America's Colony: The Political and Cultural Conflict between the United States and Puerto Rico

by Pedro A Malavet

Overview

The precise legal nature of the relationship between the United States and the people of Puerto Rico was not explicitly determined in 1898 when the Treaty of Paris transferred sovereignty over Puerto Rico from Spain to the United States. Since then, many court cases, beginning in 1901, have been instrumental in defining this delicate relationship.
While the legislation has clearly established the nonexistence of Puerto Rican nationhood and lack of independent Puerto Rican citizenship, the debate over Puerto Rico's status continues to this day.
Malavet offers a critique of Puerto Rico’s current status as well as of its treatment by the U.S. legal and political systems. Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States, and Puerto Ricans living on this geographically separate island are subject to the United States’s legal and political authority. They are the largest group of U.S. citizens currently living under territorial status. Malavet argues that the Puerto Rican cultural nation experiences U.S. imperialism, which compromises both the island's sovereignty and Puerto Ricans’ citizenship rights. He analyzes the three alternatives to Puerto Rico's continued territorial status, examining the challenges manifest in each possibility, as well as illuminating what he believes to be the best course of action.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814757413
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	11/01/2007
Series:	Critical America , #43
Pages:	242
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.58(d)

About the Author

Pedro A. Malavet is Professor of Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law.

Table of Contents

	Gracias (Thanks)	xi
	Introduction: Why I Am Here	1
1	Race, Culture, Colonialism, Citizenships, and Latina/o Critical Race Theory	15
2	The Legal Relationship between Puerto Rico and the Estados Unidos de Norteamerica (United States of America)	28
3	Puerto Rican Political Culture	49
4	Puerto Rican Cultural Nationhood	100
5	Theorizing a New Reality of Citizenship and Nation	117
6	A Framework for Legal Reform	132
7	Conclusion	147
	Notes	163
	Index	223
	About the Author	242

Editorial Reviews

"Provides a new and needed approach to understanding the development and current status of Puerto Rico."

Choice

"In an era increasingly concerned with democracy around the world, Malavet reminds us of the forgotten colony in our own backyard — Puerto Rico. Utilizing a Critical Race/Latino Theory perspective, Malavet make the legal case for a post-colonial future in which reparations will be owed."

Adrien K. Wing

"Americas Colony incisively analyzes the legal treatment of Puerto Rico as a U.S. territory and the second class treatment of Puerto Ricans. This important book is sure to become an influential critical analysis of the subordination of Puerto Ricans, who contrary to popular opinion are U.S. citizens by birth. Denied representation in the U.S. Congress and the right to vote for President, it is no surprise that Puerto Ricans on the island are denied the education, public benefits, and basic rights that other U.S. citizens enjoy. Importantly, America's Colony traces the legal justification for such treatment, including the amazing U.S. Supreme Court cases from the early twentieth century decisions that have remained law to this day that the U.S. Constitution simply does not fully apply to the territory of Puerto Rico. For anyone interested in one of the last American colonies, and modern Puerto Rico, including the controversy over bomb testing on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, Malavets book is essential reading."

Kevin R. Johnson