The Identity of a Black Puerto Rican

The Identity of a Black Puerto Rican

When the United States invaded and took over Puerto Rico in 1898, race relations acquired yet another facet. "At the beginning of the century, President McKinley carried out military interventions in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines with U.S. corporate interests in mind (Schirmer)" Like Spain, the United States also intended to use Puerto Rico to its own advantage. In his project, David Bernstein states, "The United States used its power to restrict Puerto Rican trade, from which Whites in America and Puerto Rico prosperred heavily. Black and other non-White Puerto Ricans were exploited under both colonial regimes." However, the overt racism in the United States widened the gap between races even further than Spanish colonization had. Unlike in Puerto Rico, there was a strong sense of discrimination in the United States. This discrimination separated those with different colored skin, regardless of background and social status. Ferré often speaks of the prestige of class during US colonization, saying at one point:

At those moments they were very conscious of what they wore, and realized that wearing a genuine pearl necklace or carrying an authentic alligator bag on your arm made a difference when you stepped into an elegant hotel lobby, especially when one "came from down South".(Ferre 25)

In other words, the rich Puerto Ricans began to realize that because of their skin color, which was often darker than what was accepted as white, would force them to be fitted to the same stereotype as the non-whites in the mainland United States, and sought for a way to preserve their identity. In Puerto Rico, where the Spanish invasion caused a racial mixing of the island’s inhabitants, ...

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...ico: The Plantation Economy of Ponce, 1800-1850 (Madison: U of Wisconsin Press, 1984), 3-34

Schwirmer, Daniel B. "U.S. Racism and Intervention in the Third World, Past and Present." Anti-Imperialism in the United States,1898-1935

http://home.ican.net/~fjzwick/ail/raceint.html

Sí, Spain

http://www.DocuWeb.ca/SiSpain/english/history/reconque.html

Thomas, Piri. "A Bicentennial Without a Puerto Rican Colony".

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