Protesters at the University of Puerto Rico are a bunch of lazy students who use their Pell Grants to buy beer, cigarettes and coke. — Carlos Romero Barceló (governor of Puerto Rico 1976-1984), May 2010
Students from the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) went on strike in April, and, soon after, 10 of the 11 campuses of a public system with more than 60,000 students were closed. “Once recintos, una universidad” (eleven campuses, one university) was the maxim students used to emphasize the concept of the UPR as a system unified by similar goals, aspirations and challenges. A national body was formed to lead and coordinate the protest throughout the island. For the first time, faculty from the entire system met to discuss the state of affairs at UPR and determine how best to support the strike. National and international figures have voiced their support, and the media from Puerto Rico and abroad have covered the university strike extensively. Repeated attempts by the government to portray strikers as communists failed.
Higher education historians will study this strike thoroughly. It could well be one of the most significant strikes in the history of an institution that has experienced numerous episodes of student unrest since its founding in 1903. Although each strike had its unique characteristics, the literature suggests they all share three defining aspects: the colonial origin of the university, the efforts to democratize its governance and the demands for institutional autonomy.
Colonial Origin
The United States founded UPR in 1903, five years after it wrested Puerto Rico from Spain during the Spanish-American War. The university’s mission was to continue at the higher education level what the U.S. military forces initiated in 1898. The occupation of Puerto Rico produced resistance to the U.S. colonial enterprise, which can be found in each of the university conflicts since 1919.
In his study of colonialism, “Culture and Imperialism,” Dr. Edward W. Said states that: “The slow and often bitterly disputed recovery of geographical territory, which is at the heart of decolonization, is preceded as empire had been by the charting of cultural territory. After the period of ‘primary resistance,’ literally fighting against outside intrusion, there comes the period of secondary, that is, ideological resistance, when efforts are made to reconstitute a shattered community, to save or restore the sense and fact of community against all the pressures of the colonial system. …”
The cost of UPR’s colonial origin and history of political control and intervention has been enormous. By the 1920s, UPR was a key instrument of U.S. rule and was also besieged by the Puerto Rican political forces participating in the colonial government.
