Puerto Ricans Tilt to Statehood

Published: December 16, 1991

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Both sides in Puerto Rico have cried foul, and voters there may
well have been confused by the complex referendum questions
put to them recently. But in a 53-to-45 percent vote, Puerto
Ricans rejected what looked like an attempt to load the deck
against future statehood. The results were a rebuke to Gov.
Rafael Hernandez Colon, whose party wants to expand and make
permanent the island's present commonwealth status.

The Governor overreached by asking Puerto Ricans to claim

constitutional guarantees for their distinct cultural identity, even
if their island should become a state. The guarantees would have
included the right to field their own international sports teams.
But these are rights that only the U.S. Congress and international
sports groups can bestow.

The election was marred by exaggeration and innuendo.

Statehood supporters mounted a scare campaign suggesting that
approval could mean the loss of U.S. citizenship and welfare
benefits. And commonwealth proponents exploited anger at an
aloof and imperious U.S. Congress that failed to deliver on
promises to hold a status plebiscite this year. It added to the
sting when some stateside senators suggested that Spanish-
speakers were somehow unfit for statehood.
For Puerto Ricans, statehood offers the chance for real clout in
Washington with two U.S. senators and a flock of
representatives. But it leaves linguistic rights unsettled and
would also end exemptions from Federal taxes that have fueled
economic growth. Those exemptions, and the right of home rule,
are the outstanding benefits of the commonwealth status that
has been peculiar to Puerto Rico since 1952.

Seen from the mainland, the debate has a reassuring dimension.

In a world of rampant ethnic separatism, the choice in Puerto
Rico is principally between two forms of association with the
United States. Independence has little support, and the
referendum now suggests a tilt to statehood. The burden is once
again on Congress to assure a meaningful choice for a people
seized as war booty in 1898 and treated ever since as a stepchild
by Washington.