Democrats adopt boisterous Puerto Rican style

By DANICA COTO, Associated Press Writer Thu May 22, 4:12 AM ET

Original article here.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Forget placards, stoic bodyguards and formal rallies. To win Puerto Rico's presidential primary, both the Clinton and Obama camps are campaigning in the boisterous, face-to-face "boricua style" favored on this Caribbean island.

The June 1 vote will allocate 55 delegates and might finally give Illinois Sen. Barack Obama the number he needs to claim the Democratic nomination if he picks up enough superdelegates in the meantime. But rival Hillary Rodham Clinton is favored to win here, partly because she's done better among Hispanics in previous primaries and partly because the New York senator already represents a lot of Puerto Ricans, many with relatives on the island.

Among Puerto Rico's seven superdelegates, not bound by the primary, Clinton has a 4-2 edge over Obama, with one uncommitted.

"There's a cultural clash in how campaigning is done" in Puerto Rico versus the mainland, said Roberto Prats, the island's Democratic Party chairman and a Clinton campaign spokesman. "We suggested they build a campaign 'boricua style.'"

"Boricua," derived from the Taino Indian word for the island's people, is the term Puerto Ricans use to refer to themselves.

Large, billowing flags are replacing modest placards, staffers for both candidates have summoned their rusty Spanish, and Bill Clinton's bodyguards were asked to relax during his visit to a sprawling public housing complex.

Obama himself visited briefly last November for a private fundraiser and a meeting with Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila, who later endorsed him. Clinton's last visit was after Hurricane Georges in 1998. But the Obama campaign says he will return before the primary, and a local party official says Clinton also will campaign on the island before the vote.

So far, both campaigns have relied mainly on high-profile surrogates. The former first lady has been represented by her husband, the former president, and daughter, Chelsea. Obama has sent his wife, Michelle, and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

These surrogate appearances have been steeped in boricua style.

Clinton's campaign hired a Puerto Rican "reggaetonero" to draw crowds with jingles infused with the heavy BOOM-da-BOOM-BOOM bass rhythm of the popular hybrid Latin rap music.

During her second visit to Puerto Rico, Chelsea Clinton was accompanied by a "batucada," or percussion ensemble, of a dozen young musicians armed with drums, maracas and whistles as she greeted shoppers at a San Juan mall.

It is a warmer, more intimate way to campaign, said Clinton spokesman Angel Urena.

Apparently, it works.

Michael Ayala, the 19-year-old batucada leader, said all 50 musicians he oversees are pledging to vote for Clinton and recruit at least two friends each to do likewise.

Not to be outdone, Obama flew his Spanish-speaking staff to the U.S. Caribbean territory, where they met recently with university students. And Michelle Obama offered some Spanish — "Se puede!" (We can!) — during her visit.

Obama supporters also are organizing "marquesina," or garage meetings, a decades-old tradition in which politicians meet community leaders for informal Q&A sessions. And they're considering launching "caravana" voter drives, which involve raucous caravans of hundreds of cars that meander through the streets with megaphones and pulsating speakers.

"It's the grand finale," said Obama's local co-chairman, Pedro Pierluisi. "That's something very folkloric of Puerto Rico."

Obama, who has far more money than Clinton, launched his television ads last Saturday. They use a Spanish voiceover and show Obama speaking English with Spanish subtitles. The ad says Obama grew up on an island and in a family with few resources so he understands the concerns of Puerto Rican families. With the Iraq war distinctly unpopular in Puerto Rico, Obama closes by saying he will end the war and bring the troops home.

Clinton has run radio ads and began running TV ads on Wednesday. The ad shows Clinton meeting with voters while a woman says in Spanish that Clinton will create more jobs and economic incentives to boost the local economy. The narrator urges viewers to vote for Clinton if they want the island's voice to be heard.

The island switched from a caucus to a primary after Super Tuesday's inconclusive outcome prolonged the Democratic contest. The hope was that a full-scale vote would prompt candidates to make commitments on local issues.

Smart move: Puerto Rico hasn't received this much attention since the 1980 face-off between Ted Kennedy and Jimmy Carter.

Clinton wrote a column reminding Puerto Ricans how she helped after Hurricane Georges. Obama countered with a column saying he understands island challenges because he lived in Hawaii. Both pledged to improve the island's economy and public education.

And on the island's foremost issue, both say only Puerto Ricans can decide whether to maintain their commonwealth status, become a U.S. state or opt for independence. Clinton has promised to resolve the issue in her first term. Michelle Obama countered that her husband will devote more resources to resolving the question.

But to many islanders, style is as important as these issues.

In a culture that likes to rub shoulders and shake hands with its politicians, Angel Sanchez was undecided until Bill Clinton appeared standoffish during his visit last month. "He barely allowed himself to be seen," Sanchez said.

Sanchez, the father of two mentally disabled boys, said Obama earned his vote when his staffers sought his ideas for improving education.

Others said Chelsea Clinton's humility and interest in island culture won them over.

"It's been great being able to show the Americans and Clinton staffers that here the campaigning is different," said batucada leader Ayala. "There can be joy, fun and dancing."

Puerto Rico’s Moment in the Sun

Op-Ed Contributor

By MICHAEL JANEWAY

Published: May 22, 2008

Original New York Times article here.

Keith Negley

PUERTO RICO, an afterthought trophy for the United States 110 years ago at the end of the Spanish-American War and an island in limbo since, has become an improbable player in the contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Its primary on June 1 could bolster Mrs. Clinton’s claim to a majority of the popular vote — the combined tally for all the Democratic primaries and caucuses held across the country over the past six months.

