¹ Angel G. Quintero Rivera, ‘La base social de la transformación ideológica del Partido Popular en la década del 40’, in Dávila, Gerardo Navas (ed.), Cambio y desarrollo en Puerto Rico; la transformación ideológica del Partido Popular Democrático (Río Piedras, 1980), pp. 35–119Google Scholar; ‘El papel del Estado en el modelo puertorriqueño de crecimiento económico; base clasista del proyecto desarrollista del 40’, paper presented at the Third Central American Congress of Sociology, Tegucigalpa, Honduras (Río Piedras, 1978); and ‘The Socio-Political Background to the Emergence of ‘The Puerto Rican Model’ as a Strategy for Development’, in Craig, Susan (ed.), Contemporary Caribbean: A Sociological Reader, vol. 2 (Maracas, Trinidad/Tobago, 1982), pp. 9–57.Google Scholar Also González, Emilio, ‘Class Struggle and Politics in Puerto Rico During the Decade of the 40's: The rise of P.D.P.’, Two Thirds, vol. 2, no. 1 (1979), pp. 46–57Google Scholar; and ‘Ideología populista y estrategias de desarrollo en Puerto Rico, 1940–1950’ (CEREP, n.d.).

² Ianni, Octavio, La formación del estado populista en América Latina (Mexico, 1975)Google Scholar; Weffort, Francisco, ‘Clases populares y desarrollo social’, in Quijano, Aníbal and Weffort, Francisco, Populismo, marginalización y dependencia (San José, 1976).Google Scholar

³ This is a very brief synthesis of the central thesis of Quintero Rivera and González. There are differences in the emphases given by each author. For example, Quintero Rivera argues that the PPD's political project aimed at ‘the constitution of a nation-state in the country that would embody the interests of the people’: ‘El papel del Estado’, p. 27. González, for his part, is more cautious and does not go as far, yet he speaks of a ‘national capitalist development’ model: ‘Ideología populista’, p. 12, and ‘Class Struggle and Politics’, p. 49. However, they both coincide in the view of the PPD's political project as the expression of the interest of a class-in-formation whose aspirations for some kind of national hegemony were frustrated.

⁴ Herrero, José A., ‘La mitología del azúcar’ (mimeographed, n.d.), pp. 49–50.Google Scholar

⁵ Among the countries subscribing to the plan were: Cuba, New Zealand, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Peru. The United States and its colonies initially agreed to back the plan but withdrew their support. Ultimately the plan did not resolve the problem, and in the short term the North American position had a negative impact even on Cuba which was an important supplier of sugar for the United States. See Herrero, , ‘La mitología’, pp. 41–51Google Scholar; and LeRiverend, Julio, Historia Económica de Cuba (Barcelona, 1972), pp. 232–3.Google Scholar

⁶ Acevedo, Luz Del Alba, ‘American Colonialism and the Emergence of Puerto Rican Nationalism During the Decade of the Thirties’, M. A. thesis, University of Liverpool (1978), pp. 109–110.Google Scholar

⁷ Bird, Esteban A., ‘The Sugar Industry in Relation to the Social and Economic System of Puerto Rico’, Senate of Puerto Rico, Senate Document No. 1, 15th Legislative Assembly, First Session, 1941, pp. 40, 129.Google Scholar

⁸ Rivera, Quintero, ‘La base social’, pp. 43–5Google Scholar; Mathews, Thomas G., La política puertorriqueña y el nuevo trato (Río Piedras, 1970), p. 139.Google Scholar

⁹ ‘Report of the Puerto Rico Policy Commission’ (San Juan, 1934), pp. 8–9.Google Scholar This report was, and still is, popularly known as the ‘Chardón Plan’.

¹⁰ Chardón Plan, p. 9.

¹¹ Corretjer, Juan Antonio, Albizu Campos y la huelgas del' 30 (Guaynabo, 1969), pp. 9–12Google Scholar; Acevedo, , ‘American Colonialism’, pp. 140–4.Google Scholar

¹² Fromm, Georg, ‘La historia ficción de Benjamín Torres (V); la huelga de 1934, una interpretación marxista (1)’, Claridad (San Juan), Suplemento En Rojo, 24–30 de junio de 1977, pp. 6–7Google Scholar; and ‘La historia ficción de Benjamín Torres (VI); la huelga de 1934, una interpretación marxista (2)’, Claridad, Suplemento En Rojo, 1–7 de julio de 1977, pp. 4–5.

