Colonial Crucible: Empire in the Making of the Modern American State

Negotiating Colonialism: "Race," Class, and Education in Early-Twentieth-Century Puerto Rico

Early-twentieth-century Puerto Rican history provides scholars of the Caribbean, Latin America, and American empire with a variety of examples to choose from when making the argument that local actors consistently challenged U.S. colonialism. The historical process of creating a colonial public school system in Puerto Rico, in particular, suggests that the “successful” implementation and practice of American “benevolent imperialism” on the island was profoundly dependent on the interests and motivations of local actors.1 My historical analysis of “elite” Puerto Rican teachers in the early American colonial period (1898–1930s) is guided by the theories,methods,and arguments that emerge from comparative colonial examples.2 The research questions and perspectives with which historians of the American colonies and territories approach their case studies necessarily challenge the traditional interpretations produced through dependence on colonial government documents as primary sources. Looking beyond government documents provides an opportunity to locate the voices and perspectives of local teachers and to center these actors in the broader study of U.S. colonialism. In this brief essay, I examine the implications of locating local actors at the center of our research agendas for reevaluating the consolidation of American empire in the colonies. Placing the story of Puerto Rican teachers at the center of early colonial education narratives reveals the limits of the American empire.Americanization and the creation of “tropical Yankees” were essential aspects of the U.S. benevolent imperialism project.3 Public school teachers responsible for daily implementation of the United States’ goals of transforming colonial subjects into second-class U.S. citizens did not always share the colonial administrators’ vision. Teachers, occupying an intermediate role in the colonial social hierarchy, negotiated school practices with their own agendas and ambitions. They mediated the imperial 135 Negotiating Colonialism “Race,” Class, and Education in Early-Twentieth-Century Puerto Rico solsirée del moral goals of consolidating colonialism through the schools with the contemporary debates on the island. Political, economic, and cultural leaders in the early twentieth century debated the political trajectory the island would potentially follow (annexation or autonomy) in the coming years. Although teachers were practicing within a colonial school system, the citizenship-building venture they carried out in the classroom was based on a fundamental belief that the island would emerge from its current, but temporary, colonial relationship with the United States. When we examine the teachers’ perspectives and interjections into the practice of colonial education on the island, we are better able to attest to the challenges and limits they posed to the full implementation of Americanization policies. Recognizing how Puerto Rican teachers navigated the imposition of Americanization policies also brings to light the contradictions and ironies of the colonial school project. Elite teachers proposed an alternative citizenship-building project that imagined the “racial” regeneration of the working-class student body through the teaching and practice of modern education. The racialized citizenship-building project was also constructed around class. Existing Puerto Rican racial ideologies and class hierarchies informed the teachers’ emerging middle-class, Hispanic identity as well as their characterizations of and relationships with students. Elite teachers were able to promote their project within a colonial school system because its racial and class implications resonated, though uncomfortably, with the broader intentions of Americanization policies. “Elite” Teachers, Citizenship, and Colonialism On December 8, 1920, the acting principal of schools for the Puerto Rican municipality of Coamo, Manuel Ortiz de la Renta, proudly submitted to the island governor an announcement for a school conference organized by local teachers. The governor of Puerto Rico, Arthur Yager, designated December 5–11 as “School Week” for the purpose of highlighting in local communities the progress of public education on the island, as well as bringing to light the improvements and expansion still required and forthcoming with public support.4 The Coamo organizing committee called on its “fellow citizens” to take an interest in public instruction for it was a critical “factor in the progressive action of the people of Puerto Rico.”5 Progress seemed inevitable now that both Puerto Rican educators and American colonial officials had designated public schools as the critical institution for progress and teachers as the primary actors who would transform the island’s children and their families through education. Puerto Rico’s governor received a similar update from the western city of Mayagüez. The interim director of the Boys Reform School, E. San Millán, submitted to the governor a report of the activities carried out by teachers and students...