America's Colony: The Political and Cultural Conflict between the United States and Puerto Rico (Critical America (New York University Hardcover)) [Hardcover]

Pedro Malavet (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0814756808 | ISBN-13: 978-0814756805 | Publication Date: September 1, 2004

The precise legal nature of the relationship between the United States and the people of Puerto Rico was not explicitly determined in 1898 when the Treaty of Paris transferred sovereignty over Puerto Rico from Spain to the United States. Since then, many court cases, beginning in 1901, have been instrumental in defining this delicate relationship.

While the legislation has clearly established the nonexistence of Puerto Rican nationhood and lack of independent Puerto Rican citizenship, the debate over Puerto Rico's status continues to this day.

Malavet offers a critique of Puerto Rico’s current status as well as of its treatment by the U.S. legal and political systems. Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States, and Puerto Ricans living on this geographically separate island are subject to the United States’s legal and political authority. They are the largest group of U.S. citizens currently living under territorial status. Malavet argues that the Puerto Rican cultural nation experiences U.S. imperialism, which compromises both the island's sovereignty and Puerto Ricans’ citizenship rights. He analyzes the three alternatives to Puerto Rico's continued territorial status, examining the challenges manifest in each possibility, as well as illuminating what he believes to be the best course of action.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Provides a new and needed approach to understanding the development and current status of Puerto Rico.”
-Choice

,

“America’s Colony incisively analyzes the legal treatment of Puerto Rico as a U.S. territory and the second class treatment of Puerto Ricans. This important book is sure to become an influential critical analysis of the subordination of Puerto Ricans, who contrary to popular opinion are U.S. citizens by birth. Denied representation in the U.S. Congress and the right to vote for President, it is no surprise that Puerto Ricans on the island are denied the education, public benefits, and basic rights that other U.S. citizens enjoy. Importantly, America's Colony traces the legal justification for such treatment, including the amazing U.S. Supreme Court cases from the early twentieth century — decisions that have remained law to this day — that the U.S. Constitution simply does not fully apply to the territory of Puerto Rico. For anyone interested in one of the last American colonies, and modern Puerto Rico, including the controversy over bomb testing on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, Malavet’s book is essential reading.”
-Kevin R. Johnson,University of California at Davis School of Law

“In an era increasingly concerned with democracy around the world, Malavet reminds us of the forgotten colony in our own backyard -- Puerto Rico. Utilizing a Critical Race/Latino Theory perspective, Malavet make the legal case for a post-colonial future in which reparations will be owed.”
-Adrien K. Wing,University of Iowa College of Law

About the Author

Pedro A. Malavet is professor of law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: NYU Press (September 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814756808
• ISBN-13: 978-0814756805
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,977,420 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Timely challenge to America's international democratic image, November 29, 2004

By 

Steven W. Bender (Portland, OR, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: America's Colony: The Political and Cultural Conflict between the United States and Puerto Rico (Critical America (New York University Hardcover)) (Hardcover)

In a season when the 2004 election placed emphasis on counting every vote and Americans valued our political system by contrast to the rampant election fraud in Ukraine, law professor Pedro Malavet has exposed one of the gaping cracks in our national and international political leadership--the U.S. occupation of Puerto Rico that has denied political participation to its residents for over a century without resolution. Observing correctly that few U.S. citizens understand or appreciate the second-class citizenship status of the people of Puerto Rico, Malavet charts a concise but potent history of occupation of Puerto Rico by Spain and then the United States, and proposes a strategy to enable Puerto Ricans to determine their desired status. Most heartening in his analysis is that despite their political second-class citizenship coupled with efforts to Americanize them, Malavet demonstrates that the people of Puerto Rico have managed to forge an independent cultural identity. Their sparkling cultural nationhood heightens the need to change the legal status of "America's colony." Called by one commentator a forgotten colony, Malavet addresses his birthplace with cultural reverence while exposing this underside of American democracy and demanding recognition of the flaws in the U.S.-Puerto Rico colonial relationship.