Obama and My Father

The announced visit of President Barack Obama to Puerto Rico and the anniversary of my father’s death compel me to make the following reflection.

Obama will be visiting us to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of a visit to Puerto Rico by President John F. Kennedy, [Obama’s] immediate ideological predecessor in the White House. With that, Obama communicates a conclusive message that his visit will be an acknowledgment of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico as a political entity with full integrity.

Through Kennedy’s presidency, Puerto Rico and the United States enjoyed the best relationship among governments. It was based on the full recognition that the president gave the commonwealth status as a decolonizing formula for Puerto Rico’s political situation. With his visit, Obama is positioning himself as the ideological heir to that United States liberal thought, which has made for such good results here.

During the days surrounding the anniversary of my father’s death, I think of an episode of his public life in which he was involved with another presidential visit to Puerto Rico, and during which his actions made me deeply proud of him. As opposed to the circumstances of Kennedy’s visit, my father and his generation had to deal with a conservative and Republican president who had little interest in respecting the political dignity of our people or their political status.

The episode to which I am referring to is fully described by the former governor, Rafael Hernández Colón, in his recently published memoir (Hacia la Meta Final, 2011). It turns out that around 1975, there was a conference held in Puerto Rico with the heads of government of the seven biggest economies around the world, then denominated the G-7. Besides President Gerald Ford, in that instance we were visited by the heads of the governments of Japan, England, France, Italy, Germany, and Canada.

Before Ford’s arrival to Puerto Rico, my father, then the secretary of state, received a request from the White House asking that all Puerto Rican national symbols be excluded from the arrival ceremonies for Ford and the other heads of government. My father energetically opposed that insulting request of those who did not seem to comprehend that Puerto Rico is a commonwealth with its own political status, and not a territory of the United States. The severity of that confrontation was such that all the heads of government, including Ford, were received to the tune of “La Borinqueña” and with a full display of our flag.

I have an incomplete memory of all that. I do not remember anything regarding the controversy with the White House. At that point I was 7 years old. My favorite pastime was accompanying my father to his public activities. I greatly enjoyed watching him speak in public. I felt protected by his words and actions. Of that day, I remember witnessing the arrival of the presidential plane. I remember being part of an extremely long welcome retinue. And I remember very well when President Ford approached me and extended his hand, which I shook with enthusiasm. The pride that I feel for my father’s actions in those days came later, when I had enough ability to understand the difficulties that our people continually go through to be respected, in great part due to the behavior of our own political leaders.

Thirty-six years after that eventful presidential visit, the roles are interchanged in a somewhat ironic manner for Puerto Rico. In contrast with 1975, in 2011 it is the government of Puerto Rico, conservative and republican, which does not recognize the political dignity of our status. And it is the visiting American president who does recognize our political dignity.

Today I share the pride that I feel for my father’s behavior with the North American president who, just as my father, acts in defense of the political dignity of our people, and not with those who actually govern the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The latter are those who, like President Ford, toil against recognizing the success already achieved with the establishment of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.