title
GREAT PUERTO RICAN FIGHTERS
Miguel Cotto
Félix Trinidad
Wilfredo Gómez
Ponce, Puerto Rico
\
Ponce (IPA [ponse]), officially the Autonomous Municipality of Ponce, is a municipality of Puerto Rico located in the Southern Coastal Plain region of the island, south of Adjuntas, Utuado and Jayuya; east of Peñuelas; and west of Juana Díaz. It has a total of 19 wards, including the historic Ponce Pueblo (the downtown area of the city).
Ponce, the second largest city in Puerto Rico outside of the San Juan metropolitan area,is named after Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, the grandson of Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León. It is located a few miles from the Caribbean coastline of the island. Ponce is often referred to as La Perla del Sur (The Pearl of the South) and La Ciudad Señorial de Puerto Rico (Majestic city of Puerto Rico). Most of Ponce's professional teams are called the Ponce Lions (or Lionesses) regardless of the sport. Ponce, nicknamed Ciudad de los leones (City of the Lions) after Ponce de León, Ponce is also called "La Perla del Sur" (The Pearl of the South), has one of Puerto Rico's richest histories, dating back to the 17th century. In 1692 Juan Ponce de León y Loayza (Juan Ponce de León's great-grandson) obtained a royal permit (cédula real) to formalize the founding of a hamlet around what was a small chapel at the time, raised and dedicated in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The hamlet was declared a villa in 1848, and obtained its city charter in 1877. In 1883, Ponce was ravaged by an enormous fire. The fire threatened to destroy much of the south coast, but thanks to the firemen of Ponce (who operated from Ponce's Parque de Bombas fire station) Ponce and the south were saved. The Parque de Bombas fire station in the central plaza has since become a museum and tourist attraction. The station continued serving the Ponce community until 1990, when it was closed and the building's activities were entirely dedicated to a museum, which is still open to the general public. In 1937, Ponce was the scene of an incident dubbed the "Ponce Massacre" in which nineteen unarmed Nationalist protesters, peacefully celebrating the 64th Anniversary of the Abolition of Slavery, were fatally shot by police under orders from the United States', CoInterPro (Counter Intelligence Program) and non-democratically elected military assigned Governor of the time, Major General Blanton C. Winship. In October 1985, Ponce suffered a great tragedy, when at least 129 people lost their lives to a mudslide in an area known as Mameyes. International help was needed to rescue people and corpses. The United States and many foreign countries, such as Mexico, France, and Venezuela, sent economic, human, and machinery relief. The coat of arms of Ponce cotains a red and black coloured shield. There is a five tower gold crown that indicates that Ponce is a city by royal decree. As an exterior frame to shield, there is a sugar cane plant on the right of the shield, and to the left a coffee tree branch. The shield of Ponce is divided by a diagonal line that crosses straight from the superior end to the left inferior end. In this divided field is the color red (for the fire that almost destroyed the city), that covers the superior right portion and the color black (for the ashes after that fire). On that black and red background is a yellow lion with black mane, walking towards the left of the shield, facing right of the shield. The lion is on a bridge, meaning that you must cross a river to enter the city by any region. The shield is bordered by a coffee plant branch and a sugar cane plant, in which the early economy of the city was based. The city of Ponce is itself sub-divided into several barrios (wards/districts)[3]:
Music
Héctor Lavoe was a Puerto Rican salsa singer. Lavoe was born and raised in the Machuelito sector of Ponce, Puerto Rico.
Sports
Leones De Ponce
The Ponce Lions basketball team is one of the leading teams of the island winning a total of twelve championships during their tenure. The team's venue is the Juan Pachín Vicéns Auditorium.
The teams of baseball and volleyball (male and female) have also been fairly successful. The baseball team venue is the Francisco Montaner Stadium. The stadium is located right next to the Juan Pachín Vicéns Auditorium.
In 2007 Ponce became host to Club Atletico River Plate Puerto Rico futbol team, which currently plays in the Puerto Rico Soccer League. They play at Francisco Montaner Stadium and are expected to play in the United Soccer Leagues, Division 1 in 2008. Becoming the second professional soccer team in Puerto Rico after the Puerto Rico Islanders.
Ponce was the site of the Central American and Caribbean Games in 1993.
History
.jpg)
The Great Ponce Fire of 1883
The Ponce Massacre
The Mameyes Landslide
Flag and coat of arms
Barrios
Culture
Tourism
Ponce's tourist appeal has not gone unnoticed, since its peculiar architectural styles are unique to Puerto Rico. Many of the city's features (from house façades to street corners) are modeled on Barcelona's, given the city's strong Catalonian heritage.
Since the 1970s, and starting with the Ponce Holiday Inn, several hotels have been built to satisfy the tourism industry. Newer Hotels include Hilton Ponce Golf & Casino Resort, home to the new Costa Caribe Golf & Country Club, featuring a 27-hole PGA championship golf course.
Some sites worth visiting are the Serralles Castle and the Cruceta El Vigia, a 100-foot observation tower which overlooks the city, as well as the street corners and 19th century domestic architecture in the blocks surrounding the central plaza. One popular legend is that scouts first used El Vigia to scan for attacking ships.
Ponce is the home of the Ponce Museum of Art, which was operated by Puerto Rico's former Governor Luis A. Ferré until his death at the age of 99. Designed by Edward Durrell Stone (Museum of Modern Art, NY), it is the only museum of international stature on the island, housing the most extensive art collection in the Caribbean. Its best-known painting is Flaming June, by Frederic Leighton.
Ponce is also home to the Serralles rum distillery (home of the Don Q and Captain Morgan, and Parrot Bay rums).
Plaza Las Delicias is the town's main square. It features several fountains (namely the "Lions Fountain"), the Ponce Cathedral and Parque de Bombas.
Other buildings around Ponce's main plaza include Casa Alcaldía (city hall), the oldest colonial building in the city, dating to the 1840s. Nearby sits Casa Armstrong-Poventud, an example of the neoclassical architectural heritage of the island.
Nearby is the Tibes Indigenous Ceremonial Center discovered in 1975 after hurricane rains uncovered pottery. The center is the site of the oldest cemetery uncovered up to date in the Antilles. With some 200 skeletons unearthed from the year 300 it is considered the largest and the most important archaeological find in the West Indies.
Hacienda Buena Vista was built in 1833 originally devoted to growing fruits, converted into a coffee plantation and corn mill in 1845 and was in operation until 1937, and restored by Fideicomiso de Conservación de Puerto Rico. All the machinery works (the metal parts are original), operated by water channeled from the 360 m Vives waterfall; there is a hydraulic turbine which makes the corn mill work.
"La Guancha Paseo Tablado", the boardwalk, is a place where local Ponceños can usually be spotted. "La Guancha" also has kiosks which sell food and alcoholic beverages. A 45-minute boat ride is available to Caja de Muertos (Coffin Island), a small beach island that features an old lighthouse built in 1887.
