July 25: Day of the Invasion and of the Constitution
American troops during 1898 invasion of Puerto Rico.
July 25 is an important date for Puerto Ricans who pay some attention to political and ideological matters. I don’t pretend to be all of them and I even wonder if there are really so many. This coincidence gives us the extraordinary uniqueness of being the ethnic group that celebrates its Constitution on the same day of its invasion. A grande fanfare was inaugurated in 1952 as a turning point of classical colonialism, after 50 years of imposed governments, with a concession of autonomy in the affairs of island administration.
I remember when (what some call ephemera and others bullshit) it was celebrated with a halt to everything. It’s been decades since that’s happened.. The prominence of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) that propelled the Free Associative State formula has been decreasing for decades, without winning elections since 2012. And in 2024 it ceases to be second in electoral majority.
The Promise Law of 2016 and the establishment of the Fiscal Supervision Board for many was the fatal stab that disavows autonomy, an event that has left the Popular Democratic Party without ideological foundation and caused a panic seeking some direction.
And look where this has brought us after 73 years. We continue to be subject to a Free Associated State that is not a state, nor is it free and its association is as an unincorporated territory, in which its citizens lack fundamental democratic rights such as voting and dignified representation. With the aggravating factor that there is very little will to contemplate changes because the political environment is not at all favorable. On the mainland statehood has no traction and here, on the island, it is said that we do not want independence.
In the past, the country experienced great advances and great statesmen.
What’s left to autonomous governing is the conservative notion that it is better to know something that is bad than to know something that may be good. They are reinforced by the nostalgia of a past in which the country experienced great advances and great statesmen. It also feeds on the pragmatic thinking of: if this is possible, let’s do our best. Continue afloat in the swamp of immobility in the face of the impossibility of change.
With a new champion of aristocratic lineage, the PPD puts its trust in a young man with academic credentials, the affection of being his grandfather’s grandson and a charisma that he insists on validating with his presence on social media. In the opinion of this new leader, our autonomous government can be improved under the protection of three principles: economy, identity and democracy, unrelated to the issue of status. Muñoz’s old slogan that it is not in issue. Where the new leadership leads, it is to be seen.
In this observer’s opinion, a corpse is not resurrected by a miracle. The Commonwealth fulfilled its historical function. Its leaders deserve to be in the pantheon of the homeland; with respect, without altars. But it is equally clear to me that the insistence on living from past glories does not solve the matter and obstinance only rewards paralysis.
And as the Rolling Stones remind us: you don’t always get you want, if you’re lucky at times, you get what you need. Old and tired as I feel, I’m not forsaking Che either: let’s be realistic, let’s do the impossible.
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Copyright 2025 by José M. Umpierre.