THE FERRES: Puerto Rican by Birth, Yanqui in Spirit "I cannot help what happened in 1898-- The Anericans came and they are here Gov. Luis A. Ferre, Puerto Rico! “Either Yanquis or Puerto Ricans." PREFACE U.S. cultural , economic, and political pen- etration of Third World societies requires coop- eration from local elites. This cooperation 1s amply rewarded by U.S. interests by granting Lin~ ited partictpation in the spoils. In Puerto Rico the Ferre family 1s a leading example of this type of local elite. This article recounts the rige of the Ferres to power, describes the Principal components of their financial /indu: trial empire, identifies the family's chief al~ lies, and provides @ closer look at the family's two key 8: Gov. Luis Ferre of Puerto Rico, the faunchest backer of statehood, who is up for re-election this November; and hie brother, Jose, one of Florida's key corporate figures. Before discussing the Ferres in detail, how ever, we must present a brief overview of Puerto Rico. PUERTO RICO: AMERICA'S CARIBBEAN COLONY In 1898 U.S. troops under General Nelson A. Miles invaded and secured Puerto Rico to end Spanish colonial rule and bring the island under U.S. domination. The Ferres were quick to iden- tify with the mew colonial masters, Fortune wagazine described the relationship as follove When Miles hit the beach near Ponce, Don before the U.S. blanketed all Puerto Ricans with citizenship (1917). NACLA'S LATIN AMERICA & EMPIRE REPORT (formerly NACLA NEWSLETTER) By Stu Bishop leading statehood advocate dro Albizu Campos, Puerto Rican nationalist The saga of the Ferre family's rise to pover 4s wore than a story of how a Cuban migrated to Puerto Rico, founded a euall machine shop near Ponce, and expanded it into a corporate empire worth hundreds of millions of dollare. It is also the saga of an island losing ite cultural, economic, and political identity under seventy four years of U.S. colonial rule. It 1s more than they story of a family's rise to power, be: cause the Ferres symbolize the forces from which the Puerto Rican people are attempting to Liber ate themselves: the couplete penetration of Puerto Rican values by the "American way of life” and of Puerto Rican society by U.S. corporations. Gov. Ferre has ominously predicted that, "when we succeed here, political democracy and the free enterprise system, which has made the United States what it is today, will be seen to succeed in al Latin Anerica, Gov. Ferre's quote indicates the high pri- ority Washington hae put on Puerto Rico's devel- opment ao a model for Latin America, and eapectal~ ly for Central America and the crucial Caribbean area. Hubert Humphrey has called Puerto Rico "che miracle of the Caribbean.” probably referring to the m Program known as "Operation Rootatrap" that w launched in Puerto Rico in the late 1940's under the Mufior Marin regime. The Munoz political ma- chine, through the Popular Democratic Party, ruled the island from 1940 until 1968, when it was defeated by Ferré's nevly formed New Progres- sive Party. Heralded as a "New Deal" for the Puerto Ri~ can people, "Bootstrap" proved to be nore of a nev deal for U.S. corporations seeking high pro~ Vol. VI, No. 6 / July-August 1972 Published monthly, except May-June and July August, when it is published bi-monthly at 160 Claremont Ave., New York, N.Y. 10027. Address all mail to Box 57, Cathedral Station, rkeley, California 94701. SUBSCRIPTIONS: $6 per year 8); $12 per year for institutions ($22 for two years) Copyright (¢)1972 by the North American Congress on Latin Azerica, Inc. Second-cli age paid at New York, N.Y. New York, N.Y. or to Box 226, for individuals ($11 for two ysANTONIO FERRE BACALLAO b. 1877 m. Mary Aguayo Casale CARLOS m. Lorecita Ramirez de Arellano ra 1505 1909 - 1958 m. 1931 m. Eva Roig (1937) m. Adriana Ferrer (d, 1969) d. 1970 ROSARIO ws, (rs. Benigno Trigo) + (at) (2) 1927 ‘MARY ANN . (2nd) Florence Salichs = 1937 ‘MAURICE, m. Maria Mercedes Malaussena 1955 NOEL |. (3rd) Joanne Singleterry 1961 oY Jo EMILE ANTONIO . (ach) Pacricia Christensen 1967 CHRISTINAow = : ‘ . Times. fite and cheap labor. Since "Bootetrap's" ini+ tiation {n 1947, over 2000 firms have established manufacturing plants in Puerto Rico, lured by 10- to 17-year tax length dependa upon the industrial zone in which they locate). With the unemployment figure at a steady 30%, there is plenty of cheap labor. Wage earners in Puerto Rico are paid only a third of what their counterparts receive on the mainland. "Bootstrap" has left