History of Puerto Rico
From Wikipedia,
Taíno The Taínos were pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. It is believed that the seafaring Taínos were relatives of the Arawakan people of South America. Their language is a member of the Maipurean linguistic family, which ranges from South America across the Caribbean.
At the time of Columbus's arrival in 1492, there were five Taíno kingdoms and territories on Hispaniola (modern day Haiti and Dominican Republic), each led by a principal Cacique (chieftain), to whom tribute was paid. As the hereditary head chief of Taíno tribes, the cacique was paid significant tribute. Caciques enjoyed the privilege of wearing golden pendants called guani, living in square bohíos instead of the round ones the villagers inhabited, and sat on wooden stools when receiving guests. At the time of the Spanish conquest, the largest Taíno population centers may have contained over 3,000 people each. The Taínos were historical neighbors and enemies of the fierce Carib tribes, another group with origins in South America who lived principally in the Lesser Antilles. The relationship between the two groups has been the subject of much study.
For much of the 15th century, the Taíno tribe was being driven to the Northeast in the Caribbean (out of what is now South America) because of raids by fierce Caribs (Many Carib women spoke Taíno because of the large number of female Taíno captives among them).
By the 18th century, Taíno society had been devastated by introduced diseases such as smallpox, as well as other problems like intermarriages and forced assimilation into the plantation economy that Spain imposed in its Caribbean colonies, with its subsequent importation of African slave workers. The first recorded smallpox outbreak in Hispaniola occurred in 1507. It is argued that there was substantial mestizaje as well as several Indian pueblos that survived into the 19th century in Cuba. The Spaniards who first arrived in the Bahamas, Cuba and Hispaniola in 1492, and later in Puerto Rico, did not bring women. They took Taíno women for their wives, which resulted in mestizo children.
Terminology
The word "Taíno" comes directly from Columbus. The indigenous people he encountered in his first voyage called themselves "Taíno", meaning "good" or "noble", to differentiate themselves from Island-Caribs. This name applied to all the Island Taínos including those in the Lesser Antilles. Locally, the Taínos referred to themselves by the name of their location. For example, those in Puerto Rico called themselves Boricua (which means people from the island of the valiant noble lords) their island was called Borike'n (Great land of the valiant noble lord) and those occupying the Bahamas called themselves Lucayo (small islands).
Some ethnohistorians, such as Daniel Garrison Brinton, called the same culture of people "Island Arawak" from the Arawakan word for cassava flour, a staple of the race. From this, the language and the people were eventually called "Arawak". However, modern scholars consider this a mistake. The people who called themselves Arawak lived only in the Guianas and Trinidad and their language and culture differ from those of the Taíno.
Throughout time these terms have been used interchangeably by writers, travellers, historians, linguists, and anthropologists. Taíno has been used to mean the Greater Antillean tribes only, those plus the Bahamas tribes, those and the Leeward Islands tribes or all those excluding the Puerto Rican tribes and Leeward tribes. Island Taíno has been used to refer to those living in the Windward Islands only, those in the northern Caribbean only or those living in any of the islands. Modern historians, linguists and anthropologists now hold that the term Taíno should refer to all the Taíno/Arawak tribes except for the Caribs. The Caribs are not seen by anthropologists nor historians as being the same people although linguists are still debating whether the Carib language is an Arawakan dialect or creole language — or perhaps a distinct language, with an Arawakan pidgin often used in communication.
Rouse classifies all inhabitants of the Greater Antilles (except the western tip of Cuba), the Bahamian archipelago, and the northern Lesser Antilles as Taínos. The Taínos are subdivided into three main groups: Classic Taíno, from Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, Western Taíno or sub-Taíno, from Jamaica, Cuba (except for the western tip) and the Bahamian archipelago, and Eastern Taíno, from the Virgin Islands to Montserrat.
Origins
Two schools of thought have emerged regarding the origin of the indigenous people of the West Indies. One group contends that the ancestors of the Taínos came from the center of the Amazon Basin, subsequently moving to the Orinoco valley. From there they reached the West Indies by way of what is now Guyana and Venezuela into Trinidad, proceeding along the Lesser Antilles all the way to Cuba and the Bahamian archipelago. Evidence that supports this theory includes the tracing of the ancestral cultures of these people to the Orinoco Valley and their languages to the Amazon Basin.
The alternate theory, known as the circum-Caribbean theory, contends that the ancestors of the Taínos diffused from the Colombian Andes. Julian H. Steward, the theory's originator, suggested a radiation from the Andes to the West Indies and a parallel radiation into Central America and into the Guianas, Venezuela and the Amazon Basin.
Taíno culture is believed to have developed in the West Indies.
Culture and lifestyle
Taíno society was divided into two classes: naborias (commoners) and nitaínos (nobles). These were governed by chiefs known as caciques (who were either male or female) which were advised by priests/healers known as bohiques. Bohiques were extolled for their healing powers and ability to speak with gods and as a result, they granted Taínos permission to engage in important tasks.
Taínos lived in a matrilineal society. When a male heir was not present the inheritance or succession would go to the eldest child (son or daughter) of the deceased’s sister. Taínos practised a mainly agrarian lifestyle but also fished and hunted. A frequently worn hair style featured bangs in front and longer hair in back. They sometimes wore gold jewelry, paint, and/or shells. Taíno men sometimes wore short skirts. Taíno women wore a similar garment (nagua) after marriage. Some Taíno practiced polygamy. Men, and sometimes women, might have 2 or 3 spouses, and it was noted that some caciques would even marry as many 30 wives.
Taínos lived in metropolises (called yucayeques) which varied in size depending on the location; those in Hispaniola and Puerto Rico being the largest and those in the Bahamas being the smallest. In the center of a typical village was a plaza used for various social activities such as games, festivals, religious rituals, and public ceremonies. These plazas had many shapes including oval, rectangular, or narrow and elongated. Ceremonies where the deeds of the ancestors were celebrated, called areitos, were performed here. Often, the general population lived in large circular buildings (bohio), constructed with wooden poles, woven straw, and palm leaves. These houses would surround the central plaza and could hold 10-15 families. The cacique and his family would live in rectangular buildings (caney) of similar construction, with wooden porches. Taíno home furnishings included cotton hammocks (hamaca), mats made of palms, wooden chairs (dujo) with woven seats, platforms, and cradles for children.
The Taínos played a ceremonial ball game called batey. The game was played between opposing teams consisting of 10 to 30 players per team using a solid rubber ball. Normally, the teams were composed of only men, but occasionally women played the game as well. The Classic Taínos played in the village's center plaza or on especially designed rectangular ball courts also called batey. Batey is believed to have been used for conflict resolution between communities; the most elaborate ball courts are found in chiefdoms' boundaries. Often, chiefs made wagers on the possible outcome of a game.
