22 years - US Army Reserve, Army National Guard (Retired)

"Puerto Rico is not forgotten and we mean to have it" - Henry Cabot Lodge, writing to Theodore Roosevelt on May 24, 1898

"No peace settlement should be made that did not include provisions for...annexation of Puerto Rico" - Theodore Roosevelt, replying to HCL, May 25, 1898.

"Gin'ral Miles' gran' picnic an' moonlight excursion" - 'Mr. Dooley', Finley Peter Dunne's comic creation on the expedition to "Porto Rico"

(Proclamation issued to the population of PR) "In the prosecution of war against the kingdom of Spain by the people of the United States, in the cause of liberty, justice and humanity, its military forces have come to occupy the island of Porto Rico. They come bearing the banner of freedom, inspired by noble purposes...They bring you the fostering arms of a free people, whose greatest power is justice and humanity to all living within their fold. . . They have come not to make war on the people of the country, who for centuries have been oppressed; but, on the contrary, to bring protection, not only to yourselves, but to your property, promote your prosperity and bestow the immunities and blessings of our enlightenment and liberal institutions and government . . .(to Secretary of War Alger) This is a prosperous and beautiful country. The army will soon be in mountain region; weather delightful; troops in best of health and spirits..." - General Nelson Miles, upon landing his forces in Puerto Rico, July 25 -28, 1898

"The majority of this country [does not] wish to call itself Spanish, preferring American domination. This the enemy knows, and it is proved to him today by greetings and adhesions in towns that are going to be occupied" - Spanish Governor-General Macias to Spain's Minister of War Correa, August 5, 1898

"In my opinion, Congress has no existence and can exercise no authority outside of the Constitution. Still less is it true that Congress can deal with new territories just as other nations have done or may do with their new territories. This nation is under the control of a written constitution, the supreme law of the land and the only source of the powers which our government, or any branch or officer of it, may exert at any time or at any place. Monarchical and despotic governments, unrestrained by written constitutions, may do with newly acquired territories what this government may not do consistently with our fundamental law. To say otherwise is to concede that Congress may, by action taken outside of the Constitution, engraft upon our republican institutions a colonial system such as exists under monarchical governments. Surely such a result was never contemplated by the fathers of the Constitution. If that instrument had contained a word suggesting the possibility of a result of that character it would never have been adopted by the people of the United States. The idea that this country may acquire territories anywhere upon the earth, by conquest or treaty, and hold them as mere colonies or provinces,—the people inhabiting them to enjoy only such rights as Congress chooses to accord to them,—is wholly inconsistent with the spirit and genius, as well as with the words, of the Constitution." - Justice John Harlan, dissenting in the Insular Cases, 1901

"We, the people of Puerto Rico, in order to organize ourselves politically on a fully democratic basis, to promote the general welfare, and to secure for ourselves and our posterity the complete enjoyment of human rights, placing our trust in Almighty God, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the commonwealth which, in the exercise of our natural rights, we now create within our union with the United States of America.

In so doing, we declare:

The democratic system is fundamental to the life of the Puerto Rican community

We understand that the democratic system of government is one in which the will of the people is the source of public power, the political order is subordinate to the rights of man, and the free participation of the citizen in collective decisions is assured

We consider as determining factors in our life our citizenship of the United States of America and our aspiration continually to enrich our democratic heritage in the individual and collective enjoyment of its rights and privileges; our loyalty to the principles of the Federal Constitution; the co-existence in Puerto Rico of the two great cultures of the American Hemisphere; our fervor for education; our faith in justice; our devotion to the courageous, industrious, and peaceful way of life; our fidelity to individual human values above and beyond social position, racial differences, and economic interests; and our hope for a better world based on these principles" - Preamble, Puerto Rico Constitution, July 25, 1952