to set up a government for Puerto Rico. The President of the United States appointed a governor of his choosing who was always answerable to him. Six departments were also set up under the governor, where each head of the departments were also appointed by the United States President. The U.S. government also retained the right to revoke any laws passed by the Puerto Rican legislature (Trias-Monge, 43). What the act in fact had done for the Puerto Rican people was take away what little form of government they fought so hard to attain from the Spanish. 400 years of fighting for something and it was gone with the simple stroke of the pen. Puerto Rico was not given their own government because they were seen as unfit to rule themselves yet. They could not argue much about their situation either, because they were under the rule of a military power, one in which they surely could not push back and rise up against. But the key word in the above statement is "yet". This word implies that the U.S. would not be there for long and they were there to just over see things until Puerto Rico got on their feet. A very important thing to note here is that the U.S. government never stated when they had to pull out, so they were strictly working on their own timetable. But though Puerto Rico belonged to the United States due to its colonization, the people were not given citizenship nor Constitutional Rights. Upon hearing this as a Puerto Rican, a person would immediately concentrate on that key word "yet". This word gives you hope and all you had to do was show the U.S. that you could do well in whatever they throw at you. It is better than focusing on the anger and frustration you felt during the rule of the Spaniards, plus you could feel the freedom’s closeness. This has been proven to be a false feeling as 100 years of continued colonization by the United States has since followed. What Puerto Ricans had to endure during the followi...
