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POLITICAL AND SOCIAL STRUGGLES IN A NEW COLONIAL CONTEXT, I9OO-I93O In 1899, the two political parties that had been organized soon after the onset of U.S. rule—the Partido Federal and the Partido Republicano—called for the transformation of Puerto Rico into a state of the United States. Their programs reflected the hope of the Puerto Rican possessing classes of joining the U.S. federal state structure as equals, with the corresponding representation in Congress and control of their own state government. But this request for annexation had been ignored. Anew colonial structure wasinstituted through the Foraker Act of 1900. Puerto Rico was to be a "possession" of the United States, with no assurance of a future as either an independent republic or a state of the Union. The Puerto Rican possessing classes were not admitted as equal partners into the Union but rather turned into colonial subjects. This turn of events placed Federales and Republicanos in a paradoxicalsituation . If they denounced U.S. policy, they ran the risk of seeming antiAmerican , eroding their political credit with the new authorities and making their objective—statehood—less viable. But if they chose to demonstrate their pro-Americanism bymuting their discontent and adapting to the new political structures, they would help install and sanction a regime that pointedly defined Puerto Rico as a "possession" and not as a territory in preparation for statehood. Political trends linked to Puerto Rico's professional and possessing classes may be classified according to how they responded to this dilemma. One Republicano leader, Rosendo Matienzo Cintron, concluded that it was necessary to denounce the new colonial regime, even at the risk of seeming antiAmerican . Initially formulating his critique from a pro-statehoodperspective, he gradually evolvedto a pro-independence position: if self-government could not be attained under U.S.rule, it would be necessaryto constitute an independent republic. But Matienzo Cintron, whose ideas we explore below, was an exception. The Partido Republicano followed the opposite path. Instead of 3 denouncing U.S. colonial rule, it adapted to it while hoping its uncritical proAmericanism and the gradual integration of Puerto Rican life to that of the United States would lead to eventual annexation as a state. The Partido Federal and its successor, the Partido Union, organized in 1904, followed a third course, criticizing U.S. colonial policies and eventually relinquishing statehood as impractical given opposition to it in Washington while also shirking awayfrom a consistent push for independence. It thus settled on a policy of gradual reformswithin the relation of nonincorporation. In Puerto Rico, this policy came to be known as "autonomism." Puerto Rican politics thus came to be dominated by two parties, the Partido Republicano and the Partido Union, whose stated objectives—statehood and autonomy/independence—were not matched by a will to challenge the limits of the relation of nonincorporation imposed on them in 1900. This behavior corresponded to the accommodation of the Puerto Rican propertied classes, including both the prosperousazttcareros and the struggling coffee growers, to the political limits decreed by their new colonial ruler. Meanwhile, the labor movement, organized in the Federacion Libre de Trabajadores and, after 1915, in the Partido Socialista, developedits own version of reformist colonial politics. What follows is a brief chronicle of these parallel routes to accommodation as the Puerto Rican possessing and laboring classes settled into the orbit of nonincorporation assigned to them by Washington. The Partido Republicano and the Early Years of U.S. Rule, 1900-1904 After 1898, U.S. military governors faced the task of organizing a new insular administration. The project could not be completed in an orderly fashion without obtaining the collaboration of the better-trained sectors in Puerto Rico. Indeed, the first U.S. military governor initially retained the prewar autonomist cabinet presided overby Luis Muftoz Rivera.Muftoz Rivera,leader of the Partido Federal, undoubtedly sawthis as a chance to consolidate his influence over the ongoing political transition. Not surprisingly, the reorganization of government structures by the new rulers, including the dismantling of the autonomist cabinet, led to growing tensions. U.S. officials turned to the Republicanos in search of support against a disgruntled Muftoz Rivera. The Partido Republicano drew support from sectors of the emergent sugar interests, firmly addicted to the U.S. sugar market. But at this early stage, the party also served as a vehicle for professional, democratic currents, linked to large propertied interests, to be sure, but also committed to the ideals they A NEWCOLONIAL CONTEXT * 53...

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