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Copyright by Rosa María Corrada 2012 The Dissertation Committee for Rosa María Corrada Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: The Popular in Puerto Rico: Archive and Repertoire in the Performance of Bankarization and the Identitarian Committee: Edmund T. Gordon, Supervisor Charles R. Hale Kamran Ali Jossianna Arroyo Martínez Isar P. Godreau The Popular in Puerto Rico: Archive and Repertoire in the Performance of Bankarization and the Identitarian by Rosa María Corrada, B.A., M.A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2012 Dedication To Rosa Rivera Class and Ramón Corrada del Río… mis padres… for giving me the values and knowledge to approach life with love and curiosity. In memory of Ana María del Río Guerrero… Acknowledgements During my time as a graduate student I enriched my knowledge, achieved goals, strengthened relationships and met people who in one way or another I have been privileged of knowing. This dissertation is the result of the collaboration and support of many people to whom I am very grateful. My deepest gratitude goes to the members of my dissertation committee. I thank my adviser Dr. Edmund T. Gordon for his support during my academic and intellectual process throughout graduate school. His critics and comments have made this dissertation a more complete and thoughtful one. I also thank Charles R. Hale and Kamran Ali in the Department of Anthropology for showing their intellectual interest in participating in this project. To Jossianna Arroyo for her warmth as a person and support both intellectually and in the everyday. To Isar Godreau, thanks for her support both in Austin and Puerto Rico. The critics and insightful comments of the committee have led me to think more deeply my project and be a better scholar. Also thanks to the Department of Anthropology and the Department of African and African American Diaspora for their academic and financial support during the course of my graduate school. In Puerto Rico, I thank the staff of the Archivo Historico del Banco Popular for their kindness and collaboration during my research. In addition, I am very grateful to Carlos Buitrago, José Rodríguez and Francisco Catalá. My experience at the University of Texas at Austin was much more interesting and enjoyable thanks to my colleagues and friends with whom I shared the academic life, stimulating conversations and ―las cosas de la vida.‖ Has been a pleasure and thanks to: Pablo González, Jamahn Lee, Alma Carrillo, Mariana Mora, Peggy Brunache, Teresa v Velásquez, Celeste Henery, Courtney Morris, Mohan Ambikaipaker, Briana Mohan, Kora Maldonado, Gilberto Rosas, Danny Méndez, Heather Teague and Bárbara Abadía- Rexach. To Carlos Ramos-Scharron, Mike Amezcua and others with whom I had the opportunity of dialogue and discussion beyond the classroom. To Nancy Rios and Santiago Guerra thanks for welcoming me into your home and for the good times. To Mireya Loza and Fernanda Soto thank you for your intellectuality, many conversaciones existenciales, traveling, and above all for your warmth. Your friendship and sisterhood have been one of my best achievements in this process. Mireya, thank you for making me feel at home and for making my project look better. To my friends of the amistología in Puerto Rico: Moisés Nieves, Jorge Nieves, José Maurás, Yaritza Bobonis, Yandra Chinea, Adriana Marrero, Pablo Ortíz and María Inés Rosario, thank you for your fellowship and good times over the years. Thanks to Lucy and Alex for their unconditional friendship, support and for believing in me. To Junior, Joel, Pablo, Mabel and Brenda for their encouragement and support. I am grateful also to the Mustafá family for their encouragement. My sincere appreciation to Petra Barrera for introducing me to Olga Pérez. Thanks Olga for your collaboration in turning this dissertation into English. This dissertation is as much mine as my family. I want to distinguish and truly express thanks to my parents, Ramon Corrada del Río and Rosa Rivera Class for accompanying me and becoming part of this adventure. Thank you for your unconditional love, wisdom, support and understanding throughout my life. I appreciate deeply the foundation, values and freedom that you have given me and that have taught and shaped me as a person. My brother Ramón and my sister in law Marieli I appreciate your words of encouragement and visits to Austin. My brother Rómulo, thanks for being a good roommate, for your translations and conversations. My nephews Sebastián and vi Gabriel, I am grateful for your joyful visits to my desk and for showing me your brilliance with each passing day. In addition, I thank my uncles and aunts of families Corrada del Río and Rivera Class for celebrating with me the achievements of life. Especially abuela Carmen and abuelo Toño for caring and teaching me so much. To abuela Ana, for becoming present in my life every day. My deepest gratitude to Tio Farruco and Titi Vilma for helping me find my space in Austin, opening their house for me and celebrating with much joy and enthusiasm my achievements. To Jaelyn Otero Rivera for her collaboration in the many visits to the archives and to María M. Saavedra Corrada for keeping me ―pompiá.‖ Thanks to my cousins David Rosario and Yanira Hernández for welcoming me into their home and the support during the final stages. I am grateful in a special way to Jeannice Mustafá for her love, affection and being my most trusted companion. Thanks for making my project be seen, for helping me stand against el temor fantástico and making visible the future. ¡Qué viva Mater! vii The Popular in Puerto Rico: Archive and Repertoire in the Performance of Bankarization and the Identitarian Rosa María Corrada, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2012 Supervisor: Edmund T. Gordon At the turn of the 19th Century, Puerto Rico, like other places of the world, served as a stage for the inauguration of a new form of organization of capitalism, dominated by finance capital. I name this process: bankarization. During the 19th Century, the bankarization was made visible through the foundation of different banks; among these was Banco Popular de Puerto Rico. This dissertation examines how Banco Popular, founded in 1893, has acted as protagonist in the bankarization of Puerto Rico. It also maps how in Puerto Rico, Banco Popular, together with the government, strategically appropriates the popular/lo popular through its will to performance, thereby producing the state identification effect. This dissertation studies the performance of Banco Popular and its intervention in three stages: 1) the economic elite, from its foundation, the different banking mergers and the construction of the ciudad bancaria. 2) the governmental, by showing how porous is the border between the public-government and the private-bank. 3) the popular, by making visible the different moments of performance that show the formation of the banca-pueblo as an effective mean to make capitalism ―popular.‖ In addition, by paying viii attention to a television video series by Banco Popular that began in 1965 and serve as a strategy to produce the identification effect. This research combines ethnography and performance analysis to generate a critique about the intervention of capital and the State in the production of the national imaginary and the assumption of a common Puerto Rican subject. It examines the particular proposal about identity and the performative means that Banco Popular chooses in its intervention to produce the identification effect. I propose that Banco Popular validates and promotes Hardt and Negri‘s identitarian formula of ―love of the same‖ by referencing the racial mix that silences, homogenizes, harmonizes and banalizes. This scenario serves to promote particular political and economic interests which in turn reproduce social relations of power. ix Table of Contents List of Tables ........................................................................................................ xii List of Illustrations ............................................................................................... xiii Chapter 1: Introduction ...........................................................................................1 The Socio-Historical Context of Puerto Rico .................................................4 Methodology ...................................................................................................6 Chapter Outline .............................................................................................10 Chapter 2: Repertoire of Concepts ........................................................................13 The Hispanic Caribbean Scenario .................................................................37 About Performance .......................................................................................54 Chapter 3: The Bankarization of Puerto Rico .......................................................63 The Profile of Banco Popular de Puerto Rico ...............................................65 How bankarization was made visible in Puerto Rico ...................................75 The Carrión Family and Banco Popular .......................................................81 Banco Popular and the Autoridad de Tierras .............................................100 The bankarization