Annotations for Dates: 1898

Number one, it's the first time ever that a prospective government controls the executive, both chambers of the legislature with an ample majority, and 60 of the 78 municipalities in the island. In other words, this is the first time again, since 1898 in which statehood is obviously the possible winner of a plebiscite in Puerto Rico. The second thing is that after Congress failed to implement a US oriented plebiscite, which died in the Senate two years ago, the United States has to get its act together to respond to what unilaterally, the people of Puerto Rico are going to say on the 14th of November of this year. I have said in my column in the Miami Herald that this is the moment in which finally the resistible force meets the movable object.

[Background--Music--Salsa] Ever since 1898, when the island of Puerto Rico first became a US territory, Puerto Ricans have debated their relationship to the United States. 40 years after becoming a US commonwealth in 1952, the debate still continues with some Puerto Ricans favoring the status quo, others advocating the island become the nation's 51st state, and still others calling for Puerto Rico's independence. During his electoral campaign, Puerto Rico's governor Pedro Rosello promised to try to put an end to the eternal debate over status by calling for a plebiscite. That vote on November 14th may not be the last word on Puerto Rico's status, but Puerto Ricans are hoping it will force the US Congress to act. Latino USA's Maria Martin is in San Juan to report on the plebiscite.

This is the first time in the history of Puerto Rico that the three parties approved a law that was adopted as a petition for the redress of grievances against the Congress of the United States. That's the first sentence in that particular law. So, here we are. This is the first time after 1898 that the people of Puerto Rico have told the United States we have a grievance, and that grievance obviously is colonialism.