Taínos spoke a Maipurean language but lacked a written language. Some of the words used by them such as barbacoa ("barbecue"), hamaca ("hammock"), canoa ("canoe"), tabaco ("tobacco"), yuca, and Huracan ("hurricane") Tatuaje(tattoo) have been incorporated into the Spanish and English languages.
Food and agriculture
The Taíno diet centered around vegetables and fruits, meat, and fish. Large animals were absent from the fauna of the West Indies, but small animals such as hutias, earthworms, lizards, turtles, birds, and other mammals were consumed. Manatees were speared and fish were caught in nets, speared, poisoned, trapped in weirs, or caught with hook and line. Wild parrots were decoyed with domesticated birds and iguanas were extracted from trees and other vegetation. Taínos stored live animals until they were ready to be consumed—fish and turtles were stored in weirs, and hutias and dogs were stored in corrals.
Taíno groups in the more developed islands, such as Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica, relied more on agriculture. For important crops they used a sophisticated procedure in which they "heaped up mounds of soil", called conucos, which improved drainage, delayed erosion, and allowed for a longer storage of crops in the ground; for less important crops such as corn they used the more common and rudimentary slash and burn technique. Conucos were 3 feet high and 9 feet in circumference and were arranged in rows. The primary root crop was cassava, a woody shrub cultivated for its edible starchy tuberous root. It was planted using a coa, an early kind of hoe made completely out of wood. Women squeezed cassava to extract its poisonous juice and ground the roots into flour from which they baked bread. Batata (Sweet potato) was the Taínos' secondary crop; it was consumed as a vegetable.
Contrary to mainland practices, corn was not ground into flour and baked into bread. Instead, it was eaten off the cob. A possible explanation for this is that corn bread becomes moldy faster than cassava bread in the high humidity of the West Indies. Taínos grew squash, beans, peppers, peanuts, and pineapples. Tobacco, calabashes (West Indian pumpkins) and cotton were grown around the houses. Other fruits and vegetables, such as palm nuts, guavas, and Zamia roots, were collected from the wild.
Technology
Taínos used cotton, hemp and palm extensively for fishing nets and ropes. Their dugout canoes (Kanoa) were made in various sizes, which could hold from 2 to 150 people. An average sized Kanoa would hold about 15 - 20 people. They used bows and arrows, and sometimes put various poisons on their arrowheads. For warfare, they employed the use of a wooden war club, which they called a macana, that was about one inch thick and was similar to the cocomacaque.
Religion
Taíno religion centered on the worship of zemís or cemís. Cemís were either gods, spirits, or ancestors. There were two supreme gods: Yúcahu, which means spirit of cassava, was the god of cassava (the Taínos main crop) and the sea and Atabey, mother of Yúcahu, was the goddess of fresh waters and fertility. Other minor gods existed in Taíno religion; some of them related to the growing of cassava while others were related to the process of life, creation and death. Baibrama was a god worshiped for his assistance in growing cassava and curing people from its poisonous juice. Boinayel and his twin brother Márohu were the gods of rain and fair weather respectively. Guabancex was the goddess of storms (hurricanes). Popular belief names Juracán as the god of storms but juracán was only the word for hurricane in the Taíno language. Guabancex had two assistants: Guataubá, a messenger who created hurricane winds, and Coatrisquie, who created floodwaters. Maquetaurie Guayaba or Maketaori Guayaba was god of Coaybay, the land of the dead. Opiyelguabirán, a dog-shaped god, watched over the dead. Deminán Caracaracol, a male cultural hero from which the Taíno believed to descend, was worshipped as a cemí.
Cemí was also the name of the physical representations of the gods. These representations came in many forms and materials and could be found in a variety of settings. The majority of cemís were crafted from wood but stone, bone, shell, pottery, and cotton were also used. Cemí petroglyphs were carved on rocks in streams, ball courts, and on stalagmites in caves. Cemí pictographs were found on secular objects such as pottery, and on tattoos. Yucahú, the god of cassava, was represented with a three-pointed cemí which could be found in conucos to increase the yield of cassava. Wood and stone cemís have been found in caves in Hispaniola and Jamaica.
Cemís are sometimes represented by toads, turtles, snakes, and various abstract and human-like faces. Some of the carved Cemís include a small table or tray which is believed to be a receptacle for hallucinogenic snuff called cohoba prepared from the beans of a species of Piptadenia tree. These trays have been found with ornately carved snuff tubes.
Before certain ceremonies, Taínos would purify either by inducing vomiting with a swallowing stick or by fasting. After the serving of communal bread, first to the Cemi, then to the cacique, and then to the common people; the village epic would be sung and accompanied by maraca and other instruments. Tainos also used body modification in order to express their faith. The higher the piercing or tattoo on the body signified their closeness to their gods. Men usually wore decorative 'tatuajes' and the women wore mainly piercings.
Taíno oral tradition explains that the sun and moon come out of caves. Another story tells that people once lived in caves and only came out at night, because it was believed that the Sun would transform them. The Taíno believed to be descended from the union of Deminaán Caracaracol and a female turtle. The origin of the oceans is described in the story of a huge flood which occurred when a father murdered his son (who was about to murder the father), and then put his bones into a gourd or calabash. These bones then turned to fish and the gourd broke and all the water of the world came pouring out. Taínos believed that the souls of the dead go to Coaybay, the underworld, and there they rest by day, and when night comes they assume the form of bats and eat the fruit "guayaba".
Spaniards and Taínos
Columbus and his crew, landing on an island in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492 were the first Europeans to encounter the Taíno people. Columbus wrote:
They traded with us and gave us everything they had, with good will..they took great delight in pleasing us..They are very gentle and without knowledge of what is evil; nor do they murder or steal..Your highness may believe that in all the world there can be no better people ..They love their neighbours as themselves, and they have the sweetest talk in the world, and are gentle and always laughing.
At this time, the neighbors of the Taínos were the Guanahatabeys in the western tip of Cuba, and the Island-Caribs in the Lesser Antilles from Guadaloupe to Grenada. The Taínos called the island Guanahaní which Columbus renamed as San Salvador (Spanish for "Holy Savior"). It was Columbus who called the Taíno "Indians", an identification that has grown to encompass all the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere. A group of Taíno people accompanied Columbus on his return voyage back to Spain.
Early population estimates of Hispaniola, probably the most populous island inhabited by Taínos, range from 100,000 to 1,000,000 people. The maximum estimates for Jamaica and Puerto Rico, the most densely populated islands after Hispaniola, are 600,000 people. The Dominican priest Bartolomé de Las Casas wrote (1561) in his multivolume History of the Indies:
There were 60,000 people living on this island [when I arrived in 1508], including the Indians; so that from 1494 to 1508, over three million people had perished from war, slavery and the mines. Who in future generations will believe this?
