THE INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE EFFECT OF US COLONIALISM IN PUERTO RICO: A SCALE CONSTRUCTION AND VALIDATION, WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION AND PRACTICE by MARÍA DE LOURDES MARTÍNEZ AVILÉS Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Arlington and Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON and UNIVERSIDAD AUTÓNOMA DE NUEVO LEÓN December 2011 Copyright © by María de Lourdes Martínez Avilés 2011 All Rights Reserved DEDICATION To Carmen Rivera de Alvarado, doña Isabelita Rosado, and Gloria Gerena, three inspirational Puerto Rican social workers who understood the link between colonialism and social work, and were committed to an emancipating practice. To my nephews Pedro Hommy and Kelvin, and my niece Sugeily, three examples of the Puerto Rican Diaspora. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Special thanks go to my mother, who instilled in me the importance of education, hard work and honesty. My deepest appreciation to my daughter Attabeira del Mar, and my husband José E. Rodríguez Sellas, who helped me start and gave me the strengths to continue this long journey. To my extended but intimate family, especially my sister Maribel and her husband Pedro Maldonado; my cousins Awilda Berríos and the recently deceased Jossie Rojas. To my friends and colleagues who went through the Ph.D. binational program with me: Max Ramos, Dheeshana Jayasandura, Jesús Acevedo Agosto, Sachi Ando, Candy Madrigal, Miora Diaconou, Yasoda Sharma, Chloe Corbett, and Jamila Woods, My success would not be possible without you! To Dr. Migdalia Reyes who provided my name as a candidate for the Bi-national Ph.D program to Dr. Héctor Díaz. The latter persuaded me to accept a challenge that I did not foresee pursuing; they were the spark that started this process. My deepest gratitude to the professors at the Universidad de Puerto Rico who served as experts for the face validity of my instrument. Drs. Isabel Feliciano Giboyeaux, Magali Ruiz González, Antonia Rivera Rivera, Wilfredo Bellón, Palmira Ríos González, Cynthia Rodríguez Parés, Héctor Meléndez Lugo, and Norma Rodríguez Roldán. To those colleagues who helped me carry the load. I cannot forget the technical support of Glenda Valentín, Marie Reyes, Julio Calderón, and Ovidio Torres; it would not have been possible without you! Major acknowledgment goes to my Dissertation Committee; their contribution iv enhanced my work. To my initial co-chair Dr. Guillermo Zúñiga Zarate, for his excellent advice, support and encouragement. To Dr. Thomas Watts, for his fine and meticulous corrections, also for provoking knowledge while suggesting further readings. My deepest respect to Dr. Claudia Campillo Toledano, her thorough analysis was an inspiration to me. Dr. Viyan Pillai, for his availability and guidance with the statistical analysis; our talks regarding the topic of my dissertation were encouraging. Dr. Guillermina Garza Treviño, who substituted my former co-chair, she joined the committee with such enthusiasm and commitment that felt like she was always there. To Dr. José Luis “Pinchi” Méndez, my mentor in the topic of colonialism, his words of encouragement and reassurance of a work well done nurtured my confidence. I have an enormous debt of gratitude to my co-chair Dr. Doreen Elliott who has been an excellent professor, advisor and co-chair, but an even better mentor. Dr. Elliott’s support went far and beyond her duties to make sure I completed my goal on time and with excellence. She is my role model and I promise I will do my best to follow her lessons! To the wise Dr. Nazneen Mayadas who also gave immeasurable support goes my deepest appreciation. I want to express my gratitude to the hundreds of people who voluntarily served as research subjects; their participation was a key element of my study. To those who helped me identifying subjects for the study as well as collecting the completed instruments, receive my appreciation! I hope that I can give back to others what you have given me. October 17, 2011 ABSTRACT THE INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE EFFECT OF US COLONIALISM IN PUERTO RICO: A SCALE CONSTRUCTION AND VALIDATION, WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION AND PRACTICE María de Lourdes Martínez Avilés, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Arlington, 2011 and The Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, México, 2011 Supervising Professors: Doreen Elliott and Guillermina Garza Treviño “Understanding the individual and collective psychology of the people of Puerto Rico requires an understanding of both the history of its colonialism and the U.S. laws that have helped shaped the social world of the Puerto Rican people, in the United States and in the colony itself”(Rivera Ramos, 2001, p. 4). This research presents theoretical and empirical support for the notion that colonialism is an important current issue, and so are its broad psychosocial effects. It sustains the concept that colonialism is a relevant and unresolved subject matter for Puerto Ricans and an important issue to be revised and debated by social work professionals and scholars. vi An initial review of the research literature made it evident that there is an absence of any kind of instrument to measure Puerto Ricans’ internalized colonialism or colonial mentality. The Colonialism Scale for Puerto Ricans (CSPR) is the instrument developed by this investigator on her attempt to measure the concept of Puerto Rican’s internalized colonialism. This scale rests on the premise that attitudes are made up of cognitive, affective and behavioral rudiments. The scale was designed following a Likert’s summated rating method (Aiken, 1996; Likert, 1932). A total of 249 subjects were used to test the CSPR. The majority were females, with an age distribution ranging from 18 to 80 years of age, and a fairly high level of education. The original set of items was submitted to Exploratory Factor Analysis test with Principal Axis Factoring extraction. A Promax rotation suggested three factors; factor 1 consisting of eleven out of the fifteen items, and factor 2 and 3 consisting of two items each. After theoretical evaluation of the factors they were labeled as follows: Factor 1 = Colonial Discourse, Factor 2 = Idea of Colonial Resistance and Factor 3 = Language Identity. The factors’ loading ranged from .555 to .901 with a cumulative percent of variance of 64.63%, and a residual of 12%. Cronbach’s alpha for the CSPR = 89.8. The CSPR is now the instrument available to measure quantitatively the degree of internalized colonialism among Puerto Rican adults. Implications for further research and social work education and practice are discussed. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................... iv ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS........................................................................................... xiii LIST OF TABLES........................................................................................................... xiv Chapter Page 1. INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................1 1.1 Dissertation’s Structure..........................................................................1 1.2 Subject of the Study...............................................................................2 1.3 Purpose of the Study ..............................................................................2 1.4 Problem Statement .................................................................................3 1.5 Theoretical/Conceptual Framework.......................................................6 2. LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................14 2.1 Colonialism..........................................................................................15 2.1.1 The United Nations (UN) Position Regarding Colonialism ..................................................................24 2.2 U.S. Colonialism in Puerto Rico..........................................................28 2.2.1 Puerto Rican Historical Background ....................................29 2.2.2 Economic Control .................................................................46 2.2.3 Military Control ....................................................................52 viii 2.2.4 Migration...............................................................................54 2.2.5 Political Repression and Resistance to Colonial Rule .................................................................................56 2.2.6 Social Impact and Identity ....................................................65 2.2.7 Psychological Impact ............................................................74 2.2.8 Puerto Rican Psychosocial Profile ........................................79 2.3 Implications for the Social Work Profession.......................................81 2.3.1 Social Work Imperialism in Puerto Rico ..............................86 2.4 Relevance of the Study ........................................................................87 2.5 Summary..............................................................................................88 3. METHODOLOGY ...........................................................................................90