Atlas of Hispanic-American History

executive council, serving below a Spanish

governor whose authority had been great-

ly reduced. Muñoz’s tenure proved short-

lived. On July 25, 1898, U.S. forces landed

in Puerto Rico. By August the island was

under U.S. control, and the Treaty of

Paris in December formally made the

island an American possession. Muñoz

tried to continue serving as head of the

cabinet under an American military gover-

nor but found his position so weakened

that he resigned early in 1899.

Muñoz and most other Puerto Rican

leaders did not at first seek immediate

independence. They hoped for an end to

U.S. military government, U.S. citizen-

ship for Puerto Ricans, status for Puerto

Rico as an organized territory, and even-

tual statehood. Instead, the Foraker Act

of 1900 established a civil government

but did not make Puerto Ricans U.S. cit-

izens or offer substantial self-govern-

ment. The U.S. Congress, in which

Puerto Ricans had no voice or vote, kept

control of Puerto Rican affairs.

Meanwhile, unemployment and

poverty were on the rise in Puerto Rico.

American sugar companies were buying

large plots of land from Puerto Rican

landowners, converting much of the

island’s farm land to sugar production.

Farmers who had grown their own food

now labored at growing sugar, with their

livelihoods dependent on the chronical-

ly unstable price of that commodity.

Poverty was aggravated by a population

explosion, the result of U.S.-introduced

health and sanitation measures that

124 ATLAS OF HISPANIC-AMERICAN HISTORY

1859 Luis Muñoz Rivera is born in Barranquitas, Puerto Rico.

1887 Muñoz Rivera cofounds the Autonomist Party of Puerto Rico. The party’s main goal

is independence from Spain.

1890 Muñoz Rivera founds La Democracía (The Democracy), a newspaper dedicated to

Autonomist ideas.

1893 In order to learn more about political systems, Muñoz Rivera travels to Spain to

study its government. When he returns home, he assists in drafting the Plan de

Ponce, an outline for Puerto Rico’s administrative autonomy and political freedom.

1895 Muñoz Rivera becomes part of a four-member commission, which meets with the

leader of the Liberalist Party of Spain, Práxedes Mateo Sagasta. Together, the

Liberalist parties of Spain and Puerto Rico agree that if the Spanish Liberalists come

to power, Puerto Rico will have an autonomous government.

1897 Sagasta approves the Autonomist Charter and appoints Muñoz Rivera secretary of

state and chief of the cabinet in Puerto Rico’s Spanish colonial government.

1898 The United States invades Puerto Rico and ignores the Autonomist Charter.

1899 Muñoz Rivera founds the newspaper El Territoria (The Territory), providing a place

for Puerto Ricans to express the ill-effects of the U.S. trade blockade. That same

year, Muñoz Rivera unsuccessfully tries to negotiate a free-trade agreement

between Puerto Rico and the United States; he moves to New York.

1901 In New York, Muñoz Rivera founds the Puerto Rico Herald, a bilingual newspaper

focusing on Puerto Rico’s relations with the United States.

1904 Muñoz Rivera returns to Puerto Rico and founds the Unionist Party upon his arrival.

1906 Muñoz Rivera is elected to the Puerto Rican House of Delegates as a Unionist and

is reelected twice, serving until 1910.

1910 Muñoz Rivera is elected resident commissioner to the U.S. House of

Representatives. He learns English in order to fight for a revision of the Foraker Act.

In response, U.S. president Woodrow Wilson says the Unionist Party must end its

fight for independence before the United States will amend the act.

1916 The U.S. House of Representatives passes the Jones Act and sends it to the Senate

for approval. Muñoz Rivera returns to Puerto Rico. He dies soon thereafter.

1917 The U.S. Congress passes the Jones Act, which grants Puerto Ricans U.S. citizen-

ship and sets up a two-chamber legislative assembly with a 19-member Senate and

a 39-member House of Delegates, both of which are elected by the people.

A CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE OF

LUIS MUÑOZ RIVERA

“If the U.S. flag in Puerto

Rico covers an American

territory, we Puerto Ricans,

by natural rights, are perfect

U.S. citizens. U.S. citizenship

should not be imposed on a

Puerto Rican if he does not

want it, but if there is a law

making all Puerto Ricans

ipsofacto U.S. citizens, then

the ideals of the people of

Puerto Rico would be

achieved.”

—Jose de Diego, April 9, 1910,
U.S. House of Representatives