Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – American rap star Benito “Bad Bunny” Antonio Martínez, who busts rhymes in Puerto Rican Spanish, caused waves when he was chosen to headline the Superbowl LX Halftime show. According to internet memes, at least, some people complained about not having an “American” headliner, apparently unaware that Puerto Ricans gained US citizenship in 1917.
The thrust of his performance, entirely in Spanish, was to make the point that Spanish is also a language of the United States. People in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada and much of Texas spoke Spanish when they formed part of the Spanish Empire and then the United States of Mexico, before being grabbed by Washington. Of course, they also spoke Zuni, Navajo and other indigenous languages that go back thousands of years on this continent. The Hispano families of New Mexico were there long before it was incorporated into the USA, and some of them still view people of northern European descent as recent immigrants.
But although the Puerto Ricans are Americans and fully belong to the country, the United States does not treat them very well. They are citizens, but in some ways they are second-class citizens, because Puerto Rico is not a state. They have no representatives in Congress and they have no senators. They use the dollar and live under US federal laws, but they cannot vote for the electoral college and so do not vote for the president. They can vote in party primaries, though.
Some Puerto Ricans want independence. I think that either they should be made a state or they should be let go. They are subject to taxation without representation, which is against everything the Constitution otherwise stands for.
Puerto Rico has first-world laws for minimum wage, industry and economic development, making it difficult for them to attract investment by corporations that think they can get a better deal in the Dominican Republic.
It also has a colonial oversight board for its economy, established by Congress in 2016, which Trump is taking over. In some ways, he is experimenting on Puerto Rico’s economy even before his so-called Board of Peace can do so on that of Gaza.
Because of neglect by the mainland, Puerto Rico has lost some 600,000 people since its peak of 3.8 million in 2004. People have gone to Florida, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The young people and the better off are most likely to depart, leaving behind disproportionately elderly and poor populations. Puerto Rican Americans who were born on the mainland have an average age of 26.1. Puerto Ricans who were born on the islands and still live there have an average age of 45.
San Juan, Puerto Rico © Juan Cole
The Pew Research Center reports, “those on the island had a median household income of $26,700 in 2024. That compared with $54,800 for Puerto Ricans who were born on the island but live on the mainland and $70,200 for those who were born and live on the mainland.”
If Puerto Rico were a child, family services would have to remove it from the home for abuse.
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