The Sovereign Colony by Antonio Sotomayor

Author:Antonio Sotomayor [Sotomayor, Antonio]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8032-8538-5
Publisher: Nebraska
Published: 2018-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Monagas was not going to let this affront pass, not after the struggle to recognize the COPR, not after his own battle to hold onto power in the COPR, and definitely not given his integral role in the legitimation of sport autonomy in the commonwealth. The position of the USLTA was an indication that the commonwealth did not resolve Puerto Rico’s colonial relation to the United States. Making the USLTA or the International Lawn Tennis Federation resolution official would have been politically disastrous to both the U.S. and Puerto Rican governments’ claims of final decolonization. Moreover such a ruling would place the IOC and the un in a difficult predicament because both had recognized Puerto Rico, the former as separate from the United States, the latter as a decolonized territory.75

Rejection of Puerto Rico’s Olympic presence, and nationhood, was also internal. Estadista followers were quickly gaining ground in the 1950s, and one of them, Pedro Ramos Casellas, denounced the existence of COPR. In a letter sent to Brundage on September 23, 1959 (the ninety-first anniversary of the Puerto Rican pro-independence uprising against imperial Spain), he averred that Puerto Rico was “not a nation, never has been a nation and will never be an independent nation” because the “compact” of 1952 affirmed Puerto Ricans as U.S. citizens, as part of the United States.76 He attacked Rolando Cruz’s behavior at the Pan-American Games in Chicago for not accepting his bronze medal in the pole vault unless the Puerto Rican flag was hoisted and the Puerto Rican national anthem played. Ramos Casellas called this act “shameful” and demanded an investigation. Brundage responded that the IOC’S recognition of a Puerto Rican National Olympic Committee was given at Puerto Ricans’ request, and he suggested that Ramos Casellas address the COPR directly.77

Still, under Monagas’s leadership, the COPR was perceived by other Latin American nocs as a separate and sovereign Olympic entity. After the Pan-American Games in 1959, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, and Argentina requested a visit from Monagas to evaluate their Olympic track and field programs.78 (Even though Puerto Rico did not win the track and field meets, the team did place above many other Latin American teams.) More important, Monagas was praised as the key figure to help resolve difficulties between Latin American and U.S. delegations. Just as in the 1930s, Puerto Rico’s Olympic delegation and leadership in the 1950s were still seen as the bridge between two cultures.

Puerto Rico’s struggle for recognition of its sporting sovereignty was far from over. The fact that some viewed Puerto Rico’s Olympic participation as unlawful while others viewed it as successful points to the island’s pervasive colonial Olympism. As in other facets of daily life, colonialism permeated the island and resulted in its colonial sovereignty. Athletic modernization came with a cost: subjugation to an external metropole. Internal bureaucracy, patronage practices, and overarching centralization also hampered the development of institutions. Yet one successful outcome resulted from the development of Olympism in the 1950s: the consolidation of a sporting identity that fueled Puerto Rican national identity.

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