Puerto Rico under the colonial gaze: Oppression, resistance and the myth of the nationalist enemy

Abstract

This paper argues that the United States’ occupation of Puerto Rico is a colonial state of exception. By examining the case of Downes v. Bidwell, I demonstrate the role that race played in the establishment of the state of exception. This unprecedented legal situation and the United States’ inequitable policies toward the island led to the emergence and growth of the Partido Nacionalista de Puerto Rico. The movement posed such a threat to U.S. hegemony on the island that the U.S. government unleashed a campaign of violent repression against the Party and its leader, Pedro Albizu Campos. Such repression too had a racialized dynamic that worked to mythologize and flatten Albizu Campos into an angry black man. This repression and violence could occur on the island because of the existence of a colonial state of exception where the usual operation of law did not exist.