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Puerto Rico is a Spanish-speaking island which has been a semi-independent commonwealth ("freely associated state" in Spanish) of the United States since 1952. Puerto Ricans have been U.S. citizens since 1917. Residents of Puerto Rico have rejected statehood in every referendum conducted on the subject since 1967. Periodically some politicians in Washington, D.C. and/or San Juan attempt to revive the issue of American statehood for Puerto Rico. These efforts were badly harmed by Puerto Rico's successful efforts in 1999-2001 to expel the U.S. Navy from its training grounds in Vieques Puerto Rico. After all, it is unsettling to contemplate that the motto of America's 51st state might be that of any other Latin American nation: "Yankee go home. Leave the money." Because pro-Puerto Rico statehood legislation in the context of H.R. 2499 , the Puerto Rico Democracy Act of 2009, has been reintroduced in the 111th Congress, both the people of America and the people of Puerto Rico must understand what is at stake in this debate. |
