the Elks and Odd Fellows and Rotary tornsuggest that either Marin flavored hisrnrum with Mencken or the Sage of Baltimorernwas an overactive editor, “The SadrnCase of Porto Rico” explains that “ThernAmerican flag found Porto Rico pennilessrnand content. It now flies over a prosperousrnfactory worked by slaves whornhave lost their land and may soon loserntheir guitars and their songs.”rnRepublican trade policies transformedrnan island of small landholdingsrnand independent coffee growers into arnvirtual sugarcane forest. Coffee, the croprnof human-scale farmers, was not protectedrnby the U.S.-imposed tariff; sugar was,rnand so, as Senator Martinez has written,rnan economy ofrnsmall and medium-sized farmsrnproducing primarily for local consumptionrn.. . became under thernstimulus of U.S. tariff laws a largernsugar plantation dominated by absenteernlandlords in the UnitedrnStates and tilled by a pauperizedrnpeasantry.rnMunoz Marin, in his 1929 essay,rnachieves the kind of savagery that is onlyrnpossible when the writer is witnessing thernmurder of something he loves. He deploresrnthe Protestant do-goodism that isrnassaulting the island, though “I doubtrnthat such implied notions as Christ’s disapprovalrnof cigarettes gets much seriousrnattention from the local young men.”rnHe views the depressing effect of the uplifters,rnasrncharity becomes slightly organized,rnevangelical preachers thunder inrnthe villages.. . three or four prominentrncitizens become Protestantsrnand are considered funny, womenrnare beginning to be feared as thernrolling-pin follows the flag, virginityrnstill abounds and often attains tornold age, but is perceptibly on thernTo which Puerto Rican collaborators rejoined:rnGDP is rising! Exports arernswelling! Disposable income i s . . . beingrndisposed of!rnBut something far greater than merernmillions of dollars was at stake. TornMunoz Marin, “saving a culture, evenrnan inferior one, from becoming thernmonkey of another, even a superior one,rnis a good in itself” At all costs a Puerto-rnAmerican hybrid must be avoided; yet hernfeared.rnPerhaps we are destined to be neitherrnPorto Ricans nor Americans,rnbut merely puppets of a mongrelrnstate of mind, susceptible to Americanrnthinking and proud of Latinrnthought, subservient to Americanrnliving and worshipful of the ancestralrnway of life. Perhaps we are torndiscuss Cervantes and eat pork andrnbeans. . . . Perhaps we are going torna singularly fantastic and painlessrnhell in our own sweet way. Perhapsrnall this is nothing but a foretasternof Pan-Americanism.rnMunoz Marin was to fall in with a badrncrowd —FDR, Rexford Guy Tugwell —rnand find, to the disgust of his erstwhilerncompatriots, that Scratch rewards his administratorsrnhandsomely. He would becomernthe island’s first elected governorrnand the chief architect of the peculiarrncommonwealth status it achieved inrn1952.rnAs Munoz Marin delivered his peoplerninto the gilded cage of New Deal colonialism,rnleadership of the independentistasrnwas assumed by the fiery Pedro AlbizurnCampos, whose uncompromisingrnNationalist Party took up the gun andrncreated the official pretext for a halfcenturyrnof vengeful and brutal repressionrnof independence activities.rnAlbizu Campos believed in La Razarnand the Catholic Church; his movementrnopposed canned goods, U.S.-sponsoredrnbirth control programs, and anyrnhint of collaboration with the colonialrnpower. Nationalists despised the NewrnDeal and refused to accept governmentrnemployment. Albizu Campos calledrnyoung Puerto Ricans who disdained independencern”sissies.” Modern LatinrnAmerican historians of the left are notrnquite comfortable with Campos and thernNationalists. Yes, they battled the colossusrnacross the sea, but they also werern”particularly concerned with the idea ofrnpromoting the Puerto Rican bourgeoisiernand turning workers into small landholders.”rnMost were devout Catholics.rnThe Nationalists marched, fought, illegallyrnflew the Puerto Rican flag, andrnused such proscribed terms as “nacion”rnand “patria.” As Senator Martinezrnwrites, from the 1930’s through thern1950’s “independentistas were arrestedrnand imprisoned for almost any reason,rnincluding reciting patiiotic poetry, makingrnspeeches, and unfurling the PuertornRican flag.” Pedro Albizu Campos wasrnto spend most of these years in prison forrninciting violence; he stubbornly refusedrnto beg for a pardon or renounce revolution.rnWorld War II and its Cold War aftermathrnturned Puerto Rico into an allegedrnstrategic asset; the Roosevelt-Trumanrnadministrations lavished federal moniesrnon the island while jailing and silencingrnpatriots. Commonwealth—a travesty ofrnself-government, plausible only to thosernwho believe that junior-high-school studentrncouncils actiially run the schools—rnwas hatched. Jose A. Cabranes, a highrankingrnofficial in Munoz Marin’srnPopular Democratic Party, called commonwealthrnan authentic expression of the postwarrnAmerican liberal worldview: arnpoor and racially mixed ThirdrnWorld community undergoingrnmodernization as a result of therninventive application of Americanrncapital and American liberalrnideology.rnMunoz Marin was cursed by despairingrnNationalists for forsaking independencernin favor of commonwealth. Hotheadsrnand homicides among themrnresponded with mad assassinationrnattempts against President Truman,rnMunoz Marin, and members of the U.S.rnHouse of Representatives. And that wasrnall she wrote: The resultant crackdown,rnon both the gun-toting Nationalists andrnthe nonviolent middle-class Puerto RicanrnIndependence Party, destroyed politicalrnmanifestations of Puerto Rican patriotismrnfor a generation or more.rnIf ever one needs evidence of the devitalizing,rnemasculatory effects of colonialism,rnlook no further than the paltry voterntotals tallied by today’s independentistas.rnIn 1952, barely one-eighth of Puerto Ricanrnvoters supported pro-statehood parties,rnwhile almost one-fifth favored thernindependence-minded parties. Today,rnalmost half support statehood, and barelyrnfive percent cast their votes for a freernPuerto Rico.rnWriting in the Nation, Antonio M.rnStevens-Arroyo asserts that “the abundancernof consumer goods that has resultedrnfrom the U.S. presence has limitedrnthe appeal of the independentistas.” ThernPuerto Rican Independence Party is askingrnpeople bred in political serfdom tornchoose liberty and dignity over a welfarerncheck and a Madonna CD. It may be arn38/CHRONICLESrnrnrn