Researchers today doubt Las Casas's figures for the pre-contact levels of the Taíno population, considering them an exaggeration. For example, Anderson Córdova estimates a maximum of 500,000 people inhabiting the island. The Taíno population estimates range all over, from a few hundred thousand up to 8,000,000. They were not immune to Old World diseases, notably smallpox. Many of them were worked to death in the mines and fields, put to death in harsh put-downs of revolts or committed suicide (throwing themselves out of the cliffs or consuming manioc leaves) to escape their cruel new masters. La Casas wrote that the Spaniards:
"made bets as to who would slit a man in two, or cut off his head at one blow; or they opened up his bowels. They tore the babes from their mothers breast by their feet, and dashed their heads against the rocks...they spitted the bodies of other babes, together with their mothers and all who were before them, on their swords....and by thirteens, in honor and reverance for our Redeemer and the twelve Apostles they put wood underneath and, with fire, they burned the Indians alive.
Some academics have suggested that the numbers the population had shrunk to 60,000 and by 1531 to 3,000 in Hispanola. In thirty years, between 80% and 90% of the population died.[35][36] Because of the increased number of people (Spanish) on the island, there was a higher demand for food from the Taíno method of plantation which was being converted to Spanish methods. Because so many Taíno were put into slavery, they had little time for community affairs, and the supply of food became so low in 1495 and 1496 that famine occurred and combined with diseases like smallpox to which the Taíno had no immunity to. This took a staggering death toll. By 1507 their numbers had shrunk to 60,000. By 1531 the number was down to 600. Scholars now believe that, among the various contributing factors, epidemic disease was the overwhelming cause of the population decline of the American natives.
On Columbus' second voyage, he began to require tribute from the Taínos in Hispaniola. Each adult over 14 years of age was expected to deliver a hawks bell full of gold every three months, or when this was lacking twenty five pounds of spun cotton. If this tribute was not observed, the Taínos had their hands cut off and were left to bleed to death. This also gave way to a service requirement called encomienda. Under this system, Taínos were required to work for a Spanish land owner for most of the year, which left little time to tend to their own community affairs.
In 1511, several caciques in Puerto Rico, such as Agüeybaná, Urayoán, Guarionex, and Orocobix, allied with the Caribs and tried to oust the Spaniards. The revolt was pacified by the forces of Governor Juan Ponce de León. Hatuey, a Taíno chieftain who had fled Hispaniola to Cuba with 400 natives in order to unite the Cuban natives, was burned at the stake on February 2, 1512. In Hispaiola, a Taíno chieftain named Enriquillo mobilized over 3,000 remaining Taíno in a successful rebellion in the 1530s. These Taíno were accorded land and a charter from the royal administration.
Las Casas wrote in his will the following prophecy:
"I believe that because these impious, criminal and ignominious acts, perpetrated unjustly, tyrannously, and barbarously upon them God will visit His wrath and His ire upon Spain for her share, great or small, in the blood stained riches, obtained by theft and usurpation, accompanied by such slaughter and annihilation of these people -- unless she does much penance".
Taíno heritage in modern times
Many people still identify themselves as descendants of the Taínos, and most notably among some Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, both on the island and on the United States mainland. People claiming to be Taíno descendants have been active in trying to assert a call for recognition of their tribe. A recent study conducted in Puerto Rico suggests that over 61% of the population possess Taíno mtDNA. Recently, a few Taíno organizations, such as the Jatibonicù Taíno Tribal Nation of Boriken (1970), the Taíno Nation of the Antilles (1993) and the United Confederation of Taíno People(1998), have been established to put forth these claims. What some refer to as the Taíno revival movement can be seen as an integral part of the wider resurgence in Caribbean indigenous self-identification and cultural restoration.The Jatibonicu Tribal Nation of Borikén was reaffirmed in Puerto Rico on November 18th 1970, Lambda Sigma Upsilon, a Latino Fraternity, adapted the Taíno Indian as their mascot symbol in 1980.
The history of Puerto Rico began with the settlement of the archipelago of Puerto Rico by the Ortoiroid people between 3000 and 2000 BC. Other tribes, such as the Saladoid and Arawak Indians, populated the island between 430 BC and 1000 AD. At the time of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492, the dominant indigenous culture was that of the Taínos. The Taíno culture died out during the latter half of the 16th century because of exploitation by Spanish settlers, the war they waged on the Taíno, and diseases introduced by the invaders.
Located in the northeastern Caribbean Sea, Puerto Rico formed a key part of the Spanish Empire from the early years of the exploration, conquest and colonization of the New World. The island was a major military post during many wars between Spain and other European powers for control of the region in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. The smallest of the Greater Antilles, Puerto Rico was a stepping-stone in the passage from Europe to Cuba, Mexico, Central America, and the northern territories of South America. Throughout most of the 19th century until the conclusion of the Spanish–American War, Puerto Rico and Cuba were the last two Spanish colonies in the New World; they served as Spain's final outposts in a strategy to regain control of the American continents.
In 1898, during the Spanish–American war, Puerto Rico was invaded and subsequently became a possession of the United States. The first half of the 20th century was marked by the struggle to obtain greater democratic rights from the United States. The Foraker Act of 1900, which established a civil government, and the Jones Act of 1917, which granted Puerto Ricans U.S. citizenship, paved the way for the drafting of Puerto Rico's Constitution and the establishment of democratic elections in 1952. However, the political status of Puerto Rico, a Commonwealth controlled by the United States, remains an anomaly more than 500 years after the first Europeans settled the island.
Pre-colonial Puerto Rico
The settlement of Puerto Rico began with the establishment of the Ortoiroid culture from the Orinoco region in South America. Some scholars suggest that their settlement dates back 4000 years. An archeological dig at the island of Vieques in 1990 found the remains of what is believed to be an Ortoiroid man (named Puerto Ferro man) which was dated to around 2000 BC. The Ortoiroid were displaced by the Saladoid, a culture from the same region that arrived on the island between 430 and 250 BC.
Between the seventh and eleventh centuries Arawaks are thought to have settled the island. During this time the Taíno culture developed, and by approximately 1000 AD it had become dominant. Taíno culture has been traced to the village of Saladero at the basin of the Orinoco River in Venezuela; the Taínos migrated to Puerto Rico by crossing the Lesser Antilles.
At the time of Columbus' arrival, an estimated 30 to 60 thousand Taíno Amerindians, led by cacique (chief) Agüeybaná, inhabited the island. They called it Boriken, "the great land of the valiant and noble Lord". The natives lived in small villages led by a cacique and subsisted on hunting, fishing and gathering of indigenous cassava root and fruit. When the Spaniards arrived in 1493, conflicts with raiding Caribs, who were moving up the Antilles chain, were taking place. The Taíno domination of the island was nearing its end and the Spanish arrival would mark the beginning of their extinction. Their culture, however, remains strongly embedded in that of contemporary Puerto Rico. Musical instruments such as maracas and güiro, the hammock, and words such as Mayagüez, Arecibo, iguana, and huracán (hurricane) are examples of the legacy left by the Taíno.
