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Comment by pavlov | Hacker News Reader

I'm not American, so would someone knowledgeable indulge me the obvious question: Why is Puerto Rico not a state while e.g. Hawaii is?

Is it the language -- a Spanish-majority state would not get the approval from other states to join the union? Or something less obvious?

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Puerto Rico would need to petition to become a state. (I believe it meets the criteria for becoming a state, but haven't verified that.) There are benefits to remaining a territory, in particular they can create tax inventives that would be precluded if they wete a state.

That makes sense - sort of like the UK or France overseas territories that are not part of the EU.

One of the things preventing Puerto Rico from becoming a state is the balance of power in the US Congress. The thinking is that a majority of the Puerto Ricans will align themselves with the Democratic Party. That would result in 2 new Democrat Senators which would upset the balance and possibly swing the senate in favor of the Democrats.

There have been similar concerns going back to the 1800s as well with the United States' western expansion and creation of new western states.

Interesting. Puerto Rico's statehood is basically an edge case of the demographic quicksand that underlies the Republican Party's current domination. Trumpism certainly isn't doing the Party any long-term favors in that sense.

You're thinking of DC. Puerto Ricans are actually pretty conservative, there's a chance that DC will finally become a state now that PR has voted to join.

https://rightedition.com/2016/03/11/puerto-rico-rejects-gay-...

If I remember correctly, most Puerto Ricans aren't interested in the statehood status (wasn't there a referendum?) probably because it's a pretty major cultural shift.

It's hard to become a state when the majority of the population only speaks Spanish and the island has its own constitution.

I'm not sure what language has to do with it. Also, many/most states have a constitution as well.

Probably not a huge issue - look up first home language in Texas or Arizona. Texas is also like 50%+ Hispanic, and I can't imagine the modern GOP being anti-Texas.

Every state in the USA has its own constitution as well.

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