In an era of rising nationalism, ethnic conflict and political fragmentation, from Yugoslavia to Canada, Sunday’s referendum in Puerto Rico on the island’s political future was strikingly out of step.
Some 96 percent of the voters in this Spanish-speaking, multiracial former colony repudiated the idea of independence, splitting by 48 to 46 percent between keeping their unusual commonwealth relationship to the United States and becoming a full-fledged state.
Whatever else it was, the vote constituted a clear expression of admiration for the ideals and political system of the United States. Puerto Ricans may not be willing to relinquish their unique Caribbean identity, but neither do they want to give up their place as Americans.
The island, which became a U.S. possession in the Spanish-American War of 1898, has long lived with what supporters of commonwealth status extol as “the best of two worlds.” Puerto Rico’s people are American citizens, free to travel and live in the United States and eligible for federal benefits like Social Security (though at lower levels than on the mainland), but they pay no federal income taxes, and corporations operating there are likewise exempt on their local earnings.
Statehood supporters lament that they lack equality: Puerto Ricans have repeatedly been drafted to fight in wars without having any say in whether to go to war, since they may not participate in presidential elections and have no voting representatives in Congress. In this view, the federal tax exemption is poor compensation for second-class citizenship.
More Puerto Ricans are coming to agree. In the last vote, held in 1967, pro-commonwealth forces got 60 percent of the vote, with 39 percent going for statehood.
But the dominant preference is still for the security of the familiar over the appeal of the new. Those who voted for “enhanced commonwealth” apparently feared higher taxes and the possibility that they would have to give up Spanish as one of two official languages, not to mention losing their right to field separate teams in international athletic events. They also hope, perhaps unrealistically, that they can extract greater benefits from Washington without the burden of helping to pay for them.
The outcome doesn’t settle the matter permanently. Statehood supporters think the trend in their favor will eventually lead to victory. For now, though, Congress and the president are spared the prickly problem of whether to admit a state whose people speak a foreign tongue, earn a per capita income half the U.S. norm and would be a net drain on the Treasury for years to come.
Putting the question to our lawmakers would produce a contentious debate that would inevitably cause anxiety and hurt feelings in Puerto Rico. That’s just one of the reasons Puerto Ricans saw more to be lost than won in pushing for change.
