Empire

Sexual Empire

By Ben Woodruff

The US began expanding off of the continent in 1898. This expansion included the taking of Puerto Rico. I had never considered the violence to the collective psyche of the colonized peoples until I had moved to Hawai'i in 1998. I learned of the actions that the American missionaries took to remove traces of native Hawai'ian culture. This is similar to the actions described in Reproducing Empire.

Laura Brigs had a passage on page 6 that really stood out to me with regard to the view of sexuality in Puerto Rico.

"Early in the twentieth century, military officials and reformers diagnosed the island as suffering from an epidemic of venereal disease caused by prostitution, adultry, and the passing of the disease from immoral husbands to innocent wives and children. In this discourse, women have used birth control and sterilization excessively or not enough. In public policy, overpopulation was blamed for poverty on the island during the Depression, with eugenics the cure."

 Contesting the integrity of women's bodies in Puerto Rico was similar to the contesting of Indian women's bodies by the British. Protecting the greater public from the menace of the wanton woman cast the colonizer as the redeemer and justified their presence in the colony.

Taking the view that Puerto Rican women were too childlike to be responsible and that this inability to take responsibility lead to overpopulation, the United States began a program of mass sterilization. This gave insight on how the leaders of the United States saw the people of Puerto Rico.

The idea of citizenship without suffrage continues this standing of Puerto Ricans as children needing care.