Why didn't Puerto Rico become a US State? (Short Animated Documentary)

Fun fact: Puerto Rico's nonvoting representative in the House of Representatives is the only Member of Congress that serves a 4 year term. House members serve 2 years, Senators serve 6 years, but the resident commissioner of PR is unique.

"As such, in the American political tradition, it was time for can-kicking!" As a US citizen, I find this hilariously sad.

0:35 I love the newspapers and treaties. It always is a challenge to pause the video quickly enough so I can read the whole thing.

The few Puerto Ricans I have talked to were impartial/fine with the status-quo, but from what I understand, the ones who do want statehood or independence feel strongly about it.

Another big reason why people preferred association over statehood is that, while it is illegal for states to leave the union, it is perfectly legal for territories to do so (see Micronesia) so keeping Puerto Rico a territory allows the issue of potential independence to be kicked down the road while not angering the pro-independence or pro-statehood sides too much

As a Puerto Rican living on the Island as I write this, I'm surprised it finally got it's own episode. The topic of status in PR is still very complicated. Yes, the independence support has decreased, but that factor was also cause by decades and decades of propaganda that linked it with it getting conquered by Cuba or the USSR (Cold War Red Scare at it's finest). And in the last plebiscites on what status the citizens would favor, statehood seemed to receive overwhelming support, but the ammount of people that participated was very little. This topic is far more complicated than a 3+ minute video, but still good video. I hope more PR related videos come out in the future.

As a Puerto Rican and a USAF veteran. My take in a nutshell, PR doesn't have the resources to sustain or grow its economy at a meaningful rate, more economic diversity is needed, the island dependents heavily in the tourism and US funds, and the few expats that spend money at the local shops when we visit...

Thank you for this episode, and good job getting the basic gist out there.

In 8th grade, I asked my social studies teacher why Puerto Rico wasn’t a state, and he said just because that would make it 51 states, and “the 50 states” just sounded better. I wholeheartedly believed him and have never questioned it until today lmao

I’m a Puerto Rican born and raised on the island. From what I’ve experienced, it is the older generations that prefer statehood, while the idea of independence is more popular among the younger folk. Obviously, this is a generalization. Many Puerto Ricans, including myself, serve in the military, and are employed by American organizations on the island, so to sever ties with the United States would definitely affect a large percentage of the population. Anyways, thanks for the video man! It’s not often that Puerto Rico receives much attention from channels like yours.

Mad props to the creator who didn't stretch this out in ten minutes or have sponsors in the middle. Subbed

Dude, you are fantastic. So spot on

I served in the US Army with a whole bunch of Puerto Ricans and one them told me once that if you want to start a fight, find three or more Puerto Ricans and say "PR should be a state". Because there are three opinions (status quo, statehood, and independence) and they feel strongly about whichever one they hold.

I watch for two reasons: -To see if James Bissonnette is still a patreon -To learn the information given out in this video

Good Question!👍 Thank you very much for the Historical Background to answer it!

I like the reproachful portrait of Queen Liliuokalani at 0:51 and later.

As a Puerto Rican, another factor I keep seeing is that people here are just very comfortable with the "unincorporated territory" title. The pro-independence crowd can have their "we're our own country" line, while we're all still US citizens with the benefits of travelling to and from the US without any issue.

As always, I enjoyed this video. I was surprised, however, that one detail was missing. It was virtually impossible to consider making Puerto Rico a state before World War 2 because of the Philippines. The US could not possibly entertain the idea of making the Philippines a state due to its comparatively gargantuan population. Making Puerto Rico a state while keeping the Philippines as a territory would have caused even more tension between the states and the Philippines. However, once the Philippines became independent, statehood for Puerto Rico became more feasible. I know a few people from Puerto Rico. Based on that small sample size, they seem to lament the most about not being able to vote in the US presidential elections. Otherwise, they seem ambivalent regarding statehood. Again, my sample size is small. Many people from Puerto Rico may have a different perspective.

of all the the history classes I've been to in school, this information is something i have an interest on.

Most of them moved to Kissimmee, FL or NY/NJ. :) They said something like 400k people moved to the greater Orlando area after Hurricane Maria a few years back. The ones who want to be a state just move here freely so I guess it works for the island to stay as it is.