[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 30 (Tuesday, March 11, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H814-H815]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       EQUALITY FOR PUERTO RICANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 21, 1997 the gentleman from Puerto Rico [Mr. Romero-Barcelo] is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ROMERO-BARCELO. Mr. Speaker, Wednesday, February 26 was a 
historic day. It was a historic day for the 3.8 million United States 
citizens of Puerto Rico and for our Nation as a whole.
  On Wednesday, February 26, a group of more than 75 Members of 
Congress of both parties introduced H.R. 856, the United States-Puerto 
Rico Political Status Act. It marked what I hope will be the beginning 
of the end of Puerto Rico's long journey toward enfranchisement and 
full self-government.
  It was almost 100 years ago, in 1898, that Spain ceded Puerto Rico to 
the

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United States as a result of the Spanish-American War.
  In 1917 Puerto Ricans became U.S. citizens, a citizenship that we 
have cherished and valued ever since and defended with our blood. In 
1952 the island became a so-called Commonwealth of the United States, a 
change that did not affect the island's status as an unincorporated 
territory of the United States subject to the jurisdiction of Congress.
  But if the Chinese proverb that a journey of a thousand miles must 
begin with a single step is true, then the actions to finally 
decolonize and end the disenfranchisement of the United States citizens 
of Puerto Rico is merely the first step.
  H.R. 856 is undoubtedly the most important step that we have taken in 
this journey to resolve the issue of political and economic inequality 
that has infused the people of Puerto Rico for the last 100 years.
  I have devoted most of my adult life to this struggle and to leading 
my people in this long and treacherous journey. As former mayor of San 
Juan, Puerto Rico's capital city, as former Governor and now a Member 
of Congress, I have heard my people's voices and have shared their 
dreams and aspirations. These voices, questions, and aspirations 
resonate loudly in the island, although to most Americans living in the 
continental United States they may seem as distant echoes reflecting 
the deep unease and disenchantment with our current relationship.
  College students in Puerto Rico ask me if our present status will 
deny them equal treatment in Federal education programs that they 
desperately need to succeed in today's competitive world. Young couples 
ask me why they have to move to the States in order to search for 
opportunities that are not available in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rican 
veterans who have served the United States gallantly in all of the 
Nation's wars and conflicts in this century ask me why they cannot vote 
for the President that as Commander in Chief may also send their sons 
and daughters to fight and die in times of war. The elderly ask me why 
their health benefits and other support programs are less than if they 
resided in New York, Illinois, California, Florida, or any other State 
of the Union. I have heard the voice of a grandmother wondering why her 
son who died in Vietnam gave his life for a country that denies her and 
her grandchildren the right to participate on equal terms. The answer 
to this question is clear. We are unequals because we are not partners.

                              {time}  1245

  We are unequals because we are submerged in a colonial relationship 
in which our economic, social, and political affairs are controlled to 
a large degree by a government in which we have no voting influence and 
in which we do not participate. We are unequals because we cannot vote 
for the President of the Nation of which we are citizens of and because 
we do not have a proportional and voting representation in the Congress 
that determines our rules of conduct and our future.
  Mr. Speaker, this great Nation of ours, the example and inspiration 
of democracies throughout the world, the inspiration to the Chinese 
that revolted in Tiananmen, the inspiration of the revolt, the Hasidic 
Revolt in Poland, the inspiration of the unification of Germany, the 
inspiration of many other countries throughout the world, the 
inspiration of the peaceful revolt in Russia, cannot continue to uphold 
the policy that denies political participation and disenfranchises 3.8 
million of its own citizens. We cannot continue to hide our heads in 
the sand like ostriches and pretend that nothing is happening. We are 
talking about the lives, the well-being, and the voting rights of 3.8 
million U.S. citizens. We are not talking about illegal immigrants or 
legal residents. We are talking about U.S. citizens.
  I am encouraged by the fact that we have been able to gather so much 
bipartisan support for this legislation in so little time. A similar 
version of this bill will be introduced in the Senate within the next 
weeks, and the support there seems to be as strong and as bipartisan as 
it is here in the House.
  We are more than halfway through the 1990's, a decade that the United 
Nations General Assembly declared to be the international decade for 
the eradication of colonialism. Next year Puerto Rico will commemorate 
its 100th year as a United States colony. Should we celebrate or should 
we mourn? Will we see a silver lining in the sky by 1998 or will we see 
more of the same?
  Our Nation cannot seek to promote and at times enforce democracy 
elsewhere in the world while it relegates 3.8 million of its own 
citizens to indefinite second class status, disenfranchised, 
discriminated against, and unable to exercise the most basic right in a 
democracy, the right to vote and participate in its government.
  Mr. Speaker, to ignore the situation of Puerto Rico is to betray the 
spirit of our democratic values and traditions.

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