The Athletic Crusade: Sport and American Cultural Imperialism

7. Sport and the Restoration of Pride in Puerto Rico

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 [First Page] [99], (1) Lines: 0 to ——— 0.0pt PgV ——— Normal Page * PgEnds: Eject [99], (1) 7 Sport and the Restoration of Pride in Puerto Rico Race, religion, and revolt dominated the history of Puerto Rico. After Christopher Columbus discovered the island in 1493, colonization by the Spanish occurred in earnest in 1506. With the Spanish came Catholicism and disease. The latter decimated the ranks of the native Indians, and African slaves replaced them beginning in 1508. The island sustained attacks by the English and the Dutch over the next two centuries, and island residents revolted against their Spanish masters by 1848. Spain abolished slavery in 1873 and granted Puerto Ricans their independence in 1897. Unfortunately for the islanders the uss Maine exploded in Havana, Cuba, only five days after the establishment of the provisional cabinet.1 With the declaration of war, U.S. troops invaded Puerto Rico in July and controlled the island in three weeks’ time. Spain granted Puerto Rico to the United States in the peace treaty that ended the war, thus resulting in the American annexa- 100 sport and restoration of pride 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 [100], (2) Lines: 52 ——— 0.0pt PgV ——— Normal Page PgEnds: [100], (2) tion of an independent country. Despite local opposition the United States initially installed a military government and a local police force, and recruited a native garrison, although the latter’s membership was restricted to whites only. Stereotyping the Puerto Ricans as “lazy,” the Americans instituted vagrancy laws, established an eight-hour workday, and banned cockfights. Secretary of war Elihu Root, in his 1899 annual report, rationalized that “before the people of Porto Rico [sic] can be fully intrusted [sic] with self-government, they must first learn the lesson of self-control and respect for the principles of constitutional government, which requires acceptance of its peaceful decisions. This lesson will necessarily be slowly learned. . . . They would inevitably fail without a course of tuition under a strong and guiding hand.”2 Root referred, in part, to Creoles’ attacks on large landowners both during and after the war, events that allied the wealthy with the new government and placed class interests above nationalism .3 Such alliances also centered around race. As in the Philippines, American wasp anthropologists studied the native peoples, extolling the redemptivevaluesoftheirSpanishpastanddenigratingtheirAfricanaspects . Jesse Fewkes studied the Puerto Ricans for three years and determined them to be “primitive, illiterate, idolatrous, destitute, superstitious, and dark-skinned.” As Spanish influences, gambling, dueling, and cockfighting assumed Catholic qualities of association.4 Americans determined that such barbarities and immoral ties had to be eliminated and new ways learned. They installed boards of education in 1899, required the teaching of English as well as Spanish in the schools, and designated moral training “as distinct from secular or religiousteaching ”—todistinguishtheprogramfromtheCatholiccurriculum in private schools. All teachers had to be familiar with “American” methodology , and a teacher training institute was established for that purpose.5 The imposition of the English language continued throughout all grades despite opposition. American administrators and editors arbitrarily changedtheSpanishspellingofPuertoRico,Anglicizingitto“PortoRico,” which became a journalistic tradition over the next generation.6 Suffrage pertained only to literate adult males, who voted for a representative in the U.S. Congress who had no electoral vote of his own. The sport and restoration of pride 101 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 [101], (3) Lines: 70 to ——— 0.0pt PgV ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [101], (3) U.S. president appointed a governor and the executive council, while the U.S. Supreme Court adjudicated all final appeals. The Foraker Act of 1900, which established a civil government, also prohibited ownership of more than five hundred acres of land but lacked strong enforcement. In 1898 93 percent of Puerto Rican farmers owned their own land, but a United States–imposed land tax soon drove them from their property, similar...