The nature of Puerto Rico's political relationship with the United States is the subject of ongoing debate in the island and also in the United Nations.[2] Those who support maintaining the status quo (i.e., Commonwealth status) insist that upon attaining this status, Puerto Rico entered into a voluntary association with the U.S. "in the nature of a compact", but opponents of Commonwealth disagree: according to some, Puerto Rico is an unincorporated organized territory of the United States, subject to the plenary powers of the United States Congress; and to others, a colony with the right to govern itself as an independent country.

History

Pre-Columbian era

The history of the island of Puerto Rico prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus is not well understood. What is known today comes from archeological findings and from early Spanish oral accounts. The first comprehensive book on the history of Puerto Rico was written by Fray Iñigo Abbad y Lasierra in 1786, 293 years after the first Spaniards arrived on the island.

The first indigenous settlers of Puerto Rico were the Ortoiroid, an Archaic age culture. An archeological dig in the island of Vieques in 1990 found the remains of what is believed to be an Arcaico (Archaic) man (named Puerto Ferro man) which was dated to around 2000 BC (4000 years ago). Between 120 and 400 AD, the Igneri, a peaceful tribe from the Orinoco region, arrived on the island. Between the 7th and 11th century the Taíno culture developed on the island and by approximately 1000 AD, the Taíno culture had become dominant, a trend that lasted until the arrival of the Spanish in 1493.

Spanish arrival

When Christopher Columbus arrived at Puerto Rico during his second voyage on November 19, 1493, the island was inhabited by a group of Arawak Indians known as Taínos. The Taínos called the island "Borikén", which was later pronunced by the Spaniards as "Borinquen". Originally named San Juan Bautista, in honor of Saint John the Baptist, the island ultimately took the name of Puerto Rico (meaning Rich Port). The name San Juan is now delegated to both its capital and largest city and to a small island off Puerto Rico known as Old San Juan which is incorporated as part of the capital. In 1508, Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León became the island's first governor to take office.

The island was soon colonized by the Spanish. African slaves were introduced as labour to replace the decreasing populations of Taíno Indians who were being forced to work for the Spanish crown. The Taínos were finally extinguished by diseases brought by the Spaniards and Africans and by the harsh conditions in which they were forced to work. Puerto Rico briefly became an important stronghold and port for the Spanish Empire in the Caribbean. Colonial emphasis during the late 17th - 18th centuries, however, focused on the more prosperous mainland territories, leaving the island impoverished of settlers. Because of concerns of threats from European enemies, over the centuries various forts and walls, such as La Fortaleza, El Castillo San Felipe del Morro and El Castillo de San Cristóbal, were built to protect the port of San Juan. The French, Dutch and English made attempts to capture Puerto Rico, but failed to wrest long-term occupancy of the island.

In 1809, while Napoleon occupied the majority of the Iberian peninsula, a populist assembly based in Cádiz recognized Puerto Rico as an overseas province of Spain with the right to send representatives to the Spanish Court. The representative Ramon Power y Giralt died soon after arriving in Spain. These constitutional reforms were reversed when autocratic monarchy was restored. Nineteenth century reforms augmented the population and economy, and expanded the local character of the island. After the rapid gains of independence by the South and Central American states in the first part of the century, Puerto Rico and Cuba became the sole New World remnants of the large Spanish empire.

Toward the end of the 19th century, poverty and political estrangement with Spain led to a small but significant uprising in 1868 known as "El Grito de Lares". The uprising was easily and quickly crushed. Leaders of this independence movement included Ramón Emeterio Betances, considered the "father" of the Puerto Rican nation, and other political figures such as Segundo Ruiz Belvis. Later, another political stronghold was the autonomist movement originated by Román Baldorioty de Castro and, toward the end of the century, by Luis Muñoz Rivera. In 1897, Muñoz Rivera and others persuaded the liberal Spanish government to agree to a Charters of Autonomy for Cuba and Puerto Rico. The following year, Puerto Rico's first, but short-lived, autonomous government was organized. The charter maintained a governor appointed by Spain, who held the power to annul any legislative decision he disagreed with, and a partially elected parliamentary structure.

