Rico Quotes

"I thought I danced really well and everyone in Mexico did, but then we got here to Puerto Rico and I started to see everyone dancing and I got so depressed.... I`ve been living a huge lie!"

It`s one of my biggest hobbies. I started when I was 8 years old. Then I went to music high school in Puerto Rico. We had a regular curriculum, but with an emphasis on music.

We`re going to Puerto Rico, where we`re gonna close. And we`re so excited, we can`t see straight.

If U.S. national sovereignty continues, it is only as a state that Puerto Rico will have permanent 10th Amendment powers over its non-federal affairs, as well as voting power in Congress.

That is why, with optimism instead of fear, all those who want to see Puerto Rico`s status resolved should seek the truth about each option, including the upside and the downside of each.

Yet, individuals and corporations in Puerto Rico pay no federal income tax.

Federal program and services outlay in Puerto Rico is approximately $10 billion per year.

Internal self-government under a local constitution was authorized by Congress and approved by the residents in 1952, but federal law is supreme in Puerto Rico and residents do not have voting representation in the Congress.

In historical and constitutional terms, the recent political status vote in Puerto Rico was a necessary but obviously not decisive step on the road of self-determination leading to full self-government.

However, the sovereignty of the states is constitutionally defined and recognized, while the powers of the local government in Puerto Rico are defined by, and subject to alteration under, federal statutory law.

Apparently tired of waiting for clear direction from Congress, the people of Puerto Rico have used the tools provided by their own local constitution to schedule a vote for Dec. 13 on the status of the island.

Yet, Puerto Rico`s economic convergence and political integration with the rest of the nation is in a state of arrest - even though the island has been within the national borders, political system and customs territory of the U.S. for a century.

Now that the there is a path for the people of Puerto Rico to express their self-determination on Puerto Rico`s political status, there are some who seek to block that path.

If Congress does its job in this regard, the residents of Puerto Rico will be empowered to act in their own self-interest and express their future political status aspirations accordingly.

I did not feel `evil` when I wrote advertisements for Puerto Rico. They helped attract industry and tourists to a country which had been living on the edge of starvation for 400 years.