PUERTO RICO: Birth of a Commonwealth

Over Puerto Rico last week a new flag flew side by side with the Stars & Stripes. For 2,250,000 islanders, the single white star in a blue triangle against a field of red and white bars signified a nationalist dream come true. Puerto Rico had become a free commonwealth, autonomous in internal affairs, under its own constitution, recently approved by the U.S. Congress and President.

In every city and hamlet the people celebrated the new day of independence* with music, oratory, parades. In front of the Capitol in San Juan, oratory-loving Governor Luis Mufios Marin, the driving force in...

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