Puerto Rico and Ukraine from a Bird Two Wings- Self Political Determination Missing
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May 29, 2022 To: US Congress Representatives, Raúl M Grijalva, Nydia Velázquez, Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, Jenniffer González Dear Representatives: I am writing these words to congratulate all of you for making history with the process of decolonization and self-political determination for us, the People of Puerto Rico. This is the first time in our five hundred twenty-eight years, and running, as a colonial possession that our real government- Chief of State of PR is Joe Biden- asks the people living in their territory how do we feel about it, and which are our wishes and goals for our common relationship. It’s like living with your wife for years and never talking to her. Four hundred and five years under Spain’s control and one hundred twenty-four years under USA control. Nobody during the signing of the Treaty of Paris, to end the Spanish American War, asked us, the Puerto Ricans, our opinion of the property transfer of ownership of the land in which we were born and live. Living in a colony is like living as a test tube baby- you do not own your habitat. My name is Guillermo Gonzalez Roman, aka, Guillermo Gonzalez MD for my writings. I was born in Santurce, PR in 1949. I am a retired physician, specialized in Psychiatry and Neurology. Now living back in PR after 30 years of medical practice in the states of New York and Massachusetts. I have read and fully agree with the draft of The Puerto Rico Status Act. It is my opinion that the USA has been dodging its responsibility, as assigned by the Treaty of Paris, which was signed in 1899, to determine the political future of the relationship of the US with PR. None of you before has talked to us expressing your divided and conflicting opinions regarding the future of our relationship. You have mascaraded your ambivalence to us, as described in the Insular Cases and the recently decided case of Vaello Madero by the US Supreme Court, by using the excuse that there is no consensus between us and not you. How could there be consensus among us when there are multiple mutually excluding possibilities, which are not defined, and we have no power to decide? We are requested consensus on issues that only you have the power to enforce, and you have never defined which are the possibilities. Are you playing with us “blindly tagging the donkey”? It is always easier to blame the weakest and defenseless. Article IV, Section III, Clause II of the US Constitution gives you unilateral rights to legislate the rules for our lives and society- in a unilateral unquestionable and irrevocable way. To the point, based on monetary claims that we are poor and do not pay enough taxes to receive equal treatment under the Constitution, you allow the SSI benefits assigned from you to the poor, except not for the poor people of PR. In 1984, the US Congress took away the federal bankruptcy protection to us during insolvency. You also put for cheap sale the triple tax exemption Commonwealth bonds in their portfolios, which by 2015 over 70% of the Mutual Funds in the US had Commonwealth bonds with excellent and above average interest rates, and they were Joker bonds that anybody could buy them, tax exempt, especially for states with high taxes. All of this, in conjunction with our financially incompetent and irresponsible local government that is still two years behind in submitting audited consolidated financial statements, lead us to insolvency and incapacity to defend ourselves from Wall Street. It may sound paranoid, but the path was set for Wall Street to take over all the actives of our local fictitious government. We were defenseless people with no political power in our real government- the federal government- left to face the mammoth of Wall Street alone. The Russians are invading Ukraine and not respecting their right for self-political determination. US Congress has been doing this to us for all these years; ignoring our will and democratic right for self-determination. For some of you, it is an issue of not wanting PR to be a purple or swing state that will decide presidential elections. For us, it is a request for our sovereignty, residing today with you in the US Congress, ending the unilateral control from you on your colonial territory possession. Maybe, to the surprise of some of you, I believe that with our sovereignty we will successfully survive in both possible scenarios- statehood or independence. For the past 16 years I have been writing about the colonization process of PR and the effects on the Puerto Rican personality. I have published six books on this topic, and I am in the process of writing my seventh book in support of The Puerto Rico Status Act- “Puerto Rico and Ukraine from a Bird the Two Wings- Self Determination Missing”. It is my opinion, based on my experience, that you are not the only ones to blame for the persistence of the colonial situation of PR for all these years - we have also contributed. Experience, biology, and personality interact, being cause and effect of each other. The Colonized Personality has evolved from years of colonialism, creating dependence in the metropolises, and inferiority feeling and insecurities about a future of our own, with the responsibility of a government that could support its own structures and facilitate the self and financial support for all of us Puerto Ricans. Habits are difficult to change and at times we are our own worst enemy. Thank you for providing me, as a private citizen living in PR, an opportunity to express my opinion about our political future and our future relationship with the USA. The Puerto Rican self-determination process is a common responsibility, and we will fight for it as united people in a democratic and peaceful way, different from the Ukrainian people that have been forced to fight fearfully for their self-political determination process. Sincerely, Guillermo González Román
