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will eventually be settled by armed force. Editor Ramon Arbona of the Communist newspaper Claridad says that his party does not have to train fighters because "the U.S. Army has done that for us." Most veterans, however, have more peaceful ideas.
Nelson Ortiz, 23, just finished a three-year volunteer hitch in the Army—infantry, heavy weapons—and was heading home to see his family in the western town of Afiasco. His plans? "I'm going back to college, going to study sociology." Independence?
"That would be a big crisis. Look at those other little countries that became independent, all the troubles they have."
Ordinary people convey a sense of confidence that things will work out eventually, that they still have opportunities to grow. Ortiz has uncles in Chicago, parents in Añasco, friends in San Juan. "Maybe some day it will be Chicago for me," he says.
"Why not?" Rafael Cruz, 39, has a steady job as a bus driver in New Jersey but he is looking for a small business in San Juan.
After 25 years in the States, he and his wife have simply decided that "it is time to go back." The continental connection gives people like Nelson Ortiz and Rafael Cruz—as well as Rafael Hernández and Carlos Romero—time and choices.