Spanish rule (1493–1898)
Beginning of colonization
On September 25, 1493, Christopher Columbus set sail on his second voyage with 17 ships and 1,200–1,500 men from Cádiz. On November 19, 1493 he landed on the island, naming it San Juan Bautista in honor of Saint John the Baptist. The first settlement, Caparra, was founded on August 8, 1508 by Juan Ponce de León, a lieutenant under Columbus, who later became the first governor of the island. The following year, the settlement was abandoned in favor of a nearby islet on the coast, named Puerto Rico (Rich Port), which had a suitable harbor. In 1511, a second settlement, San Germán was established in the southwestern part of the island. During the 1520s, the island took the name of Puerto Rico while the port became San Juan.
Colonization took the form of encomienda settlements, where settlers enslaved Taínos, providing them with military protection in return for labor. On December 27, 1512, under pressure from the Roman Catholic Church, Ferdinand II of Aragon issued the Burgos' Laws, which modified the encomiendas into a system called repartimientos, aimed at ending the exploitation. The laws prohibited the use of any form of punishment toward the indigenous people, regulated their work hours, pay, hygiene, and care, and ordered them to be catechized. In 1511, the Taínos revolted against the Spanish; cacique Urayoán, as planned by Agüeybaná II, ordered his warriors to drown the Spanish soldier Diego Salcedo to determine whether the Spaniards were immortal. After drowning Salcedo, they kept watch over his body for three days to confirm his death. The revolt was easily crushed by Ponce de León and within a few decades much of the native population had been decimated by disease, violence, and a high occurrence of suicide.
The Roman Catholic Church, realizing the opportunity to expand its influence, also participated in colonizing the island. On August 8, 1511, Pope Julius II established three dioceses in the New World, one in Puerto Rico and two on the island of Hispaniola under the archbishop of Seville. The Canon of Salamanca, Alonso Manso, was appointed bishop of the Puerto Rican diocese. On September 26, 1512, before his arrival on the island, the first school of advanced studies was established by the bishop. Taking possession in 1513, he became the first bishop to arrive in the Americas. Puerto Rico would also become the first ecclesiastical headquarters in the New World during the reign of Pope Leo X and the general headquarters of the Spanish Inquisition in the New World.
As part of the colonization process, African slaves were brought to the island in 1513. Following the decline of the Taíno population, more slaves were brought to Puerto Rico; however, the number of slaves on the island paled in comparison to those in neighboring islands. Also, early in the colonization of Puerto Rico, attempts were made to wrest control of Puerto Rico from Spain. The Caribs, a raiding tribe of the Caribbean, attacked Spanish settlements along the banks of the Daguao and Macao rivers in 1514 and again in 1521 but each time they were easily repelled by the superior Spanish firepower. However, these would not be the last attempts at control of Puerto Rico. The European powers quickly realized the potential of the newly discovered lands and attempted to gain control of them.
European threats
Sparked by the possibility of immense wealth, many European powers made attempts to wrest control of the Americas from Spain in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Success in invasion varied, and ultimately all Spanish opponents failed to maintain permanent control of the island. In 1528, the French, recognizing the strategic value of Puerto Rico, sacked and burned the southwestern town of San Germán. They also destroyed many of the island's first settlements, including Guánica, Sotomayor, Daguao and Loíza before the local militia forced them to retreat. The only settlement that remained was the capital, San Juan. French corsairs would again sack San Germán in 1538 and 1554.
Spain, determined to defend its possession, began the fortification of the inlet of San Juan in the early 16th century. In 1532, construction of the first fortifications began with La Fortaleza (the Fortress) near the entrance to San Juan bay. Seven years later the construction of massive defenses around San Juan began, including Fort San Felipe del Morro astride the entrance to San Juan bay. Later, Fort San Cristóbal and Fort San Jerónimo—built with a financial subsidy from the Mexican mines—garrisoned troops and defended against land attacks. In 1587, engineers Juan de Tejada and Juan Bautista Antonelli redesigned Fort San Felipe del Morro; these changes endure. Politically, Puerto Rico was reorganized in 1580 into a captaincy general to provide for more autonomy and quick administrative responses to military threats.
On November 22, 1595, English privateer Sir Francis Drake—with 27 vessels and 2,500 troops—sailed into San Juan Bay intending to loot the city. Even though San Juan was set ablaze, they were unable to defeat the forces entrenched in the forts. Knowing Drake had failed to overcome the city's defenses by sea, on June 15, 1598, the Royal Navy, led by George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland, landed troops from 21 ships to the east in Santurce. Clifford and his men met Spanish resistance while attempting to cross the San Antonio bridge (from an area known today as Condado) into the islet of San Juan. Nonetheless, the British conquered the island and held it for several months. They were forced to abandon the island owing to an outbreak of dysentery among the troops. The following year Spain sent soldiers, cannons, and a new governor, Alonso de Mercado, to rebuild the city of San Juan.
The 17th and 18th centuries saw more attacks on the island. On September 25, 1625, the Dutch, under the leadership of Boudewijn Hendrick (Balduino Enrico), attacked San Juan, besieging Fort San Felipe del Morro and La Fortaleza. Residents fled the city but the Spanish, led by Governor Juan de Haro, were able to repel the Dutch troops from Fort San Felipe del Morro. In their retreat the Dutch set the city ablaze. The fortification of San Juan continued; in 1634, Philip IV of Spain fortified Fort San Cristóbal, along with six fortresses linked by a line of sandstone walls surrounding the city. In 1702, the English assaulted the town of Arecibo, located on the north coast, west of San Juan, with no success. In 1797, the French and Spanish declared war on the United Kingdom. The British attempted again to conquer the island, attacking San Juan with an invasion force of 7,000 troops and an armada consisting of 64 warships under the command of General Ralph Abercromby. Captain General Don Ramón de Castro and his army successfully resisted the attack.
Amidst the constant attacks, the first threads of Puerto Rican society emerged. A 1765 census conducted by Lt. General Alejandro O'Reilly showed a total population of 44,883, of which 5,037 (11.2%) were slaves, a low percentage compared to the other Spanish colonies in the Caribbean. In 1786 the first comprehensive history of Puerto Rico—Historia Geográfica, Civil y Política de Puerto Rico by Fray Iñigo Abbad y Lasierra—was published in Madrid, documenting the history of Puerto Rico from the time of Columbus' landing in 1493 until 1783. The book also presents a first hand account of Puerto Rican identity, including music, clothing, personality and nationality.