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About the Book
This book is written from my perspective as a psychiatrist in relation to my experiences of being an American born in Puerto Rico. This may sound cognitively dissonant but is not. There are fundamental differences between being an American and an American born in PR. The intentions for this book are to denounce the hoax of the century in USA- that the Puerto Ricans govern Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico has no sovereignty of its own. Since 1898, PR has been governed by the US Congress and the President of the USA. With the Foraker Act of 1900, we were ordered to organize ourselves in a limited version of a republican type of government, with only one chamber and a governor appointed by the President of the USA. This civil government would replace the military government present since the invasion of our lands. With the Jones- Shafroth Act of 1917 we became American citizens, and the new government was going to have two chambers - Senate, and House of Representatives. The Act made it clear that the US has full control in matters of the economy, immigration, defense, and the type of government for us in PR. Government organization was designed by the USA and not by us. Even our famous Commonwealth Constitution was ordered from the US Congress and was modified at their will without consent of the Puerto Ricans. Until 1952, PR was on the list of colonies of the United Nations Decolonization Committee. The people of PR were allowed to elect a governor in 1948 for the first time since total control of the US. We were ordered to write a constitution subordinated to the US Constitution, as approved by Congress, and this act was presented to the United Nation as a proof of self government. It proved unnecessary supervision by the UN- they considered it a domestic manner and not an international matter; it seems that they forgot the Treaty of Paris. The US ambassador asked for PR to be stricken from the list of colonies and for the requirements to present reports for the decolonization and self government development. We have never had full self government and much less self determined government. This hoax has led many to believe that PR is a Latin American nation. We are a non incorporated territory that belongs to but is not part of the federation of states government. As a territory that belongs to the USA, they discriminated regarding which rights of their constitution extends to us. For the past five years, a board of seven members designated by the President and the House and the Senate of the USA has superseded our elected officials. And they have the discretion and the power to change whatever they feel necessary, including the constitution, so we can pay the debt with Wall Street. Seven Americans, not Puerto Ricans, have the full control of our monies. Where is the self government? Maybe it never existed and was just the hoax of the century for the US government.
About the Author
Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez-Roman was born in Puerto Rico. He studied medicine and specialized in Psychiatry and Neurology at the University of PR and practiced medicine in PR, NYC, and MA. His orientation in psychiatry is a biological perspective in interaction with our experiences and history. He is a strong believer that our experiences in life modify our biology, our brains, and our DNA. Transcultural psychiatry is his pet subject. After completing his medical and psychiatry training, he did a clinical fellowship in clinical research at the State University of New York at the Downstate Medical Sciences Campus, Brooklyn, NY, where he learned the anthropological research technique of participant observation. In his first book, The Governor’s Suits, he describes the rating scale which defines the concept of the colonized personality. This is a concept created by a psychoanalytic psychiatrist, Franz Fanon. Very different from the original creator of the concept, Dr. Gonzalez believes that the decolonization process could be achieved by peaceful means and not by war as Fanon did in Algeria. His research is based on actual interactions with the media, mostly Puerto Rican newspapers, in their public forums. These interactions have served to validate the concept of the colonized personality, that is for him the reason that Puerto Rico has been, for the past 529 years, a colony, first of Spain and now of the USA. The colonial status is something condemned by the United Nations Organization. Until 1952, PR was on the list of colonies of the Decolonization Committee of the UNO. At that time, the US allowed PR to design a constitution which supposedly allowed self government. This is totally incorrect, because we became a colony after the Treaty of Paris in 1898, when Spain ceded their colony of PR as compensation to end the war. PR belongs to the USA and is governed by Congress under the territorial clause of the US Constitution. These are the realities that Dr. Gonzalez wants the world to know. You do not have to travel to Ukraine to find a whole population that doesn’t have full self government and where the democratic right of self determination is not respected.