Congress and Conflicting Notions of American Identity

Abstract

The PPD’s decision to back unilingualism as a step towards sabotaging congressional support for Puerto Rico’s statehood is based on an assumption that the official narrative boasting American identity’s non-ascriptive nature is inaccurate. Scholars studying American national identity generally fall into one of three schools of thought: the civic, the ethnic, and a civic-ethnic hybrid. Arguably Eric Kaufmann provided the most realistic interpretation of this identity. He suggested that American identity consists of a civic wrapping covering over an ethno-cultural core. Such a duality helps to explain fundamentally different approaches by the PNP and PPD. The former appeals to the public-facing civic side while the PPD, through official unilingualism, sought to animate American identity’s ethnic core. While Puerto Ricans downplay their cultural nationalism, many on the mainland, particularly in Congress, see it as a threat. This is precisely what the PPD was banking on in 1991.