colonization of the New World, these indigenous people were nearly driven to extinction by the diseases (small pox), forced labor (slavery) and many years of ill treatment inflicted by their Spanish conquerors.  Within 50 years the Taino population were reduced to such small numbers that the importation of Sub-Saharan African slaves was introduced to provide the new manual work force for the Spanish colonists and merchants.  African slavery was primarily restricted to coastal ports and cities, while the interior of the island continued to be essentially unexplored and undeveloped. Wikipedia


Spain quickly realized this newly discovered island's strategic location in its quest for colonial expansion.  Various forts and walls, such as La Fortaleza, El Castillo San Felipe del Morro and El Castillo de San Cristobal, were built to protect the port of San Juan from numerous European invasion attempts.  The port of San Juan became an important port of call for ships of all European nations for the purposes of replenishing water, food and other necessities, and making repairs for the continuation of their journeys to North, Central and South America.  Puerto Rico was under Spanish rule, influence and military protection for over 500 years.

Just before the Spanish-American War broke out between the two super powers, Puerto Rico was going through some political growing pains with the Motherland.  In 1809, Spain attempted to secure its stronghold on its New World colonies, by allowing representatives of its Spanish colonies to participate in parliamentary proceedings in the Mainland Iberia.  The first Spanish parliamentary representative from the island of Puerto Rico was Ramon Power y Giralt.  Several independent movements organized themselves during this time.  Poverty and political estrangement with Spain led to a small but significant uprising in 1868 known as "Grito de Lares."  Leaders of this independence movement included Ramon Emeterio Betances, considered the "father" of the Puerto Rican independence movement, and other political figures such as Segundo Ruiz Belvis. Wikipedia

To elaborate on the above Wikipedia notation, on September, 28, 1868, Manuel Rojas, Commander in Chief, of the Puerto Rican Liberation Army, led 800 men and women in a revolt against Spanish rule and took the town of Lares, in what is known as the "Grito de Lares" (The Cry of Lares).

In 1897, Luis Munoz Rivera, an autonomous political thinker and father of the future first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Munoz Marin; along with others, persuaded the liberal Spanish government to agree to Charters of Autonomy for Cuba and Puerto Rico.  In the month of February, in 1898, Puerto Rico's first, but short-lived, autonomous government was organized as an "overseas province" of Spain.  In other words, Puerto Rico became an autonomous, if not, a totally independent country on July 17, 1898.

On July 25, 1898, during the Spanish-American War, Puerto Rico was invaded by the United States with a landing at Guanica.  As an outcome of the war, Spain ceded Puerto Rico, along with the Philippines and Guam to the U.S. under the Treaty of Paris.  Spain relinquished sovereignty over Cuba, but did not cede it to the U.S.  Wikipedia  And thus, ended our romance with the idea of Independence; for the moment.  This chapter is still in deliberations with Congress and the puertorican population on the island.

In noticing the extensive background of the puertorican experience, I have decided that this is a good place to divide this blog into at least two parts.  I will end Part I here.  And continue with the modern day issues and my own commentaries on the subject in Part II; to be concluded, hopefully within the next few days. 

Shorties Unite!

I was born in the beautiful Caribbean island of Puerto Rico, in the mid 1960's, but was raised in New York City, in the 1970's. 

Somehow I have managed to convinced my mind that both places are of equal importance in my heart.  And they are.  I am a loud and proud Newyorkrican.  As I was growing up, it was the Hispanic barrios in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx and even Long Branch, NJ, that I called home.   Funny thing is, I never noticed a height difference in the people surrounding me; we were all basically of similar physique. 

Imagine my horror, when my family relocated to Florida and I first realized that I was a shorty! 

Hell, here, among the short, I am considered short!

Living in New York was tough.  A vivid memory, which will always stay with me is that, every new kid in school had to prove he was not a punk.  Girls were not immune to this "unwritten" requirement.  Let's just say, my family moved around often and I was the new kid in school a lot.  Lucky or unlucky for me, depending on whether you look at life as a glass half empty or half full, I had seven brothers at home and got plenty of practice in the art of boxing(at least that's what they called it).  I did fairly well surviving these school yard fights.  I could remember losing only one fight, and this girl was tall and lanky. 

I should have taken my first hint there, don't you think?

Attending High School in Florida was not that much different than in New York.  I guess kids are mean everywhere and indiscriminately so.  The bullies tended to underestimate me because of my height and paid the consequences.  One day, I learned about Napoleon Bonaparte.  An insignificant non-commissioned French soldier who rose through the ranks to conquer most of Europe and become Emperor.   Many people surmised he  compensated for his lack of height by seeking power, war and conquest.  Thus, the term Napoleon complex was coined, geared towards vertically challenged individuals who exhibit overly aggressive and cunning characteristics.

In my mind, this guy, Napoleon, was the embodiment of what I perceived as being wrong with the world.  At least, my world.  Short people tend to get picked on.  Short people have no choice but to become aggressive to survive.  To out smart the evil that naturally comes with the accumulation of height.  Heck, its the reason Chihuahuas have developed their instinctively aggressive defense mechanism, they too, are shorties.  Everything makes sense.  Everything is right in the world.

There is only one problem, actually several.  In researching this topic; mind you, I am a conscientious writer, I don't want to mislead anyone nor God forbid, miseducate the masses; I came across information which disputes the validity of this line of thought.   It seems that the well accepted Napoleon complex is nothing more than the combination of confirmation bias alongside bigotry, used to describe an alleged type of inferiority complex which is said to affect some people, especially men, who are short in stature.  The term is also used more generally to describe people who are driven by a perceived handicap or overcompensate in other aspects of their lives. Wikipedia


To add insult to injury, Napoleon, was not short.  He was 5'6, well within the normal height for men in that era and in that part of the world.

The world I thought I knew is shattered.  I can no longer act out, finding comfort in the blanket that the Napoleon complex afforded me once and must cease to accuse the giants around me as instigator conspirators to the blight of my temper. 

I must accept, that if I want height, I must bare the pain of extremely high heeled shoes.  I must accept, that if something falls on the floor, the shortest person is always expected to bend over and pick it up, it's only logical, we are closest to the ground!  I must accept that if I want to reach something in the kitchen cabinet, a step latter is my best friend.

This was suppose to be a battle cry to all shorties around the world to stand up and fight for their rights!!!  Damn you Napoleon!!!  :)