Early 19th century
The 19th century brought many changes to Puerto Rico, both political and social. In 1809, the Spanish government, in opposition to Napoleon, was convened in Cádiz in southern Spain. While still swearing allegiance to the king, the Supreme Central Junta invited voting representatives from the colonies. Ramón Power y Giralt was nominated as the local delegate to the Cádiz Cortes. The Ley Power ("the Power Act") soon followed, which designated five ports for free commerce—Fajardo, Mayagüez, Aguadilla, Cabo Rojo and Ponce—and established economic reforms with the goal of developing a more efficient economy. In 1812, the Cádiz Constitution was adopted, dividing Spain and its territories into provinces, each with a local corporation or council to promote its prosperity and defend its interests; this granted Puerto Ricans conditional citizenship.
On August 10, 1815, the Royal Decree of Grace was issued, allowing foreigners to enter Puerto Rico (including French refugees from Hispaniola), and opening the port to trade with nations other than Spain. This was the beginning of agriculture-based economic growth, with sugar, tobacco and coffee being the main products. The Decree also gave free land to anyone who swore their loyalty to the Spanish Crown and their allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church. Thousands of families from all regions of Spain (particularly Asturias, Catalonia, Majorca and Galicia), Germany, Corsica, Ireland, France, Portugal, the Canary Islands and other locations, escaping from harsh economic times in Europe and lured by the offer of free land, soon immigrated to Puerto Rico. However, these small gains in autonomy and rights were short lived. After the fall of Napoleon, absolute power returned to Spain, which revoked the Cádiz Constitution and reinstated Puerto Rico to its former condition as a colony, subject to the unrestricted power of the Spanish monarch.
The integration of immigrants into Puerto Rican culture and other events changed Puerto Rican society. On June 25, 1835, Queen María Cristina abolished the slave trade to Spanish colonies. In 1851, Governor Juan de la Pezuela Cevallos founded the Royal Academy of Belles Letters. The academy licensed primary school teachers, formulated school methods, and held literary contests that promoted the intellectual and literary progress of the island. In 1858, the telegraph was introduced on the island with the assistance of Samuel F. B. Morse who installed a line in the town of Arroyo at Hacienda La Enriqueta.
Struggle for autonomy
The latter half of the 19th century was marked by the Puerto Rican struggle for autonomy. A census conducted in 1860 revealed a population of 583,308. Of these, 300,406 (51.5%) were white and 282,775 (48.5%) were persons of color, the latter including people of primarily African heritage, mulattos and mestizos. The majority of the population in Puerto Rico was illiterate (83.7%) and lived in poverty, and the agricultural industry—at the time, the main source of income—was hampered by lack of road infrastructure, adequate tools and equipment, and natural disasters, including hurricanes and droughts. The economy also suffered from increasing tariffs and taxes imposed by the Spanish Crown. Furthermore, Spain had begun to exile or jail any person who called for liberal reforms.
On September 23, 1868, hundreds of men and women in the town of Lares—stricken by poverty and politically estranged from Spain—revolted against Spanish rule, seeking Puerto Rican independence. The Grito de Lares ("Lares Cry" or "Lares Uprising") was planned by a group led by Dr. Ramón Emeterio Betances, at the time exiled to the Dominican Republic, and Segundo Ruiz Belvis. Dr. Betances had founded the Comité Revolucionario de Puerto Rico (Revolutionary Committee of Puerto Rico) in January 1868. The most important figures in the uprising were Manuel Rojas, Mathias Brugman, Mariana Bracetti, Francisco Ramirez Medina and Lola Rodríguez de Tió. The uprising, although significant, was quickly controlled by Spanish authorities.
Following the Grito de Lares revolt, political and social reforms occurred toward the end of the 19th century. On June 4, 1870, due to the efforts of Roman Baldorioty de Castro, Luis Padial and Julio Vizcarrondo, the Moret Law was approved, giving freedom to slaves born after September 17, 1868 or over 60 years old; on March 22, 1873, the Spanish National Assembly officially abolished, with a few special clauses, slavery in Puerto Rico. In 1870, the first political organizations on the island were formed as two factions emerged. The Traditionalists, known as the Partido Liberal Conservador (Liberal Conservative Party) were led by José R. Fernández, Pablo Ubarri and Francisco Paula Acuña and advocated assimilation into the political party system of Spain, while the Autonomists, known as the Partido Liberal Reformista (Liberal Reformist Party) were led by Román Baldorioty de Castro, José Julián Acosta, Nicolás Aguayo and Pedro Gerónimo Goico and advocated decentralization away from Spanish control. Both parties would later change their names to Partido Federal Reformista (Reformist Federal Party) and Partido Español Incondicional (Unconditional Spanish Party), respectively. In March 1887, the Partido Federal Reformista was reformed and named the Partido Autonomista Puertorriqueño (Puerto Rican Autonomist Party); it tried to create a political and legal identity for Puerto Rico while emulating Spain in all political matters. It was led by Román Baldorioty de Castro, José Celso Barbosa, Rosendo Matienzo Cintrón and Luis Muñoz Rivera.
The struggle for autonomy came close to achieving its goal on November 25, 1897, when the Carta Autonómica (Autonomic Charter), which conceded political and administrative autonomy to the island, was approved in Spain. In the past 400-plus years, after centuries of colonial rule, Práxedes Mateo Sagasta, the Prime Minister of Spain granted the island an independent government on November 25, 1897 in the empire’s legislative body in Cádiz, Spain and trade was opened up with the United States and European colonies. The charter maintained a governor appointed by Spain, who held the power to veto any legislative decision he disagreed with, and a partially elected parliamentary structure. That same year, the Partido Autonomista Ortodoxo (Orthodox Autonomist Party), led by José Celso Barbosa and Manuel Fernández Juncos, was founded. On February 9, 1898, the new government officially began. Local legislature set its own budget and taxes. They accepted or rejected commercial treaties concluded by Spain. In February 1898, Governor General Manuel Macías inaugurated the new government of Puerto Rico under the Autonomous Charter which gave town councils complete autonomy in local matters. Subsequently, the governor had no authority to intervene in civil and political matters unless authorized to do so by the Cabinet. General elections were held in March and on July 17, 1898 Puerto Rico's autonomous government began to function, but not for long.
Invasion of 1898
![US 1st Kentucky Volunteers in "Porto [sic] Rico", 1898](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:KentuckPortoRico.jpg)
On March 10, 1898, Dr. Julio J. Henna and Robert H. Todd, leaders of the Puerto Rican section of the Cuban Revolutionary Party, began to correspond with United States President William McKinley and the United States Senate in hopes that they would consider including Puerto Rico in the intervention planned for Cuba. Henna and Todd also provided the US government with information about the Spanish military presence on the island. On April 24, Spanish Minister of Defense Segismundo Bermejo sent instructions to Spanish Admiral Cervera to proceed with his fleet from Cape Verde to the Caribbean, Cuba and Puerto Rico.
