Puerto Rico’s Independence Movement Is Gaining Strength
Since the 19th century, the choice between independence and incorporation into the US has been a central issue for Puerto Rican politics. Support for the left-wing Puerto Rico Independence Party is now surging among the country’s youth.
Rafael Bernabe’s history of the Puerto Rico independence movement, Obstinate Star, can serve as a key tool for those on the US left who want to understand Puerto Rican politics beyond the occasional tokenization of the island by Democratic Party elites. (Alejandro Granadillo / Anadolu via Getty Images)
In a recent speech in the city of Nashville, former Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris spoke about the need to “revisit” several questions about the US political system: the Electoral College, the Supreme Court, and statehood for Puerto Rico and Washington, DC. While the US media was keen to pick up on her comments about the Electoral College and the court, the mention of Puerto Rico was an afterthought.
The call for Puerto Rican statehood has become a recurring theme in the mainstream Democratic discourse. However, it owes more to white liberal fantasies of multicultural imperialism than the real desires of the Puerto Rican people for a change in political status. In fact, the Puerto Rican statehood movement is much more aligned with the Republican Party than their Democratic rivals. The country’s current pro-statehood governor, Jenniffer González, is an ardent Republican and Trumpista.
If the Democratic consultants who are advising Harris had taken a little time to research contemporary Puerto Rican politics, they would have seen that the independence movement is taking off among the country’s youth. The pro-independence candidate Juan Dalmau made history by winning nearly 31 percent of the votes in the 2024 gubernatorial election.
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