ng years to prove their "worthiness" so to speak, are nothing more than America imposing itself on another. Schools were forced to use the English language for teaching and learning. This was finally abolished in 1948, but not after almost 50 years of students trying to learn their entire academic curriculum in a foreign language. Puerto Ricans had to imitate their "big brother" from the north in order to "better themselves"(Guerra, 50-51). Before the U.S. came in 1898, Puerto Ricans were well divided by class. Now there was a new hierarchical structure and Puerto Ricans started to blend more. The jibaro was now becoming a sign of the Puerto Rican (Guerra, 59). They all started to associate with certain things that were "Puerto Rican", especially since the Americans did not distinguish between the classes and said they were all Puerto Rican. But many Puerto Ricans still argued this status of limbo. They were neither citizens of the United States, nor were they people of their own island because the island belonged to the United States. Nothing changed until March 2, 1917, when the president signed the Jones Bill. What the Jones Act did was to make Puerto Ricans full citizens of the United States of America. The only problems with this were that the island of Puerto Rico was still not a state, nor did the people living on the island have full Constitutional Rights. A Puerto Rican could only have full rights if they were living on the mainland. Living on the island you could not vote, and the U.S. still has full jurisdiction over everything. The reason why the Americans had a "change of heart" was only because of the Danish. They insisted that if the U.S. were to buy the Virgin Islands from them, that they had to make them citizens of the country. The U.S. had no choice to make Puerto Rico’s natives citizens as well. Puerto Ricans have held this status till this day and are considered a commonwealth of the United States. Pr...
