The Unicorn Theory = Puerto Rican Statehood is politically impossible. #5ueño1mposible🦄
Testimony given on a Public Forum on the draft bill “Puerto Rico Status Act” before the House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources, held in the Puerto Rico Convention Center on June 4, 2022.
My name is Luis S. Herrero Acevedo, I am a lawyer, political consultant and commentator.
I would like to to start by commending the draft proposed bill and the process led by Majority Leader Hoyer and Chairman Grijalva. Getting proponents of statehood and sovereignty to discard old tropes and bring forth new ideas and processes to resolve Puerto Rico’s centenary political conundrum is no small feat. “Gracias Nydia y gracias Jenniffer por sentarse y hablar.”
In theory, this is how the democratic process should work. Thank you once again for getting it done. If approved by Congress, this draft bill will send a clear signal of what a democratic majority in the House of Representatives is willing to offer Puerto Ricans. The draft is a starting point for future discussions and a solution to the status issue.
But, as we all learned in elementary school, a bill does not become a law until approved by the Senate and signed by the President. And, therein lies the problem…
As a political consultant, I understand very well how politicians talk on the record, especially on the congressional record, vis a vis how they talk behind closed doors. Everyone on the dais, and every politician who has served in the Natural Resources Committee since the United States took Puerto Rico by military force, has had multiple off the record conversations about Puerto Rico. And everyone on the dais must agree, off the record of course, there are no votes in the Senate to make Puerto Rico a state.
Not today, not yesterday, not tomorrow.
Since 1898, Puerto Rican statehood has been a mirage, lip service to score cheap political points or raise a few dollars for a campaign. I compare it to a mythical animal, much talked about but never seen. A unicorn🦄.
Through all its stages as a US colonial territory, there have never been 51, much less the 60 votes needed in the Senate to make Puerto Rico a state. Puerto Rico has been many things to the United States: a naval base and shooting range, a profitable sugar plantation, a tax haven, a bio lab, a Cold War theater used to foster revolutions and counter revolutions in the Caribbean, a winter vacation spot, an Estado Libre Asociado, and much more, but it has never been, nor will it ever be a State.
And that is the truth. Off the record.
So, let me be the first to say it on the record: Puerto Rican Statehood is impossible in the Senate. It’s a unicorn.
Why will Puerto Rico never be a state, when 37 other territories were able to join the Union? The reasons are many and time is short, but my preferred theory is that although Puerto Rico is owned by the United States, it has never been successfully “americanized”.
All histories on how territories become states have the same protagonist: a white American man. It’s no coincidence that the last names of the fathers of Texas statehood were Austin and Houston, and not González or Hidalgo. The last names of the fathers of Alaskan statehood were Gruening and Barlet, not Kaitaq or Qiluqi. In its 172 years as a state, California has never had an elected Governor with a Spanish surname. I wonder why…
No congressperson will say this on the record, especially those with a couple thousand Puerto Ricans voters in their districts, but you know it to be true. Even with a democratic majority, there is no filibuster proof coalition to make Puerto Rico a state in the Senate. “No importa cuando lo leas.”
Even this draft bill confirms the unicorn theory. To this date, except for our republican Resident Commissioner González, not a single republican in the House or the Senate has endorsed the draft. Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, who represent over a million Puert Ricans from Florida, do not even bring the subject up. The mere possibility of adding Puerto Rico as State dooms this, or any other draft, in the Senate.
If politics is the art of the possible, then Statehood politics is the art of the impossible. To end this gordian knot, Congress must design a process that can garner the 60 votes needed in the Senate. We need to bring republicans to the table and hammer out a deal.
Puerto Rican politicians have used statehood as a political tool for decades. A cure for all our diseases. A handy excuse to justify their many terrible local governments. Millions of Puerto Ricans truly believe statehood is possible, because five generations of pro-statehood politicians have promised that “la estadidad está a la vuelta de la esquina.”
Only Congress, and this Committee can tell Puerto Ricans the truth. Puerto Rican statehood is not in the cards. The same way that after many years you now are saying, for the record, that Estado Libre Asociado as was originally conceived, is not viable, you should be as straightforward with statehood.
The wording can be simple and succinct: “Puerto Rico, it’s not you, it’s me. Let’s stay friends. -Signed, US Congress”
Puerto Rican politics are changing. A new generation is ready to partner with Congress and design a process that can bring democrats and republicans together and make Puerto Rico a prosperous, democratic and independent nation.
But first, you must speak the truth to us: on the record.
Thank you for your time.
