(San Juan) The Puerto Rico House of Representatives celebrated the 92nd anniversary of the Jones-Shafroth Act of 1917 at the Capitol building in Old San Juan On Monday March 2, 2009, the. Better known as the Jones Act, it was this legislation that gave statutory United States’ citizenship on Puerto Ricans that year.

The Capitol building dome’s third level was adorned with some 36 United States flags and four large red, white and blue buntings. Puerto Rico House Speaker Jennifer Gonzalez urged the Presidential vote for the U.S. territory’s residents and lamented that more than 110 years after the United States wrested control of Puerto Rico from Spain, that Puerto Ricans remain without constitutionally guaranteed U.S. citizenship and that Congress still possesses unilateral power to withdraw citizenship from Puerto Ricans.

“It is a tragedy that in all the democratic process and federal legislature that Puerto Ricans who live on the island have no voting rights in Congress, the Congress where decisions are made daily that affect and determine our lives. “Puerto Ricans struggle shoulder to shoulder with those soldiers born in the rest of the United States. However, these men and women, who defend the nation and risk their lives, are unable to vote for the man who sends them into the battlefield. That is a great tragedy” she said.

In the case of Puerto Ricans, owing to the island’s territorial status, citizenship is statutory and not constitutionally guaranteed. Statehood for Puerto Rico will constitutionally guarantee citizenship for Puerto Ricans. For more information please see http://prstatehood.org/video/video_sovreigntycitizenshipusconstitution.html

The activity took place in the Old San Juan Capitol Rotunda in front of the Puerto Rico constitution display. Puerto Ricans were permitted an island constitution in 1952. In addition to the United States constitution and the United States bi-cameral Congress, all of the fifty states have state constitutions and state governments. For a chronology of the admissions of the 50 states of the union to date, please see www.prstatehood.org

Puerto Rico was ceded to the United States by Spain along with the Philippines, Guam and Cuba following the Spanish-American War in 1898. Cuba and the Philippines went on to become independent countries. Puerto Rico (population 3.9 million) remains a territory of the United States whose inhabitants remain without sovereign voting representation in Congress. Puerto Rico was granted limited self government by Congress in 1951 and the island’s constitution was ratified the following year in 1952. Guam remains an unincorporated U.S. territory without a constitution.