Partisanship, Power Contenders, And Colonial Politics in Puerto Rico, 1920S

After nearly two decades of civil political discourse, violence, partisanship, and manipulation again took center stage in Puerto Rico in 1920 (Negron-Portillo 1990). The violence that characterized the decade erupted before an important election in November that year when Unionistas intimidated and beat Socialistas in Caguas (Union Obrera, octubre 14, 1920). (1) The labor daily Union Obrera reported that leaflets had been passed throughout the Unionista municipality of Caguas demanding that all the supporters of Partido Union (hereafter PU) attend a mass rally on October 14, 1920. According to the reporter, fifty Unionistas left their main offices in Caguas chanting "abajo con los obreros" (down with the workers). To the surprise of the Socialistas, who thought the rally was led and mainly comprised of wealthy individuals, it instead consisted of "hombres que si no trabajan no comen " (men, who if they do not work they do not eat). Union Obrera argued that the workers involved in the rally were not from Caguas. The paper charged that the patricios (patricians), after a series of low attendance at their rallies, were bringing outsiders from the surrounding towns to give the impression that they still had large popular support (Union Obrera, octubre 14, 1920). This story shows how the patrician leadership of Caguas tried to control and reshape local political outcomes by taking to the streets to create an illusion of dominance over a new powerful contender, Partido Socialista (Socialist Party). What happened in Caguas was hardly unique. Instead, it illustrates how the rise of a powerful political block grew out of a labor base in the late 1910s to foment dramatic political change in political parties in Puerto Rico in the 1920s. But these groups pushed for change in a community economically and politically tied to the United States. This article examines that shift by asking how these parties revised their role as overseers of the political apparatus without challenging American presence, and how they renegotiated the status between the island and the United States. In the process, the actors in this drama invoked the kinds of violence used to protest political and economic conditions in the early twentieth century. But they utilized that violence to address new grievances and, thus, their protests took on new political meaning. To address these inter-related issues, this article explores how the impact of American capitalism and colonialism dramatically shaped local politics in Puerto Rico in the 1920s.