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Dim statehood chances for island in the sun

Puerto Rico had its day in the national spotlight during the presidential primary held on the island on June 1. Sen. Barack Obama positioned himself as another islander (he was born on Hawaii) and spoke Spanish in his ad. However, Hillary Clinton took the primary.

The rest of the time, this U.S. territory gets no respect. Its residents can’t even vote for president.

About four million people live in Puerto Rico, and a slightly higher number of Puerto Ricans reside on the U.S. mainland. The largest concentration in the three-state New York City metropolitan area. A growing number of Puerto Ricans live in the Phoenix area.

Because Puerto Rico is a semi-autonomous commonwealth and not a state, only Puerto Ricans living on the mainland can cast ballots for president in November.

Each year the question of statehood for Puerto Rico surfaces in Congress, and each year the issue dies quietly. This year another House Resolution calls for a vote in Congress and Puerto Rico on statehood.  

Puerto Rico Senate President Kenneth McClintock Hernandez was in Phoenix recently to attend a conference of the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators. He is a long-time proponent of statehood who is urging U.S. Latinos of all backgrounds to write Congress and push for Puerto Rican statehood.

He compares Puerto Rico to Hawaii statehood process: both are islands, both have culturally diverse residents different from the U.S. majority population, and people living in both speak languages other than English. Hawaii became a state in 1959.

One of the big barriers to Congress tacking the island’s star on the national flag is  the anti-immigrant mood in the mainland that paints all Latinos as undocumented workers. He admits the atmosphere is ugly, but says islanders are as American as salsa.

“You have to understand that we have never been immigrants,” he says. “We have been a territory since 1898.”