In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

A Counterpoint: The maestro sufrido US officials, informed by racial ideologies about nonwhite peoples in the mainland and territories, intended to consolidate and centralize the colonial school project. However, local teachers, educators, politicians, and intellectuals forced US officials to negotiate those intentions. Documenting literacy through census statistics, keeping track of the number of new classrooms founded, and importing US teachers were markers for how US officials interpreted and evaluated their contribution to colonial society. These were symbols of alleged US imperial benevolence and modernity. Puerto Rican teachers and educators, from different urban centers and defined by multiple political inclinations, had their own intentions for colonial schools. Their visions, nevertheless, were also informed by local constructions of race, class, and gender. Puerto Rican teachers who practiced under the Spanish colonial government in the late nineteenth century were disenfranchised with the arrival of Americans . New school laws required them to pass US-based examinations in order to qualify to teach in the newly established colonial schools. Many were recertified and returned to their profession. It was these very teachers who proposed direct challenges to US officials’ visions for colonial schools. Local teachers did not transition into the US colonial schools without critique. While they may have shared some assumptions and characterizations about nonelite Puerto Ricans with US officials (see chapter 3), they nevertheless allocated themselves (local experts) and Americans (foreigners) different locations and responsibilities within the school project. For example, teachers were particularly anxious about 58 chapter 2 El magisterio (the Teachers) illiteracy rates in the student body, as were Americans. That mutual concern, however, did not mean local teachers shared the same vision for colonial schools or that they were willing to hand over authority to US colonial officials. One way local teachers and educators challenged US assumptions of authority was by establishing their independence from the Spanish colonial government. They did not deny that Spanish colonial officials neglected the founding of a universal school system. However, they proposed an alternative narrative of the history of education on the island and their role within it. Teachers developed a narrative around the heroic and romanticized representations of the teacher as martyr. This image demanded recognition of the history of nineteenth-century teachers, particularly the initiatives and selfless practice of those who labored in spite of the neglect and lack of interest of the Spanish colonial state. When they narrated a separation of their history from that of the Spanish colonial state, they were also asserting their independence from the visions and practices of US empire. Teachers understood that US colonial officials crafted an image of themselves as liberators and modernizers. They also recognized that US imperial visions were informed by white supremacist racial ideologies. Puerto Rican teachers were not willing to grant US officials complete authority over definitions of modernity, nor were they willing to accept US racial ideologies that contradicted local narratives of racial harmony. The myth of racial harmony was an evolving narrative in the late nineteenth century. It was an emerging ideology that popularized the argument that the island, unlike the neighboring Caribbean islands and the United States, had maintained “social” peace and positive relationships among the classes. This peace and harmony was built on a narrative about the benevolence of Puerto Rican liberals, like Segundo Ruiz Belvis, José Julián Acosta, and Francisco Mariano Quiñones, who in 1866 called for the abolition of slavery. The myth of racial harmony in the late nineteenth century, however, was also deeply regulated by a “conspiracy of silence” over racial conflicts.1 Elites and the leadership of the working class collaborated to manage racial conflict and facilitate political and economic alliances. Intellectuals and politicians embraced the myth of racial harmony as a strategy with which to challenge US colonial officials’ assumptions about authority over the colonial school project. Early twentieth-century educators, like Juan José Osuna and Gerardo Sellés Solá, however, also deployed this strategy. As they proposed an alternative narrative of the history of education in nineteenth-century Puerto Rico, teachers further contributed to the construction of the foundational myth of racial harmony. In particular, teachers and educators promoted the emblematic image of the maestro sufrido, the “martyred teacher.” This was the teacher who, despite the lack El magisterio (the Teachers) 59 of resources provided by the Spanish colonial government, had dedicated his life to the moral and patriotic labor of bringing literacy and rudimentary elementary instruction to the children of Puerto Rico. The image of the maestro sufrido...

Share