A Deep Dive Into Puerto Rico's History

Last night, we were treated to an amazing Super Bowl, the 60th edition of the big extravaganza. The Bay Area hosted the game, which was won by the Seattle Seahawks, but the centerpiece of the event was the halftime show. The main performer was Bad Bunny, who I've been a fan of for a few years now, and he showed out, because he always does. I absolutely enjoyed the halftime show, and I definitely wasn't alone, as I was one of 130 million viewers who drank in Bad Bunny's performance.

But sadly, there was controversy, because hateful assholes just have to bitch about something. The second Bad Bunny was announced as the halftime performer, that's when the White supremacists came out and got on their hateful pulpit--saying (among many other things) that they wanted someone "American." I don't know what dropped further: Drake Maye's fumble in Super Bowl, or my IQ when I mentioned the bigots' crap.

So with that, here are some facts regarding Puerto Rico's history. Some that I know, some that I didn't know until just now, and especially things that need to be repeated to get through to some thick skulls.

First, the basics. Puerto Rico is a Caribbean island located about a thousand miles from Miami, and also located just east of Hispaniola (the island peninsula split into two countries: Haiti and the Dominican Republic). The estimated 2024 population is at 3.2 million, and the capital is San Juan. The sports fan in me can't help but mention Puerto Rico's vast connection to baseball. It all started with Hiram Bithorn, the first Puerto Rican-born player in MLB. Since then, many Puerto Rican legends have graced MLB, including (but not limited to) Orlando Cepeda, Javy Lopez (who was part of the Braves' 1995 championship), the Molina brothers--Bengie, Jose (2009 World Champion with the Yankees), and Yadier, Jorge Posada (a key member of the Yankees' Core Four), Bernie Williams (if it was a Core Five, he'd be a member), and of course, the iconic Roberto Clemente.

Puerto Rico also has some WWE history as well. On January 9, 2005, the first New Year's Revolution pay-per-view (which I watched that night), took place in San Juan, the first WWE PPV event to ever take place in PR. The main event saw Triple H capture the then-vacant World Heavyweight Championship in WWE's third-ever Elimination Chamber match, and we wouldn't see a WWE PPV return to PR until 2023, with the Backlash event taking place there. I mentioned Bad Bunny; he actually competed at the event against Damian Priest. In addition, Zelina Vega (also, like Priest, of Puerto Rican descent) challenged for the WWE Women's Championship, and the event saw appearances from Carlito and Savio Vega.

So that's the basics. Well, some of them. The rest are also basics, but to certain people who can't walk and chew gum at the same time, it's new to them.

First, the obvious: Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory. One of a number of U.S. territories. There's also Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa. Puerto Rico's been a U.S. territory since the Spanish-American War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898, which ceded PR to the U.S. as one of the territories. I myself had known since the age of six that PR was part of the U.S. in some form, and I'll explain how I knew later on.

And that brings us to the obvious point: Puerto Ricans are American citizens. The fact that so many people either don't know it or choose to ignore that fact is absolutely frightening. And get this: it's been a fact for over a century. Yep. On March 2, 1917, the Jones-Shafroth Act was signed, and as part of that act, any and all Puerto Ricans born on or after April 11, 1899 were American citizens, no questions asked. Yet even now, questions were asked, because there are too many bigots who never bothered to open a history book.

So yeah, Bad Bunny? American. Edwin Diaz, now with the Los Angeles Dodgers? American. Roselyn Sánchez, an amazing actress who has done shows such as Devious Maids and the Fantasy Island reboot? American. An American performed in Santa Clara at halftime during the Super Bowl. Clowns were just bitchy because the American wasn't White, that's what it was, just disgusting racism from the haters.

Now to my favorite subject whenever Puerto Rico is mentioned: statehood, or the rumor of it. I've heard talk about Puerto Rico possibly becoming #51 for years. I haven't heard it too much, but I've heard it enough. It's a fact that out of all of the U.S.'s territories, Puerto Rico is the closest to being a state out of all of them. A lot of people have envisioned PR becoming #51, but it's kinda complicated. While PR is part of the U.S. in many ways, they do their own thing. They have separate international participation in events such as the Olympics, and an event that's coming in less than a month: the World Baseball Classic. They're exempt from federal income taxes, and they have full control over local laws. All of that would be gone with statehood.

I'll admit this, part of me is hoping PR gets statehood, but it's for a selfish reason: I have never seen a new state in my lifetime. Hawaii was #50, and that happened in the summer of 1959, just months after Alaska became #49. But the sports fan in me doesn't want statehood to happen, because that would mean (among other things) no more Team Puerto Rico in the WBC, and as someone who loves the Latin American representation in MLB, Team Puerto Rico needs to remain.

As I said before, I had known about Puerto Rico being part of the U.S. since I was about six years old. Here's how:

I can't be the only one who remembers this. When I was a kid, my parents bought this for me: A "Map of the United States" puzzle, made by Milton Bradley. The puzzle was created in 1988, when I was three. I received this at the age of six. I loved that puzzle. I put it together, took it apart and put the pieces back in the box, only to put it back together again. I loved a lot of things about this exact puzzle. For one, there were state-shaped pieces. Also, the reverse side of the puzzle had a map of the world, so I would put it together forwards and backwards. It wasn't just the states that had their own shapes. Another island had its own shape in the puzzle: Puerto Rico.

That's how I learned it. In the bottom right corner of the completed puzzle, there's Puerto Rico. I wouldn't know PR's exact role until a year or two later, but thanks to that puzzle, I knew--at the age of six--that Puerto Rico is part of the U.S. in some form.

Puerto Rico is a beautiful land with an amazing history. The island has been represented very well in so many forums, such as sports, entertainment, and music, among many other forums. The land, the culture, and the citizens deserve a massive amount of respect, praise, and pomp and circumstance. I want to end this with this photo of one of my favorites in wrestling, Zelina Vega. Born Thea Megan Trinidad on December 27, 1990 in Queens (Met Country, but she's a Yankees fan, thank goodness), Zelina Vega's wrestling career began in 2010, but she's been in WWE since 2017. In that time, Zelina was WWE's first-ever Queen of the Ring, and held the Women's Tag Team Championship with Carmella. She won her first singles title last year when she captured the Women's United States Championship, and regarding the photo, that's the Backlash 2023 event in PR, and Zelina proudly displays the PR flag as she entered the ring.

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I want to thank you for reading this, and regarding requests, well, all I ask is that things--important things--are learned from this story.