The island of Puerto Rico was acquired by the United States after the Spanish-American War. Although the usual narrative is the war was precipitated by an explosion on the naval vessel Maine in Havana harbor, the truth is that the war was really precipitated by the contemporary media, giving rise to the term the “yellow press,” a recurring phenomenon to this day.

For decades, the Cubans had attempted to become independent from the highly autocratic rule of Spain, but due to their eternal incompetence (relax, I am Cuban, I can say that), they had floundered. The Spanish general had established campos the concentración to better fight the guerrillas. The American yellow press had, as is their wont even now, run sensationalist stories of the very real Spanish brutality. So, although Spain bent over backwards to accommodate Washington, the climate in the U.S. was conducive to war.

War indeed came and although America’s military at the time was in a dismal state — the exception being the navy — Spain’s was worse, and the war was over in the blink of an eye.

The explicit aim of the war for America was to establish Cuban independence.

In the process of the war, however, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam were acquired from Spain. Here is where it gets a bit complicated. First, Spain’s loss was a catalyst for modernizing its own stagnation. Among other things, Spanish letters would flourish (the Generación del 98). Second, the obsolete Spanish navy had been pulverized in the war. There was no way that it could exercise control over its territories. Third, before the war even ended, imperial powers sent their navies to the Philippines, hovering like vultures waiting for the official conclusion of the war so they could pounce on the carcass and either divide up the islands or fight each other for the spoils. Not so in Puerto Rico because of the Monroe Doctrine.

Faced with this unexpected state of affairs, President McKinley, after much agonizing, decided to officially annex those territories, with the aim of developing them for eventual independence.

We know that state of mind today as “nation-building.”

The Philippines was granted independence in 1947, and although it has had its ups and downs, it has been a successful country.

Cuba became officially independent, but “nation building” was in the minds of American officials, and several times the U.S. intervened. There were benefits and liabilities to both sides in doing so, but it created resentment in many Cubans.

Let me digress a moment. Marxist historians have a century-long record of distorting, or outright falsifying, history to suit their ideology. In the above events, they claim that America’s aims were malevolent in these activities from the beginning, that Americans wanted to create an empire, that they wanted to exploit the natives, etc., and that they, the Marxists, have a monopoly on virtue.

The best, though not the only example of this mutilated history, is Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. Note that “people’s” put in any organization or book is always a mark of a Marxist being involved, and the author, Howard Zinn, was indeed a rabid Communist. The book is being used as a textbook in American schools.

Puerto Rico in Limbo

Back to Puerto Rico.

In a manner of speaking, the island has been in a state of limbo for over a century. Because the population has its own language and culture, and is so distant from the mainland, it will never become fully assimilated into American culture, nor should it.

Its present commonwealth status has severe financial detriments both for Puerto Ricans and Americans, too numerous to detail here. On top of that, as a Commonwealth, Puerto Rico cannot vote in national elections, so that it has taxation without representation.

The island serves as a point of entry for illegal aliens from the Dominican Republic, who then proceed to the mainland. Puerto Rico is also an enormous financial drain to the U.S. Lastly, a small but sizeable section of the population sees themselves as a “colony” which must achieve independence, by violence if necessary, so that continuing with the status quo, or even statehood, would prolong this open sore. Therefore, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico should be declared an independent country. Prior to doing so, individual Puerto Ricans would have to officially declare whether they are Americans or Puerto Ricans. No dual citizenship.

But, regardless, this stagnation has to end once and for all.

READ MORE from Armando Simón:

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Armando Simón is a trilingual native of Cuba, a retired psychologist and historian, and author of The U and A Cuban from Kansas.