Puerto Rico under United States rule

On July 25, 1898 at the outbreak of the Spanish–American War, Puerto Rico was invaded by the United States with a landing at Guánica. Following the outcome of the war, Spain was forced to cede Puerto Rico, along with the Philippines, and Guam to the United States under the Treaty of Paris (1898).[8] Puerto Rico began the twentieth century under the military rule of the United States with officials, including the governor, appointed by the President of the United States. In 1917, the Jones-Shafroth Act conferred U.S. citizenship on Puerto Ricans, a status they still hold today. Many Puerto Ricans served in the U.S. Armed Forces beginning in World War I. Natural disasters and the Great Depression impoverished the island. Some political leaders demanded change; some, like Pedro Albizu Campos, would lead a nationalist (The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party) movement in favor of independence. He served many years in prison for seditious conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. Government in Puerto Rico.[9] Luis Muñoz Marín initially favored independence, but saw a severe decline of the Puerto Rican economy, as well as growing violence and uprisings and opted to create the "commonwealth" option as an eventual stepping stone to full independence.

Change in the nature of the internal governance of the island came about during the later years of the Roosevelt–Truman administrations, as a form of compromise spearheaded by Muñoz Marín and others, and which culminated with the appointment by President Harry Truman in 1946 of the first Puerto Rican-born governor, Jesus T. Piñero. In 1947, the United States granted the right to democratically elect the governor of Puerto Rico. Luis Muñoz Marín became the first elected governor of Puerto Rico in the 1948 general elections, serving as such for 16 years, until 1964.

Starting at this time, there was heavy migration from Puerto Rico to the mainland of the United States in search of better economic conditions. In 1945 there were 13,000 Puerto Ricans living in New York City; by 1955 there were 700,000, and by the mid-1960s there were over a million.

On November 1, 1950, Puerto Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempted to assassinate President Harry S. Truman. Subsequently, Truman allowed for a genuinely democratic referendum in Puerto Rico to determine whether Puerto Ricans desired to draft their own constitution.[10] Puerto Rico adopted its own constitution in July 25, 1952 which adopted the name Estado Libre Asociado (Free Associated State for some, Associated Free State for others), translated into English as "Associated Commonwealth", for the body politic and which denotes Puerto Rico's current relationship with the United States.[11][12] During the 1950s Puerto Rico experienced a rapid industrialization, with such projects as Operation Bootstrap which aimed to industrialize Puerto Rico's economy from agriculture-based into manufacturing-based.

Present-day Puerto Rico has become a major tourist destination and a leading pharmaceutical and manufacturing center. Still, Puerto Rico continues to struggle to define its political status. Three locally-authorized plebiscites have been held in recent decades to decide whether Puerto Rico should pursue independence, enhanced commonwealth status, or statehood. Narrow victories by commonwealth supporters over statehood advocates has allowed the relationship between Puerto Rico and the federal government to remain unchanged. In the latest status referendum of 1998, "None of the above" won over statehood with 50.2% of the votes, and support for the pro-statehood party (Partido Nuevo Progresista or PNP) and the pro-commonwealth party (Partido Popular Democrático or PPD) is about equal. The only registered independence party on the island, the Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño or PIP, usually receives 3-5% of the electoral votes, though there are several smaller independence groups like the Partido Nacionalista (Puerto Rican Nationalist Party), el Movimiento Independentista Nacional Hostosiano (National Hostosian Independence Movement), and the Macheteros - Ejercito Popular Boricua (or Boricua Popular Army).

