Roland Gutierrez: “I ask, where in the Treaty of Paris did the Congress of the United States expressly extend United States nationality…”

“I ask, where in the Treaty of Paris did the Congress of the United States expressly extend United States nationality, think about that, to the people of Cuba, to the people of Guam, to the people of the Philippines or Puerto Rico? It is nowhere to be found in the Treaty of Paris. This so-called finding is a lie. It implies that the failure to declare allegiance to the Crown of Spain by a specified date meant the establishment of United States nationality for the inhabitants of Puerto Rico. In other words, they interpret the Treaty of Paris to say, hey, if you did not renounce your sovereignty under Spain, you became nationals. But we did not say that. The United States of America did not grant that to those people. It says, of nationals of that territory, the only territory being Puerto Rico. The terms of the treaty are very clear. Spanish subjects who fail to declare their allegiance to the Spanish Crown by a specified date became, in the words of the Treaty of Paris, not Americans or American citizens, but nationals of the territory in which they reside. In the case of Puerto Rico, clearly they became nationals of Puerto Rico, because they were not citizens of the United States, and we did not grant them United States nationality.”