The colonial political relationship of Puerto Rico to the United States has
established certain contexts which stimulate debates about citizenship, culture and
Puerto Ricanness. The US Congress has been a space where these issues have been
contested since 1898, when Puerto Rico became part of the United States. I analyze
the discursive contests that took place during 1990 in Congress over just who were
the Puerto Ricans entitled to vote in a plebiscite to decide Puerto Rico's political
status. I examine the ways in which the trans-national and highly problematic Puerto
Rican identity was constructed and contested in this context between Puerto Ricans
in the United States and Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico.
Bauman, Zygmunt
(1990) `Modernity and Ambivalence', in
Mike Featherstone
(ed.) Global Culture: Nationalism, Globalization and Modernity,
pp. 143-69. London:
Sage.
2.
Bayrón Toro, Fernando
(1977) Elecciones y partidos políticos de Puerto
Rico, 1809-1976. Mayagüez, PR:
Editorial Isla, Inc.
3.
Bourdieu, Pierre
(1977) Outline of a Theory of Practice, trans. Richard
Nice. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
4.
Cabranes, José
(1979) Citizenship and the American Empire: Notes on the
Legislative History of the United States Citizenship of Puerto Ricans.
New Haven, CT
and London: Yale University
Press.
5.
Chock, Phyllis
(1991)
` "Illegal Aliens" and Opportunity: Myth Making in Congressional
Testimony'
, American Ethnologist18(2):
279-94.
6.
Domínguez, Virginia
(1989) People as Subject, People as Object: Selfhood and
Peoplehood in Contemporary Israel.
Madison: University of Wisconsin
Press.
7.
Esteves, Sandra María
(1984) `Not Neither', in Tropical Rains .
New York: African Caribbean Poetry
Theater.
8.
García Passalacqua
,
Juan Manuel
(1984) Puerto Rico: Equality and Freedom at Issue.
New York:
Praeger.
9.
García Passalacqua
,
Juan Manuel
and
Carlos Rivera Lugo
(1990, 1991) Puerto Rico y los Estados Unidos: el
proceso de consulta y negociación de 1989 y 1990, Vols I and
II. Río Piedras:
Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto
Rico.
10.
González, José Luis
(1981) El país de cuatro pisos.
Río Piedras, PR:
Ediciones Huracán.
11.
Gupta, Akhil
and
James Ferguson
(1992)
`Beyond Culture: Space, Identity, and the Politics of Difference'
, Cultural Anthropology7(1):
6-23.
12.
Handler, Richard
(1988) Nationalism and the Politics of Culture in
Quebec . Madison: University of
Wisconsin Press.
13.
Hymes, Dell
(1974) Foundations in Sociolinguistics.
Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press.
14.
Killian, Johnny
(1989) `Discretion of Congress Regarding Citizenship of
Puerto Ricans',
Congressional Research Service Memo
.
15.
Macpherson, C.B.
(1962) The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism:
Hobbes to Locke. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
16.
Maldonado-Denis, Manuel
(1972) Puerto Rico: A Socio-Historic Interpretation, trans.
Elena Vialo. New York: Random
House .
17.
Quintero Rivera
,
Angel G.
(1988) Patricios y plebeyos: burgueses, hacendados, artesanos
y obreros.
Río Piedras
, PR:
Ediciones Huracán
.
18.
Ramos, Aaron Gamaliel
(1987) Las ideas anexionistas en Puerto Rico bajo la
dominación norteamericana. Río
Piedras, PR: Ediciones
Huracán.
19.
Rúa, Pedro Juan
(1978) Bolívar ante Marx y otros ensayos.
Río Piedras, PR:
Ediciones Huracán.
20.
Sánchez, Luis Rafael
(1987) `The Flying Bus', pp.
17-25 in
Asela Rodríguez de Laguna
(ed.) Images and Identities: The Puerto Rican in Two World Contexts,
trans. Elpidio Laguna-Díaz. New Brunswick,
NJ: Transaction Books.
21.
Trías Monge, José
(1980, 1981, 1982, 1983)
Historia Constitucional de Puerto Rico, Vols I-IV.
Río Piedras, PR:
Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto
Rico.
22.
US Congress, House of Representatives
(1990 ) Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act. Hearings before
the Subcommittee on Insular and International Affairs of the Committee on
Interior and Insular Affairs. 101 Congress, Second Session, on H.R. 4765, Parts
I and II. Washington, DC: US
Government Printing Office.
23.
US Congress, House of Representatives
(1993 ) Expressing the Sense of Congress
Regarding the Expression of Self-Determination by the People of Puerto Rico.
Hearings before the Subcommittee on Insular and Internationl Affairs, Committee
on Natural Resources. 103 Congress, First Session, Part I, on H. Cong. Res.
94. Washington, DC: US Government Printing
Office.
24.
US Congress, Senate
(1965)
Socio-Cultural Factors in Relation to the Status of Puerto Rico
. Hearings before the United States-Puerto Rico Commission on the
Status of Puerto Rico. 89 Congress, Second Session, on S. Con Res. 82, Vol.
2. Washington, DC: US Government Printing
Office.
25.
US Congress, Senate
(1989) To Provide for a Referendum on the Political Status of
Puerto Rico. Hearings before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. 101
Congress, First Session, Parts I and II, on S.710, S.711, S.712.
Washington, DC: US Government
Printing Office.
26.
Verdery, Katherine
(1991) National Ideology under Socialism: Identity and
Cultural Politics in Ceausescu's Romania.
Berkeley: University of California
Press.
