Soldiers of the Nation

In Harry Franqui-Rivera's important new book, Soldiers of the Nation, we learn not only of Puerto Ricans' service in the military but also, just as importantly, how this history has shaped Puerto Rican debates over statehood, independence, and commonwealth status. In tracing a history of military service alongside changing political regimes from Spanish colonialism in the nineteenth century to U.S. overseas empire in the twentieth century, Franqui-Rivera examines the dynamic political consequences of military service in a colonial context. In the early chapters, Franqui-Rivera argues military service offered a measure of autonomy for those living within a colonial regime. In a chapter on World War I, he challenges the national myth that Puerto Ricans were given citizenship in World War I simply to extract military service. Defined as nationals since 1904, Puerto Ricans were already subject to the Selective Service Act in 1917, even without the granting of citizenship through the Jones Act. Franqui-Rivera highlights the Puerto Rican interests in military service, noting, “World War I presented the local elites with the opportunity to further their projects by mobilizing the peasantry” (p. 65). For Franqui-Rivera, military service is key to understanding the link between the island and mainland. Yet, these connections could be drawn in other ways, too, sometimes outside the context of military service. World War I, for example, was also a moment of widespread labor strikes that drove workers across the island to petition for fuller labor protections under U.S. citizenship. In sharpening our focus on the military as a source of both Puerto Rican agency and connection to the U.S. mainland, Soldiers of the Nation at times discounts other domains such as labor

Citizenship · Colonialism · Context (archaeology · Economic history · Military service · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Asian American and Pacific Histories · Cuban History and Society · History · Latin American and Latino Studies · Law