Puerto Rico’s Ambivalence Toward the U.S.

History of A Nation Without Its Own Country

Hurricane Fiona devastated Puerto Rico last month, but it also brought focus, once more, to Puerto Rico’s peculiar status within the United States — that it is a territory, not a state, despite the fact that more than 9 million Americans identify themselves as Puerto Rican.

Puerto Rico’s status as a non-state territory matters, significantly so. It matters because according to FEMA, projects in Puerto Rico are backlogged compared to projects in Texas and Florida. It matters because, since Hurricane Maria’s catastrophe in 2017, when the island went dark for several months, Puerto Rico has struggled to rebuild housing and crucial infrastructure. So there was a sense of déjà vu as the island went dark, again, after Hurricane Fiona hit last month. And it matters because while adults from Puerto Rico are recruited to serve our country in war, those same adults do not have the right to vote for the U.S. president or vice president in Puerto Rico (apparently, they could vote in the primaries).

To better understand Puerto Rico’s rich history, I spoke with Dr. Jorge Duany, who was born in Cuba and raised in Panama and Puerto Rico. Dr. Duany is the Director of the Cuban Research Institute and Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Global & Sociocultural…