¹³ Gayer, Arthur et al. , The Sugar Economy of Puerto Rico (New York, 1938), p. 223.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Interestingly, the negotiator for the sugar corporations was the chief of the colonial police, Col. Elisha Francis Riggs. It is said that he agreed to all of Albizu's demands immediately. Corretjer, Juan Antonio, La lucha por la independencia de Puerto Rico (Guaynabo, 1974), p. 69Google Scholar; Acevedo, , ‘American Colonialism’, p. 148.Google Scholar

¹⁵ The problem of forming an anti-imperialist popular movement presents complexities that go beyond the ideological differences between the PN and the workers. The Partido Comunista Puertorriqueño (PCP), which had emerged from within the membership of the FLT in 1934, and whose class origin was clearly proletarian could not capitalise on the crisis either. Instead of facilitating the development of a political alternative for the working classes, the crisis had the immediate effect of dividing them. Fromm, ‘La historia ficción (V)’ and ‘La historia ficción (VI)’; see also Corretjer, Juan A., El líder de la desesperación (Guaynabo, 1974).Google Scholar

¹⁶ Acevedo, , ‘American Colonialism’, pp. 167–76Google Scholar; Torres, Benjamín, El proceso judicial contra Pedro Albizu Campos (San Juan, 1974)Google Scholar; Corretjer, Juan A., Albizu Campos y las huelgas de los años treinta (Guaynabo, 1969).Google Scholar

¹⁷ Chardón Plan, pp. 1–7.

¹⁸ See the Chardón Plan, p. 7 for an example of this.

¹⁹ Mathews, , La político puertorriqueña, ch. 6.Google Scholar

²⁰ Ibid., ch. 7.

²¹ Acevedo, , ‘American Colonialism’, p. 160.Google Scholar

²² To a great extent, the idea that the PPD was the genuine expression of the working masses can be attributed to the heavy rhetoric and the political style of PPD leader Luis Muñoz Marín who had identified himself as being pro-independence during the 1930s. Nonetheless, anyone who carefully reads Mathews's book or Governor Tugwell's accounts of his governorship can see that Munóz's pro-independence stance was more a bargaining tool than a political project. See Mathews, , La político puertorriqueña, chs. 5–7;Google Scholar and Tugwell, Rexford G., The Stricken Land (New York, 1947).Google Scholar

²³ For an account of the anti-Americanism during the 1930s and its persistence at the beginning of the 1940s, even within the ranks of the PPD, see Brown, Wenzel, Dynamite on Our Doorstep (New York, 1941;)Google Scholar. This view may be somewhat exaggerated due to the author's prejudices, but it illustrates the existing tensions.

²⁴ Tugwell, , The Stricken Land, p. 7.Google Scholar

²⁵ Tugwell, , The Stricken Land, p. 7.Google Scholar According to Juan A. Silén, ‘pan, tierra, y libcrtad’ (bread, land and liberty), had been the slogan of PCP's newspaper, Lucha Obrera, in 1935. Silén, Juan A., Apuntes para la historia del movimiento obrero en Puerto Rico (Río Piedras, 1978), p. 92.Google Scholar

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²⁷ Roces, Mario Villar, Puerto Rico y su reforms agraria (Río Piedras, 1968), pp. 42–3.Google Scholar

²⁸ As quoted in Edel, Matthew O., ‘Land Reform in Puerto Rico: 1940–1959’, pt. 1. Caribbean Studies, vol. 2, no. 3 (3 10. 1962), p. 30.Google Scholar

²⁹ Rico, Puerto, Leyes (1941)Google Scholar, ‘Ley No. 26’, pp. 389–457.

³⁰ Edel, , ‘Land Reform’, pt. 1, p. 38.Google Scholar

³¹ Rico, Puerto Board, Planning, Division, Economic, Economic Development of Puerto Rico, 1951–1960 (San Juan, 1951), p. 176Google Scholar, table 30 (hereafter quoted as Planning Board, Economic Development).

³² Tugwell, , The Stricken Land, p. 87.Google Scholar

³³ For a detailed description of the law and the various programmes contemplated by it see Villar Roces, Puerto Rico y su reforma agraria; and Descartes, Sol L., ‘Historical Account of Recent Land Reform in Puerto Rico’, in Méndez, Eugenio Fernandez (ed.), Portrait of a Society (Río Piedras, 1972).Google Scholar

³⁴ Rico, Puerto, Leyes (1942).Google Scholar

³⁵ Aside from Quintero Rivera and González, this view is held by Navas, Gerardo, La dialética del desarrollo nacional: el caso de Puerto Rico (Río Piedras, 1978)Google Scholar; and Villamil, José J., ‘El modelo puertorriqueño; los límites del crecimiento dependicnte’, Revista Puertorriqueña de Investigacions Sociales, vol. 1, no. 1 (07–08. 1976), pp. 4–14.Google Scholar

³⁶ For a detailed account of Fomento and its subsidiaries see Ross, David F., The Long Uphill Path (Río Piedras, 1969).Google Scholar

³⁷ Planning, Puerto Rico, Urbanizing, and Board, Zoning, A Development Plan for Puerto Rico (Santurce, 1944), p. 44Google Scholar (hereafter quoted as Planning Board, A Development Plan).