In May, Lt. Henry H. Whitney of the United States Fourth Artillery was sent to Puerto Rico on a reconnaissance mission. He provided maps and information on the Spanish military forces to the US government that would be useful for an invasion. On May 10, Spanish forces at Fort San Cristóbal under the command of Capt. Angel Rivero Mendez in San Juan exchanged fire with the USS Yale under the command of Capt. William C. Wise. Two days later on May 12, a squadron of 12 US ships commanded by Rear Admiral William T. Sampson bombarded San Juan, causing panic among the residents. On June 25, the USS Yosemite blocked San Juan harbor. On July 18, General Nelson A. Miles, commander of US forces, received orders to sail for Puerto Rico and to land his troops. On July 21, a convoy with nine transports and 3,300 soldiers, escorted by USS Massachusetts (BB-2), sailed for Puerto Rico from Guantánamo. General Nelson Miles landed unopposed at Guánica, located in the southern coast of the island, on July 25, 1898 with the first contingent of American troops. Opposition was met in the southern and central regions of the island but by the end of August the island was under United States control.
On August 12, peace protocols were signed in Washington, D.C. and Spanish Commissions met in San Juan on September 9 to discuss the details of the withdrawal of Spanish troops and the cession of the island to the United States. On October 1, an initial meeting was held in Paris to draft the Peace Treaty and on December 10, 1898, the Treaty of Paris was signed (ratified by the US Senate February 6, 1899). Spain renounced all claim to Cuba, ceded Guam and Puerto Rico and its dependent islets to the United States, and transferred sovereignty over the Philippines to the United States for $20,000,000. General John R. Brooke became the first United States military governor of the island.
United States rule (1898–present)
Military government
After the ratification of the Treaty of Paris of 1898, Puerto Rico came under the military control of the United States of America. This brought about significant changes: the name of the island was changed to Porto Rico (it would be changed back to Puerto Rico in 1932) and the currency was changed from the Puerto Rican peso to the United States dollar.[29] Freedom of assembly, speech, press, and religion were decreed and an eight-hour day for government employees was established. A public school system was begun and the U.S. Postal service was extended to the island. The highway system was enlarged, and bridges over the more important rivers were constructed. The government lottery was abolished, cockfighting was forbidden, and a centralized public health service established. Health conditions were poor at the time, with high rates of infant mortality and numerous endemic diseases.
The beginning of the military government also marked the creation of new political groups. The Partido Republicano (Republican Party) and the American Federal Party were created, led by José Celso Barbosa and Luis Muñoz Rivera, respectively. Both groups supported annexation by the United States as a solution to the colonial situation. The island's Creole sugar planters, who had suffered from declining prices, greeted U.S. rule, hoping to gain access to the North American market.
Disaster struck in August 1899, when two hurricanes ravaged the island: Hurricane San Ciriaco on August 8, and an unnamed hurricane on August 22. Approximately 3,400 people died in the floods and thousands were left without shelter, food, or work. The effects on the economy were devastating: millions of dollars were lost due to the destruction of the majority of the sugar and coffee plantations.
Foraker Act of 1900
The military government in Puerto Rico was short lived; it was disbanded on April 2, 1900, when the U.S. Congress enacted the Foraker Act (also known as the Organic Act of 1900), sponsored by Senator Joseph B. Foraker. This act established a civil government and free commerce between the island and the United States. The structure of the insular government included a governor appointed by the president, an executive council (the equivalent of a senate), and a legislature with 35 members, though the executive veto required a two-thirds vote to override. The first appointed civil governor, Charles Herbert Allen, was inaugurated on May 1, 1900. On June 5, President McKinley appointed an Executive Council which included five Puerto Rican members and six U.S. members.[34] The act also established the creation of a judicial system headed by the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico and allowed Puerto Rico to send a Resident Commissioner as a representative to Congress. The Department of Education was subsequently formed, headed by Dr. M. G. Brumbaugh (later governor of Pennsylvania). Teaching was conducted entirely in English with Spanish treated as a special subject. However, both Spanish and English were official languages in the island. On November 6, the first elections under the Foraker Act were held and on December 3, the first Legislative Assembly took office. Federico Degetau took office in Washington as the first Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico on March 14, 1901.
The new political status sparked the creation of more political groups on the island. In 1900, the Partido Federal (Federal Party) and the Partido Obrero Socialista de Puerto Rico (Socialist Labor Party of Puerto Rico) were founded. The former campaigned for Puerto Rico to become one of the states in the United States while the latter followed the ideals of the Socialist Labor Party of America. Four years later, in 1904, Luis Muñoz Rivera and José de Diego restructured the American Federal Party into the Partido Unionista de Puerto Rico (Unionist Party of Puerto Rico) with the intention of fighting against the colonial government established under the Foraker Act. In 1909, Rosendo Matienzo Cintrón, Manuel Zeno Gandía, Luis Llorens Torres, Eugenio Benítez Castaño, and Pedro Franceschi founded the Partido Independentista (Independence Party). It was the first political party whose agenda was the independence of Puerto Rico.
The status quo was again altered in 1909 when the Foraker Act, due to weaknesses and a small crisis in Puerto Rico's government, was modified by the Olmsted Amendment. This Amendment placed the supervision of Puerto Rican affairs in the jurisdiction of an executive department to be designated by the president. In 1914, the first Puerto Rican officers, Martin Travieso (Secretary) and Manuel V. Domenech (Commissioner of Interiors), were assigned to the Executive Cabinet, allowing islanders a majority. A 1915 delegation from Puerto Rico, accompanied by the Governor Arthur Yager, traveled to Washington, D.C. to ask Congress to grant the island more autonomy. This delegation and speeches made by Resident Commissioner Luis Muñoz Rivera in Congress, coupled with political and economic interests, led to the drafting of the Jones-Shafroth Act of 1917 (Jones Act).
Jones Act of 1917
The Jones Act was approved on December 5, 1916, and signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on March 2, 1917. The law made Puerto Rico a United States territory which is "organized but unincorporated". It also granted U.S. citizenship to all Puerto Ricans. The Act allowed conscription to be extended to the island, sending 20,000 Puerto Rican soldiers to the United States Army during the First World War. The Act also divided governmental powers into three branches: executive (appointed by the President of the United States), legislative, and judicial. The legislative branch was composed of the senate, consisting of 19 members, and a house of representatives, consisting of 39 members. The members of the legislature were freely elected by the Puerto Rican people. A bill of rights, which established elections to be held every four years, was also created. The Act also made English the official language of the Puerto Rican courts.
On October 11, 1918, an earthquake occurred, with an approximate magnitude of 7.3 on the Richter scale, accompanied by a tsunami reaching 6.1 metres (20 feet) in height.[37] The epicenter was located northwest of Aguadilla in the Mona Canyon (between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic). This earthquake caused great damage and loss of life at Mayagüez, and lesser damage along the west coast. Tremors continued for several weeks.
