- Joaquin Phoenix Photo: Whudat
Yes, under the Puerto Rico Democracy Act, actor Joaquin Phoenix would have the option of voting in a proposed referendum on the island’s political status. Not just ANY Puerto Rican can participate.
The actor-turned-bearded recluse now sputtering rhymes (as the publicity stunt we know it is) was born on the Enchanted Island. And he was reportedly raised there until the age of two.
Long ago, before the time of Joaquin, Spain dominated Puerto Rico (Geo 101: PR is a small archipelago, not simply an island). After the Spanish-Cuban-U.S. War of 1898, Puerto Rico had its colonial status transferred from Spain to the United States.
112 years later…
On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a self-determination process for Puerto Rico. This means members of Congress voted to allow Puerto Ricans to vote in a two-step referendum. Now the Senate has to vote to approve, or reject, the House’s vote on Puerto Rico’s vote.
Whatever Puerto Ricans vote, Congress still has the final vote. The decision of Puerto Ricans is nonbinding.
There are a slew of questions and issues with this legislation. But one aspect that has been controversial with past referendums, and will be so with this one as well, is who gets to participate.
According to the Act, U.S. citizens born in Puerto Rico would be allowed to vote in the referendum. Big relief – Joaquin has enough sofrito to cast a vote, should he choose. (BTW, is he going to do the thumbs up or down signal like his emperor character in Gladiator?) But here are the folks who may not get that option:
• Some immigrants from Cuba and the Dominican Republic, for example. Many have long made Puerto Rico their home, are integral parts of communities in Puerto Rico and contribute to its economic, cultural and political life. (On the referendum, the Act includes: “(1) All eligible voters under the electoral laws in Puerto Rico at the time the plebiscite is held.”)
• Stateside Puerto Ricans not born on the island.
This is worth thinking about…
Latin American nations, indeed nations around the world, allow their extended communities abroad to participate in elections and referendums. This is a globalized world, where family ties and bonds easily cut across the sea and air, through phone lines, airplanes, and the Internet. In all of this, diasporas play a significant role, in family remittances and in countless other ways. What would Puerto Rico have done if Nuyoricans and Chicagoricans hadn’t hit the streets here and there to protest the U.S. Navy using Vieques for target practice?
Now let’s look at why Puerto Rican communities, through no fault of their own, sprouted in the states.
Hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans in the 1950’s did not hop on Eastern Airlines or PanAm for free playing cards (remember those days?) and a getaway to New York. The island’s failed development program and an official one-way-ticket policy forced the mass exit of Puerto Ricans. (Sound familiar with today’s heavy out-migration to states such as Florida?)
Estimates of the population siphoned off [from Puerto Rico] between 1950 and 1965 run from 900,000 to one million, including the children born to migrants. (from Labor Migration Under Capitalism: The Puerto Rican Experience – Center for Puerto Rican Studies)
James Dietz in the Economic History of Puerto Rico makes this point about the period of time known as the “great migration” for Puerto Ricans:
Thus the “safety valve” of migration, which was available because as U.S. citizens Puerto Ricans could move freely…removed the necessity, for a time, to have to confront the failure of the growth model to provide adequate employment and income.
This brings us to the longtime issue of Puerto Rico’s political, and thus economic, status. The referendum proposed to resolve this issue draws us to the questions of identity, who is Puerto Rican, and to what extent does a supposed “geographic headquarters” dominate that identity.
DGMS does not have the answers but I am hoping that a real Puerto Rican like Joaquin Phoenix will pipe in like the coqui that he is.