³⁸ This was the case with the expropriation of the Porto Rico Railway Light and Power Co., and of the Mayaguez Light, Power, and Ice Co. See Forty-Third Annual Report of the Governor of Puerto Rico, 1943 (San Juan, 1943), pp. 40–1.Google Scholar

³⁹ Herrero, , ‘La mitología’, pp. 20–30.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Forty-Fifth Annual report of the Governor of Puerto Rico, 1945 (San Juan, 1945), p. 98.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Perloff, Harvey S., Puerto Rico's Economic Future (Chicago, 1950), pp. 74–6.Google Scholar

⁴² Rivera, Quintero, ‘La base social’, pp. 68–9.Google Scholar

⁴³ Wolf, Eric R., ‘San José; Subcultures of a “Traditional” Coffee Municipality’, in Steward, Julian H. et al. , The People of Puerto Rico (Chicago, 1956), p. 250.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Board, Planning, Economic Development, pp. 28, 48, 101, 163.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Compañía de Fomento de Puerto Rico (CFPR) Informe Annual: 1944 (San Juan, 1945), p. 7.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Board, Planning, Economic Development, pp. 7, 28.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Board, Planning, Economic Development, p. 126.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Cestero, Belén H., Balance of External Payments of Puerto Rico: Fiscal Years 1941–42 to 1947–48 (San Juan, 1950), p. 13.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Board, Planning, Economic Development, p. 71.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Board, Planning, Economic Development, p. 156, table 7.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Calculated from Junta de Planificación, Ingreso y producto Puerto Rico, 1978 (San Juan, 1978), p. 43.Google Scholar

⁵² PPD, Programa, 1940, p. 2.Google Scholar

⁵³ Jesús T. Piñero, who had been President of the Puerto Rican Farmers Association, is probably the best illustration of the influence of the large colonos within the PPD. Piñero was elected to the Puerto Rican Legislature for the PPD in 1940, and in 1944 was elected Resident Commissioner for Puerto Rico in Washington. In 1946, President Truman appointed him Governor of Puerto Rico, and he thus became the first Puerto Rican Governor appointed by a US President. On the benefits of the PPD's legislation to colonos see Navas, Gerardo, ‘Surgimiento y transformación del Partido Popular Democrático’, in Navas (ed.), Cambio y desarrollo, pp. 24, 27Google Scholar, and passim.

⁵⁴ Forty-Third Annual Report of the Governor of Puerto Rico, p. 3.

⁵⁵ Board, Planning, A Development Plan, p. 19Google Scholar; and Goodsell, Charles T., Administración de una revolución (Río Piedras, 1967), p. 36.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Tugwell, , The Stricken Land, p. 91.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Between 1942 and 1948 the profits declared by the US sugar corporations amounted to a total of 19.7 million dollars. In 1942 profits were 4.5 million, but they declined to 1 million in 1946 before rising to 4.1 million dollars in 1948; Cestero, , Balance of Payments, p. 18.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Cintrón, Mattos, La politica y lo político, pp. 13, 200Google Scholar and notes 143 and 14;; also López, Awilda Palau de, ‘Análisis histórico de la figura de Teodoro Moscoso’, in Navas (ed.), Cambio y desarrollo, pp. 154–5.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ A list of the private entrepreneurs that formed part of the board of directors of Fomento and its subsidiaries appears in Puerto Rico Development Company (PRDC), Third Annual Report, 1945 (San Juan, 1945), p. 7Google Scholar; they were mostly executives from local banks and other local businesses.

⁶⁰ Ross, , The Long Uphill Path, p. 85.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Board, Planning, A Development Plan, p. 5.Google Scholar

⁶² PRDC, First Annual Report, 1943 (San Juan, 1944).Google Scholar

⁶³ PRDC, Third Annual Report, p. 3Google Scholar;, emphasis in the original. A similar quotation from the US National Association of Maufacturers had appeared also in CFPR, Informe Anual, 1944 (San Juan, 1941;), p. i.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Tugwell, , The Stricken Land, p. 148Google Scholar; see also pp. 69 and 137.

⁶⁵ Tugwell, , The Stricken Land, p. 112Google Scholar and passim.

⁶⁶ Rivera, Quintero, ‘La base social’, pp. 73–9Google Scholar; González, , ‘Class Struggle and Politics’, pp. 50–1.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ 1 am drawing here on Ernesto Laclau's analysis of populism in Politics and Ideology in Marxist Theory, (London, 1977), ch. 4.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Ianni, , La formación del estado populista, p. 174.Google Scholar