For 124 years, Puerto Rico has operated under the United States’ occupation. This text focuses on a fraction of Puerto Rico’s history, serving as an introduction to the major policies and historical events that have defined Puerto Rico’s contemporary political, social and economic landscape.

Puerto Rico is the smallest of the Greater Antilles and the largest of the Lesser Antilles, in the Caribbean Sea. Initially named Borikén, the archipelago was populated by the Taínos, the native inhabitants and descendants of the Arawak people. In 1493, Christopher Colombus made his first trip to Puerto Rico, but it wasn’t until 1508 that the Spanish established a permanent colonial presence in the archipelago. For the next 400 years, Puerto Rico became a Spanish colony, desired as a critical military outpost and major producer of sugar, coffee, and tobacco-- the cultivation of which relied upon the forced labor of the Taínos. When imported diseases and dangerous labor conditions decreased the indigenous population, the Spanish brought enslaved peoples from the Western regions of Africa to work the fields. United States forces first occupied Puerto Rico in 1898 during the Spanish-American War.  At the war’s conclusion, Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris, transferring colonial power over Puerto Rico, along with Guam and the Philippines, to the U.S. 

In 1917,  following the archipelago’s transition from military rule to an established civilian government, Puerto Ricans were granted U.S. citizenship. Puerto Ricans became eligible for military conscription and subject to federal laws, yet they were denied congressional representation and  the right to vote in the U.S. As the U.S. implemented assimilation policies they established the Jones Act, a policy that limits Puerto Rico’s economy and immediate aid by requiring that all goods transported by water between U.S. ports are carried on ships built, owned and operated by Americans. All these policies are effective today. 

Following the ratification of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in 1952, Luis Muñoz Marín became the first elected governor. Luis Muñoz Marín implemented so-called “Operation Bootstrap'' to transform the agrarian archipelago into an industrialized economy. Section 936 was passed, exempting corporations from paying taxes on their profits until they repatriated them to the U.S., and corporate taxation was eliminated in Puerto Rico. U.S. corporations were incentivized to migrate to the archipelago, where they took advantage of cheap labor from locals. At the same time, an aggressive population control campaign motivated Puerto Ricans to relocate to the United States

Between 1946 and 1954, over 300,000 Puerto Ricans migrated to the U.S.  through a well-conceived migration campaign. Representatives of the federal government and other U.S. institutions and North American advisors to the Puerto Rican government were influential in promoting migration as a serious alternative to the perceived “overpopulation problem” that according to officials was an obstacle to the island’s economic self-support. The U.S. Employment Service would often coordinate recruitment with island functionaries to support workers by paying for their transportation to the mainland, wages, and health services. Encouraging Puerto Ricans to migrate would lower the archipelago’s population and consequently maintain lower unemployment rates. Operation Bootstrap had run its course by mid-1970, leaving Puerto Rico with a slow-moving economy leading to the 2006 collapse.

After the termination of Section 936 in the early 2000s, outside investments plummeted, the local labor market collapsed, and migration increased. As a response, the Puerto Rican government issued a stream of triple tax-exempt municipal bonds, leading to a $73 billion debt. Due to Puerto Rico’s status as a commonwealth, it does not have the option of filing for bankruptcy. Therefore, to ensure that politically influential hedge funds and institutional investors wouldn’t suffer losses, the Obama administration imposed The Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA) in 2016. This law established a fiscal oversight board of seven unelected officials appointed by Congress and US President Obama, which have imposed austerity measures to guarantee payments to bondholders over essential services to Puerto Ricans. The Fiscal Control Board is responsible for implementing austerity measures that threaten the livelihood of the University of Puerto Rico, the shut down of over 600 schools, and the dismantling of Puerto Rico’s healthcare system. Amid the impact of Hurricane María in 2017, the Fiscal Control Board denied any government request to halt debt payments as a way to focus on immediate aid. Puerto Rico’s debt is unpayable. The lack of proper restructuring of the debt has set in motion the reduction of government expenditures which have ultimately had disastrous consequences on the economic growth and quality of life in Puerto Rico.

Years of occupation and imperialism paired with natural disasters and rampant tourism have forged a landscape of crisis. The enforcement of ongoing austerity measures for residents and tax exemptions for wealthy foreigners have launched a race for a slice of paradise, violently displacing Puerto Ricans, rapidly creating a Puerto Rico without Puerto Ricans. For Puerto Ricans, there is a growing desire for decolonization and a chance at the sovereignty and autonomy that has been denied for 124 years.