Celebrations of Citizenship: The Case of the Luis Muñoz Rivera Memorial Association in New York City

• In Event: Colonialism, Citizenship and Political Incorporation: Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans in the United States

Abstract

Most treatments of the question of American citizenship in Puerto Rico focus on the political process whereby it was acquired, on the question whether it was imposed for military purposes, and on the disparities in the treatment of Puerto Ricans as American citizens in Puerto Rico and on the continental United States. In this paper I look at American citizenship from a different angle. I chronicle and analyze the emergence and activities of the Luis Muñoz Rivera Memorial Association. The Association was established by a group of Puerto Ricans in New York in 1956 for the main purpose of annually celebrating American citizenship in Puerto Rico. How can this be explained? From the vantage point of civic participation, what is the significance of this group and what are the implications of its emergence and development for the meaning and legitimacy of colonialism in Puerto Rico and the meaning and significance of the migrant experience in the colonial metropolis?

Author

• José E Cruz, SUNY/University at Albany