Thursday, October 10, 2024
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.
Puerto Rico – The 51st State? Explaining the Diminished Prospects for Puerto Rico Statehood
Carlos Vargas-Ramos, Director for Public Policy, External and Media Relations, and Development at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Hunter College
This lecture discusses the territorial condition of Puerto Rico in relation to the United States and the unlikely prospects in the near future that Puerto Rico will be admitted into the Union as member on equal standing with other states. In order to address this narrower topic, I will address more broadly the nature of the relation of Puerto Rico and the United States, the historical process of incorporation of the U.S. territories into the Union, the partisan reasons why Congress may not want to incorporate Puerto Rico as a state, the political reasons why a solid majority of residents of Puerto Rico may still not want Puerto Rico to become a U.S. state, the economic, racial and cultural obstacles for Congress to admit Puerto Rico as a state, and the international context that provides little incentive for Puerto Rico’s decolonization.
This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments Read more