By Michelle Martinez -

When I started the arduous socializing process that was freshman year, after “where are you from?” was inevitably “are you actually from Puerto Rico?” After this question is answered affirmatively, the real questions come, the ones that make me glad people are curious to know more about my island. This is when we hit the political and historical conversation, which is probably one of the most complicated and bizarre scenarios. But it is truly fascinating to see how we’ve remained a colony for over 500 years.

Puerto Rico was under Spanish rule since its ‘discovery’ in the 15th century up until 1898, when Spain ceded it to the United States, along with the Philippines and Guam to finalize the Spanish-American War.

To date, we continue to be an US “possession,” or as we’ve ironically labeled ourselves an “Estado Libre Asociado,” which means “freely associated state,” though there isn’t really any “free association” more than there is actually a colony. Puerto Rico’s relationship with the United States has several “advantages,” such as use of the dollar and American citizenship (since 1917), but our ambiguous political status leads to several unjust, or just plain paradoxical policies towards our island.

For instance, during the age of obligatory military service in the United States, Puerto Ricans could be drafted, and although now it’s voluntary to serve, if the United States were to reestablish mandatory service, we would have no choice in the discussion. This is because, even though Puerto Rico’s population is larger than that of half the states, there is only one representative in the House who cannot vote. Also, we don’t get to vote in presidential elections, though bizarrely enough we do get to vote in the party primaries. And perhaps least well-known, but still pretty controversial, is the fact that upon colonizing Puerto Rico, the United States changed the lyrics of our national anthem because of its revolutionary roots, making the words more docile.

Most people ask me, “what do Puerto Ricans want to do regarding their status?” and unfortunately as of the latest plebiscite, most Puerto Ricans wanted to stay as is under the commonwealth status, closely followed by the option for statehood. I used to be one of those that enjoyed the status quo. But as I become more politically aware of the situation Puerto Rico finds itself in, I become more convinced that we can’t stay in the middle anymore. I strongly believe that we’ve reached a point where everything we do and strive for, is solely based on our status. Our politics are all about our status with the United States; each party’s platform differs on what relationship they want us to have with the United States, and barely during campaigns do you hear what their stances on health care, gun control, or any of those major policy issues, since they all take a secondary role to the all-important status.

Homicide rates this past year were at an all time high in Puerto Rico, yet all the governor can rationalize doing is consider increasing the drinking age though most of the murders are in fact drug-related. How does this make sense to him, you might ask? Well, as a pro-statehood governor, it seems that he sees it as an excuse to assimilate our laws further to those of the United States, in hopes that the United States would gladly accept us as a state. Even though US President Barack Obama has promised to “give us a voice” in resolving our basic right of self-determination, we’re obviously not a priority. Were we to become a state, we’d be one of the poorest. Republicans definitely do not favor our statehood since we’d be more likely to be a Democratic state.

There are plans for a new referendum in the upcoming years, in which hopefully the population will at last choose between one and the other. 500 years as a colony is long enough, and it’s finally time we rid ourselves of the ambiguity that has surrounded our political identity for all these years and finally focus on our own development, be it as the 51st state or as a State finally all our own.