Puerto Rico’s formal role in the process is indeed weighty. Its 63 voting delegates — 55 elected ones and eight superdelegates — at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this summer will outnumber delegations from more than half the states (including Kentucky and Oregon) and the District of Columbia. Yet Puerto Rico does not have a vote in the Electoral College, nor will its 2.5 million registered voters cast ballots for president in November.

How in the world did this happen? From the beginning, the question of Puerto Rico has perplexed the United States. The island was essential to the defense of the Panama Canal, so we did not make it independent, in contrast to two other Spanish possessions we gained in the war, Cuba (which become independent in 1902) and the Philippines (1946). And we judged it foreign in language and culture — and worse, overpopulated — so New Mexico-style Americanization leading to statehood was out of the question.

Similarly, Puerto Ricans have never resolved their relationship with the United States. For almost 50 years after the Spanish-American War, Puerto Rican sentiment was divided between dreams of statehood and of independence. This ambivalence deterred the island from ever petitioning Congress for one or the other. And until mid-century, sporadic outbursts of violent nationalism haunted the scene.

Partly to put such extremism out of business, Congress in 1948 allowed Puerto Rico to elect its own governor and then in 1950 gave it an intricately designed, semi-autonomous “commonwealth” status short of statehood. Two years later, the island adopted its own Constitution, and Congress quickly ratified it.

Puerto Ricans elect their own Legislature, along with the governor. They enjoy entitlements like Social Security, but they do not pay federal income taxes. They retain their own cultural identity (Spanish is the prevailing tongue) but live under the umbrella of the American trade system and the American military. They have been citizens since 1917, but they have no vote in Congress or for the presidency.

The man who brought forth this unique arrangement, which has come to seem permanent, was Luis Muñoz Marín, who dominated Puerto Rico’s politics beginning in 1940. In 1948 he became the island’s first elected governor. He won three more terms and could easily have been “president for life.” A stretch of 116th Street in Manhattan’s Spanish Harlem is named Luis Muñoz Marín Boulevard in his honor.

Muñoz was an eloquent advocate of independence until, faced with daunting statistics at the end of World War II, he concluded that Puerto Rico’s impoverished economy could not support nationhood. So he began packaging his third-way brainchild.

When pitching commonwealth on the mainland, Muñoz — an artist of words and imagery who also enjoyed a drink or two — would observe that Puerto Rico is the olive in the American martini. The phrase went down well in Washington, but Muñoz used different language at home. Neither Congress nor the American courts have ever embraced Muñoz’s Spanish-language phrase for “commonwealth,” universally recognized in Puerto Rico: “estado libre asociado,” or free associated state. Those three words suggested an autonomy (or even statehood or independence) beyond what came to pass. But Muñoz was too popular on the island for that to cause him trouble.

Still, Muñoz always intended to bring “enhanced autonomy” in trade, self-governance, taxation and entitlements to Puerto Rico. But Fidel Castro’s seizure of power in Cuba in 1959 moved Washington’s attention away from the commonwealth.

Muñoz left office in 1965. His dreams faded. The economy he jump-started went flat. Today, the government accounts for 30 percent of Puerto Rico’s work force (compared with 16 percent on the mainland).

Then in 1974, the Democratic National Committee and some shrewd local political strategists came up with an idea for how to play to lingering discontent over the island’s status: Why not make nice with Puerto Rico (and, as important, with the Puerto Rican vote in American cities) by awarding it the number of delegates to the Democratic presidential nominating convention that its population would yield as a state? But not until this year has a presidential race been close enough, long enough, to yield Puerto Rico a role in the endgame.

On the island, politics is focused on the longstanding deadlock between the two dominant parties, whose identities — one is for statehood and one is for enhanced autonomy — today bear no relation to those of the Republicans and Democrats in the 50 states. Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama are, gingerly, bidding for support from both of them.

But the mainland population of Puerto Ricans (like the island’s, almost four million) is watching, too. That fully enfranchised constituency is up for grabs in November. Republicans have fished in these waters, too.

Presidential candidates usually offer Puerto Ricans hazy promises that are sure to be unfulfilled. First on the list: We’ll do whatever you want about the island’s status if you deliver us an overwhelming majority for one or another option. That’s not going to happen.

Since 1967, public support on the island has seesawed inconclusively between statehood and enhanced autonomy — a better version of the deal they already have. Muñoz’s commonwealth helped eclipse independence; that course enjoys only limited support today. An overwhelming majority of Puerto Ricans wants, one way or another, to be American.

The next president could just appoint another commission, more high-level and forceful than past ones, to reopen the dormant question of Puerto Rico’s status. But there is an additional option.

Fidel Castro is gone from office, Hugo Chávez’s influence is growing, Brazil is becoming an oil power, and the United States has no Latin American policy to speak of. John F. Kennedy wisely turned to Puerto Rican leaders to help him frame a new policy for the region in 1961. Similarly, the next president could ask Puerto Rico, with its democratic tradition and its past success with economic development, to help us plan for the post-Castro Caribbean.

The United States is overdue in re-engaging with this special place, which landed in our lap as a stepchild of imperialism in 1898, and which we have never seen clearly.

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Michael Janeway, a former editor of The Boston Globe and a professor of journalism and arts at Columbia, is writing a history of the United States and Puerto Rico in the 20th century.