Date of Award

2010

Document Type

Restricted Thesis

Terms of Use

© 2010 Isabel Rivera. All rights reserved. Access to this work is restricted to users within the Swarthmore College network and may only be used for non-commercial, educational, and research purposes. Sharing with users outside of the Swarthmore College network is expressly prohibited. For all other uses, including reproduction and distribution, please contact the copyright holder.

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

History Department

First Advisor

Diego Armus

Abstract

Rivera explores the complexity of the Puerto Rican condition as one in perpetual mobility by examining the emergence and decline of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party from 1970-1992. Using the party’s official newspaper, other contemporary leftist newspapers, and official and internal party documents, Rivera explores how the party’s attempt to appeal to both mainland and island residents challenged its own slogan of “One Nation, One Party,” and ultimately led to the party’s decline. Although the Puerto Rican Socialist Party aligned itself with the growing independence movement that emerged from international political climate from 1940-1960, the party was unique in its situation as originating on the island yet seeking to improve the social conditions of mainland residents. Rivera’s examines how the party’s official newspaper, La Seccional, captured the movement’s internal divide between its simultaneous aims of Puerto Rican independence and the advance of socialism on the mainland, and how this hybridity led to its perceived marginalization from the international political system and ultimate failure to realize its goals.

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