the island in the hands of foreigne: with the U.S, the undisputed leader: - in 1966, U.S. capital controlled 77% of manufacturing sets and owned 70% of all factories. U.S. capital has penetrated all sectors of the Puerto Rican economy. In 1968, for instance, 78% of retail sales, 65% of housing construction, 60% of bank- ing transactions, over 90% of insurance premiums, almost all domestic and foreign transportation, and the vast majority of service companigs we controlled by foreigners led by the U.S. 107 of Fortune's list of the gop 500 corporations are operating in Puerto Rico.” Of these, Union Carbide (the island's largest investor), General Electric, Phelps Dod; Bank, Squibb, ITT, and Ford stand out. Beyond these statistics of economic domi- nation, non has pointed out in his writings on colonialism,* the controls exerted upon @ colony reach the very fibers of its cul- tural and political identity, The four main daily newspapers that Puerto Ricans read are all controlled by U.S. newspaper chaina or by local capitalists closely linked to U.S. inter El Mundo was acquired by the Knight chain, the ‘San Juan Star by Cowles Communications EL in- ‘parcial was taken over by Miguel Angel Garcia Mendez (a leader of the pro-statehood movement with Ferre and a millionaire through his sugar inter and law practice), gnd El Nuevo Di 48 owned by the Ferre family,” in the Puerto Rican public school system, children are taught to speak English and to become "good and loyal American citizens ‘#Fanon's works include The Wretched of Earth, A Dying Black Skin, White Masks. U.S. cultural penetration in Puerto Rico ie further promoted by the tourist industry. The Ei Condado strip of hotels and casinos in San Juan is a transplant of all the vulgarity and corruption that existed in pre-revolution- ary Cuba. The tourist industry has brought Prostitution, gambling, and a drug trade of $200 million a year.’ Foreign tourists spent $247 million in Puerto Rico last year, and the Ferre administration has promised to expand the touriét trade even further. Besides bring~ ing corruption, the tourist trade has algo taken over the island's most beautiful beaches and giv- en them to Americ: ed hotels catering to foreigners. The Ferre family participates in this tourist invasion through its holdings in the Hotel Borinquen and the Ponce International Hotel. Perhaps the most blatant sign of the North American presence in Puerto Rico is the use of the land by the U.S. military. As one visitor recently commented, “ You can't go five mili without running into a military 1» nucli site, or tracking station." The Pentagon cur- rently owns 13% of Puerto Rico"s land, including some of the most arable tracts. The heavy mili- tary utilization of Puerto Rico by the U.S. under scores the island's strategic importance as a stagiyg area for imperial control of the Carib- b Tm 1965, for example, the U.S. invaded the Dominican Republic from military staging a in Puerto Rico. In some instanc Puerto Rican people have begun to resist oe use of their island as a military fortress. The U.S. Navy was utilizing Culebra as a target practice range until the people who lived there demanded the total withdrawal of the Navy from Culebra and the neighboring island of Viequ Where has the tremendous influx of U.S. ca~ pital and ideas left the Puerto Rican people? “Bootstrap's" main effects have been the crea~ tion of a small middle class, a rise in the gross national product, and the stratification of Puerto Rican society into those who benefit by continued dependency on the U.S. (the new commercial elites uch as the Ferres) and the larger weyment of Puerto Rican society, who are increasingly with- out jobs or decent homes. The real measure of economic development, however, must include not only CNP and per capita income, but also the distribution of the benefits of the “economic boom" throughout the population. In 1963, for example, 51% of the island's income went to only 20% of the nation's population.1° During the “Bootstrap” period of industrialization, over a fourth of the 4eland's population fled the so~ called "economic boon" to seek jobs in the slums of New York, Connecticut, and Nes Jersey. Unem— ployment today stands at 33%.11 over 100,000 families in Puerto Rico earn less than $500 @ year, and the infamous slums of San Juan (El Fangito, La Perla, and Los Bravos de Boston) are becoming more crowded and crime-ridden. In 1968-69, 20% of the population had to receive emergency food. These are the accomplishnents