Ruben Berrios Martinez

The pending Young Bill calling for a referendum on Puerto Rico's political status offers an opportunity for the United States to end an embarrassing vestige of its imperialist ambitions. Independence would permit Puerto Rico to develop its economy and retain its national culture and Spanish language. But unless the Senate is forward-looking, ruling out commonwealth and making clear the price of statehood, centuries of repression and the lure of more federal benefits may land America with Puerto Rico's unwelcome petition to become the fifty-first state.