Roman Speaks on Puerto Rico's Fate

Expressing his support for United States-Puerto Rico Status Act (HR 856), Tito Roman, regional director of the Massachusetts Regional Office of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, spoke to an audience of about 15 at the John F. Kennedy School last night.

If passed, HR 856, which is currently before Congress, would authorize Puerto Rico to hold a self-determination plebiscite which will decide on its political status.

The bill, filed by U.S. Representative Don Young (R-Alaska), establishes 1998 as the date for the plebiscite, and provides for implementation of the majority decision within 10 years.

The bill--which comes after years of political ambiguity, strife and division--may help to finally decide the status of the island.

The HR 856 bill defines the current status of Puerto Rico as that of "an unincorporated territory subject to Congress' power under the Constitution's Territorial Clause." The island is also described as a free-associated state.

The bill, which proclaims that it will "provide a process leading to full self government of Puerto Rico," presents voters with three options: commonwealth, separate sovereignty and statehood.

The commonwealth status, which is the current status of the territory, maintains Puerto Rico as an unincorporated territory subject to Congress' authority.

Separate sovereignty would lead to independence from the U.S. or free association, while statehood would provide a full and equal integration into the Union, according to a press release.

Roman said that while moving away from the territory condition to self government is far from easy, the bill is a reasonable and timely proposal because it "creates a process but does not impose a result."

Roman also discussed problems in the current political status, particularly the lack of voting rights in mainland U.S. elections and the lack of Puerto Rican representation in Congress.

While plebiscites over the past 45 years have decided in favor of continuing the current commonwealth status, Roman traced the increasing support of the statehood option and described the commonwealth or free-associated state as obsolete.

"While it originally provided the 'best of both worlds', it was not meant to be a permanent status, but only a transitional phase," he said.

Current opposition to the bill comes from the "natural human resistance to change," Roman said.

Those opposed to the bill say that they believe that it favors statehood and forces Puerto Ricans to select the this option.

But Roman said last night that statehood may be one of the only ways to ensure more representation for Puerto Ricans.

Calling Puerto Rico "an unincorporated territory" is masking reality, he said adding that Puerto Rico is currently in a colonial relationship with the U.S.

"There's no use trying to dance around it," he said. "The only formula that guarantees U.S. citizenship is statehood."

Audience members said they had mixed reactions to the presentation.

"It was informative, but it seems slanted towards statehood. Every other option should be presented equally," said Vanessa Rosado '01.

In an interview after the presentation, Roman denied the statement that his discussion favored statehood over other possibilities.

"I'm a statehooder and a Democrat, but it wouldn't be fair to say I was here advocating for statehood. I was here advocating for the Young bill," he said.