Except for the brief limelight granted by the June 1 election of
delegates to the Democratic National Convention, Puerto Rico does not
register in the American psyche, its soul or personality.

Puerto
Rico delegates to the Democratic National Convention this summer will
outnumber delegations of more than 25 states.  Actually, the island has
3 times the number of delegates than Delaware, half as many as New
Jersey and a third of Pennsylvania.  The mounting excitement towards
the June 1 election of delegates in Puerto Rico will be short-lived
since the island cannot vote in the Electoral College, nor will it cast
its ballots for president in November.

Why is Puerto Rico in limbo?

Concerned
with the greater good of Puerto Rico over half a century ago Luis Muñoz
Marín, first civilian governor of the island promoted a "third way" by
proposing a commonwealth status through which the relationship between
the United States and Puerto Rico, in his own words no longer resembled
that of "a good master and an affectionate servant".  As a result,
since 1952 Puerto Rico has the authority to establish "a republican
form of local government" which was granted by the US Congress and
approved by the citizens of the island in its Constitution.

Nevertheless
the present and future status of Puerto Rico is still being debated,
and mainstream Americans are admittedly "perplexed" not only by the
debate but because they have "judged it foreign in language and culture
–and worse, overpopulated – so New Mexico-style Americanization leading
to statehood was out of the question" as expressed by Michael Janeway,
former editor of The Boston Globe.

The Congressional Research
Service in its 2005 report on the "Political Status of Puerto Rico"
warned that should Congress debate the island's status some other
issues would be subject to scrutiny again including the "Language
Requirement".  Nothing to frown upon considering "the admission of
three states –Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona – was contingent upon
such a requirement."

Puerto Rico is unmistakably Latino, or
Hispanic, and proudly so.  One cannot avoid asking why is it that such
a pearl of our culture has not been assimilated as an integral part of
the American Psyche?   Can it be blamed upon its political status, or
to its very Hispanic identity?

Given to clever analogies Luis Muñoz
Marín in a speech delivered at a Press Club luncheon in Washington D.C.
on 6 May 1952 said Puerto Rico could not be the gin or vermouth in a
Martini, due to its size it could be "either the drop of angostura or
the olive. Now if it were the drop of angostura, it would be dissolved
and lost.  But as the olive Puerto Rico gives a touch of distinction to
the drink…" If only Luis Muñoz Marín knew that the angry anti-immigrant
and pointedly anti-Hispanic discourse would rather see us "dissolved
and lost" just like a "drop of angostura".

It is time to face the
fact that the status of Puerto Rico, and by the way the status of all
Hispanics in the US, is not merely a legal or political concern; it has
to do with language and culture, coupled with the shear size of its
population.