moncho

If you've ever heard or read any political news from Puerto Rico (the US commonwealth territory island in the Caribbean, not a neighborhood in NY city), you've probably heard about the 'status crisis', or the constant referendums that have been held in the island related to Puerto Rican territorial status.

The facts in the ground are, Puerto Ricans are severely divided about what they would like to have as far as their relationship to the United States. This is so prevalent in Puerto Rican politics, that the two main political parties' platforms are inherently linked to this issue, one of them (PNP) being pro-statehood, the other one (PPD) being pro-commonwealth, or status quo (non statehood). It really seems like Puerto Ricans are split down the middle on this, and no referendum has really been very conclusive to the point where Puerto Ricans could actually come to the point of asking for anything from the US Congress.

(If you're interested in Puerto Rico politics, here is a good link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Puerto_Rico)

I am not interested in discussing this status issue per se, as I've really heard enough of this debate in my lifetime. I'm really interested in knowing what the average American would think about this. My thinking has always been that most Americans 1) don't know/don't care about PR, and 2) they've never heard of this debate , and 3) they would never consider adding PR as a state.

As many other things, this is a very complex political socio economic issue, something that would not have an easy solution. What I'm looking for is for the opinion of Americans regarding Puerto Rico in general, and their opinion on knowing about 50% of Puerto Ricans actually want PR to someday become a state.

What do you think?