Reflecting on Puerto Rico’s 72-Year Constitutional Legacy

Yesterday, the people of Puerto Rico commemorated the 72nd anniversary of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, which technically is the controlling document of Puerto Rico. In reality, however, the United States Congress has constitutional powers over the island.1

Here is a brief history of the creation of this document:

The United States government authorized Puerto Rico to draft its own constitution with a law passed in 1950. The Constitutional Assembly met for several months between 1951 and 1952 to draft the document. The law required the framers to follow only two basic requirements: a republican form of government and the inclusion of a Bill of Rights. The proposed constitution was approved overwhelmingly by nearly 82% of voters in a popular referendum on March 3, 1952. The United States Congress and the President approved it but required that Article II (Bill of Rights), Section 20 (guaranteeing the right to education and various economic rights) be stricken and that language be added to Section 3 of Article VII allowing non-governmental schools. On July 10, 1952, the Constitutional Convention of Puerto Rico reconvened and approved a resolution accepting those conditions, which were later ratified in a referendum held in November 1952 by the electorate. On July 25, 1952, Governor Luis Muñoz Marín, the first elected Governor of Puerto Rico, proclaimed that the constitution was in effect.2

The following is a brief history of Puerto Rico to highlight how we got to this point:

In 1898, during the Spanish-American War, U.S. forces landed on the island of Puerto Rico and defeated Spain. In 1899, Spain ceded the island to the United States under the Treaty of Paris. In 1917, the U.S. granted citizenship to Puerto Ricans, and in 1947, the island received approval to elect its own governor. Luis Muñoz Marín was elected as the first governor of Puerto Rico in 1948, and the first constitution, as I mentioned above, was approved in 1952, making the island a commonwealth.

Politics in Puerto Rico are a little crazy, worse than in the United States Mainland, if you ask me. We treat politics like a national sport of sorts, so in the minds of most Puerto Ricans, July 25 marks not only the establishment of the constitution but also two other significant and painful events in our history.

The first significant event occurred on July 25, 1898, when the United States invaded Puerto Rico and, within the next few months, gained control of the island from Spain.3 Ponce was the first city to surrender on July 28.4  

The second event occurred on July 25, 1978, and is known as the Cerro Maravilla massacre. The incident occurred at Cerro Maravilla, a mountain in Ponce, Puerto Rico, where two young Puerto Rican pro-independence activists, Carlos Enrique Soto-Arriví and Arnaldo Darío Rosado-Torres, were murdered in a Puerto Rico Police ambush.5 I still remember watching news reports of the investigation on television.

The events triggered by the landing (or discovery, as some call it) of Christopher Columbus in 1493, followed by 400 years of Spanish rule, culminating in the United States’ victory during the Spanish-American War in 1898 and the transfer of the island from Spain to the United States, have created a lot of confusion among the people.

The people of Puerto Rico are still trying to figure out a way forward. The majority are divided between statehood for the island or remaining with the current commonwealth status, while others want independence. There have been six referendums on the island to decide, and they are about to conduct another one in November, which is creating a lot of conflict among the people because it was a last-minute decision by the current government. Some political parties are already bringing cases to court, arguing that this referendum is being forced on the people and is without merit.

Yesterday was not only about commemorating the constitution; it was also a reminder of the island’s territorial status.

I’ll be writing a follow-up post describing my observations and opinions on the current political status, but I wanted to mention the importance of yesterday’s historical event to inform my WordPress Community.

  1. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/06/09/supreme-court-puerto-rico-independent-sovereign/85155382/ ↩︎
  2.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Puerto_Rico ↩︎
  3. Jimenez de Wagenheim, Olga. Puerto Rico An Interpretive History from Pre-Columbian Times to 1900. (P. 195). Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2006  ↩︎
  4. Pico, Fernando. History of Puerto Rico A Panorama of its People. (P. 236). Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2017. ↩︎
  5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerro_Maravilla_murders ↩︎

38 thoughts on “Reflecting on Puerto Rico’s 72-Year Constitutional Legacy”

  1. More confirmation that the world is a mess, Edward. Thanks for sharing. It reminds me of churches in some ways if you only go to the sermon or on vacation, we get to see the skewed version of “aren’t we all having fun”. Thanks for tuning us in and look forward to your next share. 💕

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  2. “worse than in the United States” – goodness!

    One of the things I appreciate about being part of the WP community is learning about other places from people who are from or have first-hand experience with that location. Thank you for sharing this significant day and historical information with us.

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    1. You’re welcome, Michele. I also appreciate this community for the same reason. I wish the government and politicians in Puerto Rico were more transparent about their intentions, not only to the people on the island but also to the U.S. Congress and the rest of the people on the mainland.

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  7. Thank you for sharing this interesting history of your homeland, Edward. As Canadians, we were taught in school a lot about the history of the USA, but very little about that of Puerto Rico, and I’m not certain about the reasoning for that. Perhaps the educators didn’t even know much about it. It will be interesting to follow how things will play out around the referendum.

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    1. Thank you, Terry. I don’t think that the topics of U.S. territories get covered much in those courses. We discussed Puerto Rico in one of the courses I took because, of course, we were on the island, but I don’t remember the teacher talking about the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, etc.

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  12. Thank you so much for sharing this detailed history of Puerto Rico’s Constitution and its significance. As someone who is Puerto Rican myself, I found this information to be incredibly insightful. I was unaware of some of the specifics you mentioned, especially the nuances of the constitutional process and the historical events tied to July 25.

    Thanks again for bringing this important topic to light.

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    2. I echo what your other commenters have been saying, Edward. Puerto Rico’s history is well out of the limelight in American history courses (as are all of its other territories). It’s certainly understandable why people would be conflicted about whether to keep the status quo, push for full statehood, or go for independence, like so many of its neighbours are doing from their European colonizers. I hope you will keep writing about Puerto Rican history.

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      1. Thank you very much, Jane, for such a wonderful comment. Politicians are not helping, of course, because they are just trying to gain influence instead of educating and providing facts to the people so they can make informed decisions. In the meantime, the island continues in limbo.

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        1. I grew up in the Ling Island suburbs on NYC in the 50s and early 60s. I remember hearing about 100s if not 1000s of Puerto Ricans coming to NYC every year, but in all my schooling we never learned anything about the reality (or extent) of US territories. It’s as you say, the people need to have all the information – and history – they need to make informed decisions for their future. I wish the Island well, very well.

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