As a consequence of the Jones Act and the establishment of elections, a new political party, the Partido Nacionalista de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rican Nationalist Party), was founded on September 17, 1922. In the 1930s, the Nationalist Party, led by Pedro Albizu Campos withdrew from political participation and increased conflict arose between their adherents and the authorities. They attacked Blanton Winship, the appointed Governor of Puerto Rico, Elisha Francis Riggs Chief of Police, and Robert A. Cooper Judge of the Federal Tribunal in Puerto Rico. On February 23, 1936, two Nationalists Hiram Rosado and Elias Beauchamp, in retaliation for the "Rio Piedras Massacre", killed Police Chief Riggs in San Juan. They were apprehended and summarily executed at police headquarters. On July 31, 1936, Pedro Albizu Campos, Juan Antonio Corretjer, Clemente Soto Vélez and other Nationalists were sentenced to six to 10 years in federal prison. Later, on March 21, 1937, police opened fire at a Nacionalista de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rican Nationalist) Party parade, known as the "Ponce Massacre";20 people (including two policemen) were killed and 100 wounded. In the 1920s, the economy of Puerto Rico boomed. A drastic increase in the price of sugar, Puerto Rico's principal export, brought increasing revenues to the island. As a result the island's infrastructure was steadily upgraded. New schools, roads and bridges were constructed. The increase in private wealth was reflected in the erection of many residences, while the development of commerce and agriculture stimulated the extension of banking and transport facilities. The high infant mortality death rate of the late 19th century declined steadily, thanks in large measure to basic public health programs. However, the economic growth would come to a screeching halt in 1929 when the United States stock market crashed. This period of prosperity came to an end with the onset of the Great Depression. At the time, agriculture was the main contributor to the economy. Industry and commerce slowed during the 1930s as well. The depression was further aggravated when on September 27, 1932, Hurricane San Ciprián struck the island. Exact figures of the destruction are not known but estimates say that 200–300 people were killed, more than a thousand were injured, and property damage escalated to $30–50 million. The agricultural production, the principal economic driver for the island, came to a standstill. However, the decline of the economy would not end there. A new federal minimum wage law of 25 cents an hour took effect in 1938. As a consequence, two-thirds of the island's textile factories closed because worker productivity was below that level. In the years after World War II, social, political and economical changes began to take place that have continued to shape the island's character today. The late 1940s brought the beginning of a major migration to the continental United States, mainly to New York City. The main reasons for this were an undesirable economic situation brought by the Great Depression, as well as heavy recruitment made by the U.S. armed forces and U.S. companies. In 2004, approximately 3.8 million people of Puerto Rican background lived in the United States. Political changes began in 1946 when President Truman designated the first Puerto Rican, Commissioner Resident Jesús T. Piñero, to serve as island governor. One year later the U.S. Congress passed an act allowing Puerto Ricans to vote for their own governor. The first elections under this act were performed on November 2, 1948. Luis Muñoz Marín, president of the Puerto Rican Senate, successfully campaigned and became the first democratically elected Governor of the island on January 2, 1949. In the 1950s, an ambitious industrialization project dubbed Operation Bootstrap was launched under governor Muñoz Marín. It was coupled with agrarian reform (land redistribution) that limited the area that could be held by large sugarcane interests. Operation Bootstrap enticed US mainland investors to transfer or create manufacturing plants by granting them local and federal tax concessions, but maintaining the access to US markets free of import duties. Another incentive was the lower wage scales in the densely populated island, which had a rising urban unemployed population. The program accelerated the shift from an agricultural to an industrial society. The 1950s saw the development of labor-intensive light industries, such as textiles; later manufacturing gave way to heavy industry, such as petrochemicals and oil refining, in the 1960s and 1970s. Muñoz Marín's development programs brought some prosperity for an emergent middle class. The industrialization was in part fueled by generous local incentives and freedom from federal taxation, while providing access to continental US markets without import duties. As a result, a rural agricultural society was transformed into an industrial working class. On July 4, 1950, President Harry S. Truman signed Public Act 600, which allowed Puerto Ricans to draft their own constitution establishing the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The U.S. Congress had granted commonwealth status on Puerto Rico that enhanced Puerto Rico's political status from protectorate to commonwealth. This, coupled with Muñoz Marín's reversal on not pursuing Puerto Rican Independence angered some Puerto Ricans. On late October 1950, a group of Puerto Rican nationalists, led by Pedro Albizu Campos, staged several revolts, the most successful of which is known as the Jayuya Uprising. The revolts included an attack on the governor's mansion, La Fortaleza, the United States Capitol and at Blair House, where nationalists attempted to assassinate United States President Harry S. Truman. These acts led Muñoz to crack down on Puerto Rican nationalists and advocates of Puerto Rican independence. The actions by both Muñoz and the United States' Government would later be determined as infringing on constitutional rights.On July 25, 1952, the Constitution of Puerto Rico was approved by voters in a referendum, and the island organized as the Estado Libre Asociado (Commonwealth of Puerto Rico). That same year marked the first time that the Flag of Puerto Rico could be publicly displayed. The Partido Estadistas Unido (United Statehooders Party) was founded by Luis A. Ferré to campaign for statehood in the 1967 plebiscite. On July 23, 1967, the first plebiscite on the political status of Puerto Rico was held. Voters overwhelmingly affirmed continuation of Commonwealth status (Commonwealth–60.4% Statehood–39%; Independence–0.6%).[50] Other plebiscites have taken place to determine the political status of Puerto Rico, one in 1993 and another in 1998. Both times, although by smaller margins, the status quo has been upheld. However, the U.S. constitution does not mention this avenue of status, hence legally the island remains a territory of the United States, under congressional supervision. The Partido Estadistas Unido organized the Partido Nuevo Progresista (New Progressive Party) under Ferré's leadership. The party campaigned for Puerto Rico to become the 51st state of the Union. Luis A. Ferré was elected governor on November 5, 1968, with 43.6% of the vote, the first time a pro-statehood governor has received a plurality. The New Progressive Party, the Popular Democratic Party and the Independence Party constitute the current established political parties in the island. 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. Even though Puerto Rico was granted local autonomy in 1952, it remains a territory of the United States. Its ambiguous status continues to spark political debates which dominate Puerto Rican society. Economically, Puerto Rico has recently seen its credit rating downgraded to Baa2 by Moody's Investor Services with the possibility of more downgrades happening in the near future. This has led to fiscal measures to reduce government spending, increase revenues and balance the budget, and the implementation of a 5.5% sales tax. Additionally, municipalities have the option of imposing a city sales tax between 1% and 1.5%.
Establishment of the Commonwealth
