Puerto Rico - properly a country?

Also Puerto Ricans are part of modern USA society, people like the new Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in sports Roberto Clemente, performers like Jennifer Lopez, Jose Feliciano, TV reporters like Geraldo Rivera, Natalie Morales ( Today Show) Jane Velez-Mitchell ( CNN), Elizabeth Vargas (20-20) and many others, are puertorican descendants. Also people like Reggie Jackson and Sammy Davis Jr have or had Puerto Rican Blood. How many of you remember the TV series "The Flying Nun" that was supposed to happen in PR? It was very famous during the 60s...

PR is what it is, is a territory of the US since 1898 and everybody is a US citizen of the US since 1917. More puertoricans have participated in the US Army than from other "states". The US Statehood party now controls the government of the Island( NPP). Puerto Rico never elected an independent party to lead the "Country" , the so called "independentistas" only represent 5% of the population. The independence party lost its electoral franchise in the last election for lack of votes. Half of the population of Puerto Rico lives in the continental US. and about 400,000 of 4 millions of the puertoricans who live now in the Island were born in continental US. Regarless about what many intellectuals and media say about Puerto Rico ( usually from the radical left) most puertoricans are very proud of being puertorican but also very proud of being american. Puerto Rico it is what it is the best of two world...Call PR a country is more a tradition than a reality, Puerto Rico is a nation culturaly but not in a political, social o economic way. It is similar to the relationship between Quebec and Canada.

It would be an insult to a Puertorrican to refer to the island as property. The writer seems to appreciate this sensibility and avoids alienating his article's subject.
Your readers most probably were not taught in history class how the territory came to be under U.S. jurisdiction.
Briefly:
1.The U.S. lost a ship to an explosion in Havana, Cuba, in 1898.
2.As a result, the U.S. declared war on Spain and upon victory seized The Philippines, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Guam.
3.Puerto Rico was governed by federally appointed American governors until 1952.
4.In 1951 (read 53 years after the war), Puertorricans were given the option of becoming a Commonwealth under the U.S. flag or remain under the governance of said appointed governors. Given only these two options, and having endured 53 years of mainland governance, the citizens of the island opted for the Commonwealth.

I'm Puerto Rican. We do NOT refer to ourselves as a country (unless there's a political sting to the reference), but we absolutely see ourselves as a nation.

I like the previous comment, but I think you also wanted to know what the average Puerto Rican thought. We use the word "country" all the time to refer to PR. We say things like "del país" meaning "home grown" or "home made" and we mean it was grown or manufactured in PR (país = country). We use the term national a lot, especially referring to sports or symbols (e.g. no one says "territory" flower); "orgullo nacional" meaning "national pride" say, when we refer to a player like Clemente. Now, while we use these terms liberally at home, in TV commercials (marketers love to appeal to Puerto Rican ego), and in political campaigns, in an article such as this one it is seen as somehow wrong. Not offensive, just incorrect. If you are an American referring to Puerto Rico, the politically correct term would be U.S. territory or Commonwealth because the political status of the island is such a drawn-out debate that A) you avoid potentially offending pro-Statehood, pro-Independence, or pro-Commonwealth supporters, and B) you won't need to explain yourself like you are now! Believe me, it's easier to go official when you refer to PR or drop the title and just write Puerto Rico, although if some Puerto Rican says country or what have you then you can go with that as a quote. Hope that helped. ("home island" was nice too)

You need to take a political science class or two. Because we are the "United States of America" the people here over time have incorrectly begun to use the words nation and country in place of the word state. If you lived anywhere else in the world this would not be confusing.

State refers to a sovereign political entity. The words country or nation does not indicate any sovereignty at all, merely (simplified) an area or people that is joined by common traits, culture or history.

You may be confused because you think Kansas and Missouri are states but are not sovereign. You would be wrong. The framers of the constitution designed it so that the states would remain sovereign and actually hold more power than the federal government. The federal government was merely intended to be a referee for matters of interstate commerce, be in charge or national defense and foreign relations. Over the years the federal government has disregarded its constitutional limits and over stepped its boundaries and thereby eroded the states' sovereignty, something the founding fathers predicted would happen.

There is no doubt it is a nation, a country. Now, it is not a sovereign nation or sovereign country (but neither was Jamaica until 1962 or Suriname in 1975). Puerto Rico competes in the World Olympics as a nation and it was the only country that defeated for the first time the USA national basketball team in 2004, during the Olympics held in Athens. Puerto Rico has a national flag and national anthem since 1952. Since 1952 Puerto Rico has a free association compact with the US as a commonwealth or associated free state (state as in country, not as in federated state), close to the Irish free state before Ireland became a republic. This compact of association is not permanent and the United Nations and the US recognize Puerto Rico's self determination. That is why Puerto Rico is not annexated to the US, that is why Puerto Ricans do not vote in US general elections. They are partners in a political association, but this does not mean annexation to the US or a US incorportated territory status. Puerto Rico keeps it's national identity as long as it is not annexated to the US, probably the main reason puerto ricans have rejected to become part of the US, have rejected US statehood in all referendums (Google: UN decolonization committee 2008 Puerto Rico).
The former head of government of Puerto Rico went in 2008 to the UN to ask for sovereign powers for Puerto Rico, moving Puerto Rico to a sovereign status in the future(Google: BBC Puerto Rico independence bid)
Puerto Ricans are considered a nationality (check US fact book) as well.

This is from the Truman Library website:

FAQ: Assassination Attempt on President Truman's Life

Two Puerto Rican nationalists, Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola, attempted to assassinate President Truman on November 1, 1950. They arrived in Washington D.C. the day before from the Bronx in New York City, where they were active in the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. They thought the assassination would call attention to Puerto Rico and advance the cause of Puerto Rican independence.

http://www.trumanlibrary.org/trivia/assassin.htm