Issue 146:
Issue 146, January 2006 Volume 33, Number 1
Issue Editor: Jean Díaz
Table of Contents Buy this issue
“El mismo Dios creó sobre la nadaEl universo tachonado con estrellas,
Y nuestro mundo fue su concepción más bella
Y al final fue mi Borinquen, su más linda inspiración
Y así surgió un pueblo que atesora
En su caracter los vestigios de su raza
Somos taínos, españoles y se sabe que del Africa
Nos vino nuestro auténtico sabor” *
Within the past year the people of Puerto Rico have changed the structure of their government, stood up to assaults on the working class, continued the Vieques struggle, renewed debate on status, provoked a split in one of the major political parties, confronted attempts at privatization, and, most recently, engaged in massive protests against political repression, thus maintaining a powerful presence in island politics. As they have for over a century, the Puerto Rican people are demanding their rightful place in the body politic, and activism is alive and well.
The objective of this edition is to recognize the centrality of popular struggle to social, political, and economic development. Pedagogically, the themes of labor and class struggle, economic integration with the United States and the global economy, industrialization, migration, and national culture provide us with the foundations to comprehend insular conditions historically and analyze them within the proper framework. Further, problems of the colonial state, economic policies and how these have been impacted by democratic political action lead us toward greater insight regarding the role of organized social movements.
This collection of articles is intended to raise our awareness of the realities of Puerto Rico’s past and present, as well as future possibilities. Culture, economics, and class struggle continue to be salient issues. The article by Samiri Hernández Hiraldo deals with identity, equality, and community control. This anthropological field study exposes racial discrimination in development policies that affect the citizens of Loíza, a coastal town that has been marginalized in all aspects of development. The articles by Marietta Morrissey and Ismael García Colón explain how political and economic policies have integrated and supported the nationalistic, culturally based popular sentiment and a free enterprise system that could accommodate the changing needs of the U.S. market. Both analyze how Puerto Rico’s most pressing and recurrent problems—the economy, the state of the state, poverty, and social unrest—dialectically interface to determine policy and promote political stability. The people’s ability to forge broad-based coalitions that bridge ideological, religious, and party differences and incorporate unions, community leaders, environmentalists, professionals, artists, and students is the subject of the articles about Vieques. Katherine T. McCaffrey and Sherrie Baver, in each of their pieces, provide analysis of the development and function of the movement in support of the rights of Puerto Rico and the Viequenses. The Vieques struggle is exemplary as a grassroots campaign to gain the basic democratic right of sovereignty over land.
The last thematic issue on Puerto Rico published by Latin American Perspectives was in 1976. Entitled “Puerto Rico: Class Struggle and National Liberation”, this volume retains its relevance today, as it provides a comprehensive background study of the Puerto Rican experience. The subjects of labor, class structure, nationalism and culture coincide with those of this current 
edition. Both the past and current volumes examine the evolution of socio-economic conditions and structures by analyzing the multiple forces impacting this process. The democratic content of socio-political mobilizations, the contradictory role of the state, and rapidly changing demands of capitalist enterprises form the core of analysis. Association with the United States, increasing internationalization of production, differential class interests, and issues of democratic control further define the basis for socio-economic conflict. Such conflict constitutes the dynamic of political and economic transformations.
When we focus on democratic action and empowerment, on people’s ability to wage a struggle and make social gains, we move forward in our ability to consciously promote positive, progressive change. Today in Puerto Rico the momentum of the people’s movements points clearly toward the fulfillment of their democratic expectations.
