deliriouslove1970. The life & times of Gary and Denise Flanders. (Free and worth every penny. If you would like to compliment the editor, send to garytheflan@deliriouslove1970.com. If you would like to complain, call your mother.)

Today is Constitution Day in Puerto Rico

Hanging in our Lanai in our home in Denver Colorado: The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. PR is a Caribbean Island and unincorporated territory of the United States. It is 1,000 miles southeast of Miami Florida. The word Puerto Rico is Spanish for ‘Rich port’.

“The Commonwealth is an archipelago among the Greater Antilles located between the Dominican Republic and the U.S. Virgin Islands; it includes the eponymous main island and several smaller islands, such as Mona, Culebra, and Vieques. The capital and most populous city is San Juan. Puerto Rico has roughly 3.2 million residents, exceeding over 20 U.S. states. Spanish and English are the official languages of the executive branch of government, though Spanish predominates.”

Once the Spanish had wiped out a vast number of the Taino people they began ‘importing’ African slaves to work the agricultural businesses. Spain outlawed slavery and the African slaves were freed. A fusion of the Taino and Africans ‘brought about’ the Puerto Rican population.

In 1898 as a result of the Spanish – American War, the United States ‘acquired’ Puerto Rico. Since 1917 the people of Puerto Rico have been US citizens. They have a non-voting member in congress.

The flag was officially adopted in 1952. It is based on an ancient heraldic design. The revolutionary flag of Lares was from the rebellion of 1868.

The official PR flag consists of “Five equal horizontal bands of red (top and bottom) alternating with white; blue equilateral triangle based on the hoist side bears a large, white, five-pointed star in the center. (Official colors of the flag)”

The Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950 was an Act of the 81st United States Congress, which passed unanimously in the United States Senate and with one dissenting vote in the United States House of Representatives. Signed into law on July 3, 1950 by President Harry Truman, the Act enabled the residents of Puerto Rico to organize the insular government of the unincorporated territory under a constitution of its own, comparable to those of states of the United States. Established under the Act and its joint resolution in 1952, the Constitution of Puerto Rico superseded the Jones–Shafroth Act of 1917 as the primary organic law for the local government of Puerto Rico and its relation with the United States.

With the approval of the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950, the full authority and responsibility for the local government of Puerto Rico was vested in the residents of Puerto Rico, resulting in complete self-governance within the archipelago and island.

Puerto Rico Constitution Day is a public holiday in Puerto Rico on July 25 of every year established by Law #1 of August 4, 1952 of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The holiday commemorates the day the Constitution of Puerto Rico, approved on July 3, 1952, was signed into law by Governor Luis Muñoz Marín the same year.

Prior to 1952, July 25 had been a holiday in Puerto Rico, known as “Occupation Day”, to commemorate the arrival of United States military forces on July 25, 1898 in an area of the municipality of Yauco that in the early 20th century would become part of the neighboring municipality of Guánica.