Demographics

Puerto Rico has sometimes been said to have a European (Spanish) descent majority, an extinct Amerindian population, persons of mixed ancestry, Africans, and a small Asian minority. In August, 1999 a researcher at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez received a grant from the National Science Foundation to determine the continental origin of the mtDNA of Puerto Ricans through the analysis of a representative sample. The results of the analysis of approximately 300 samples identify 62% as having Amerindian maternal mitochondrial DNA, 30% as having African maternal mitochondrial DNA, and 8% as having Caucasian maternal mitochondrial DNA.[15] Conversely, patrilineal input, as indicated by the Y chromosome, showed that 70% of all Puerto Rican males have inherited Y chromosome DNA from a male European ancestor, 20% have inherited Y chromosome DNA from a male African ancestor, and fewer than 10% have inherited Y chromosome DNA from a male Amerindian ancestor. In summary, the results suggest that the three largest components of the Puerto Rican genetic pool are Amerindian, European, and African. These results cast doubt on the hypothesis that the Tainos disappeared from Puerto Rico by the end of the sixteenth century.

During the 1800s, hundreds of Corsican, French, Lebanese, Chinese, and Portuguese, along with large numbers of immigrants from the Canary Islands and numerous Spanish loyalists from Spain's former colonies in South America, arrived in Puerto Rico. Other settlers have included Irish, Scots, Germans, and many others who were granted land from Spain during the Real Cedula de Gracias de 1815 (Royal Decree of Graces of 1815), which allowed European Catholics to settle in the island with a certain amount of free land. A census conducted by royal decree on September 30, 1858, gives the following totals of the Puerto Rican population at this time, Whites 300,430 , Free colored 341,015, Slaves 41,736, Unclassified 127. More recently Puerto Rico has become the permanent home of over 100,000 legal residents who immigrated from not only Spain, but from Latin America as well. Argentines, Cubans, Dominicans, Colombians and Venezuelans can also be accounted for as settlers. The variety of surnames which exist in Puerto Rico suggests widespread immigration to the island from many regions.

Emigration has been a major part of Puerto Rico's recent history as well. Starting in the Post-WWII period, due to poverty, cheap airfare, and promotion by the island government, waves of Puerto Ricans moved to the United States, particularly to New York City, Chicago, Boston, Orlando, Tampa, and Hartford. This continued even as Puerto Rico's economy improved and its birth rate declined. Emigration continues at the present time, and this, combined with Puerto Rico's greatly lowered birth rate, suggests that the island's population will age rapidly and start to decline sometime within the next couple of decades.

In the 2000 U.S. Census Puerto Ricans were asked to indicate which racial category they consider themselves. 95.8% answered with only one choice. The breakdown is as follows: 80.5% described themselves as "white"; 8% described themselves as "black"; and only 0.4% described themselves as "American Indian or Alaska Native" (the US Census does not consider Hispanic to be a race, and asks if a person considers himself Hispanic in a separate question). These figures demonstrate that racial terms are relative, not absolute, and highlight the potential for confusion when they are used in a definitive and distinct way. However the island suffers from very high levels of poverty, as of 2005, 50% of the population is living below the poverty line.

Education

Education in Puerto Rico is divided into four levels. These are elementary, intermediate, high school, and the college level. Students can attend either a public or a private school. According to the 2000 Census, 60.0% of the population attained a high school degree or higher level of education, and 18.3% has a bachelor's degree or higher. This ranks as worst and 6th worst, respectively, among US states, where the national averages are 80.4% and 24.4%.[17] As of 2002, the literacy rate of the population was 94.1%. By gender, the literacy rate is 93.9% for males and 94.4% for females.

Public schools are run by the state while private schools are run by private institutions, predominantly the Roman Catholic Church. The two public universities in Puerto Rico are the multi-campus University of Puerto Rico and the Colegio Universitario de San Juan operated by the city of San Juan. The largest private university systems on the island are the Ana G. Mendez University System (which operates the Turabo University, the Metropolitan University, and the Eastern University), the multi-campus Interamerican University, the Pontifical Catholic University, and the University of the Sacred Heart. Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe located in historic Old San Juan is a graduate level institution specializing in the study of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.

There are more than 1,500 schools attending over 100,000 students every year. With 45 thousand teachers the Department of Education is the largest employer in the island. The Teachers' Federation of Puerto Rico is the largest union which organizes all the permanent teachers within the public sector.