Afternoon Tertulia: Puerto Rico and SCOTUS: 100 years of Colonial Rule

The year 2022 marks the centennial of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Balzac v. People of Porto Rico, one of the most consequential Supreme Court rulings that shaped the status of Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans within the US empire. Tune in for this Afternoon Tertulia as we unravel the latest CENTRO Journal, Back to the future: The Implications of Balzac One Hundred Years Later and explore the implications of this case and how Balzac affirmed the federal government’s power to rule Puerto Rico and its residents separately and unequally within the US polity. Join the journals editors Charles R. Venator-Santiago and José Javier Colón Morera, with Natalie Gomez-Velez as as the moderator, as they discuss their articles and shine light on the enduring continuities and discontinuities of the application of the doctrine of territorial non-incorporation to Puerto Rico, a possession inhabited by US citizens. The collection examines different dimensions of the legacy and continued impact of Balzac and it captures many of the complexities of this century of colonialism by judicial decree.