Puerto Rican Citizenship and Construction of Counter-Narratives: Ramírez de Ferrer v. Mari Brás 144 D.P.R. 141, 1997

Abstract

The focus of this chapter is the Puerto Rico Supreme Court decision that revived Puerto Rican citizenship (Ramírez de Ferrer v. Mari Brás 144 D.P.R. 141, 1997, hereafter, Mari Brás case), as well as events that took place as a result of the case. An important premise in discussing the Mari Brás case is that jurisprudence creates categories that may have a binding power on the actions that citizens perform and can also shape their identity (Butler 1993b, 234). For example, the norms set by court rulings and legislation determine who is a citizen of a country and what actions, such as traveling abroad, they can perform. However, as discussed in chapter 3, individuals sometimes resist their assigned identities and the norms regarding what actions they can perform through counter-narratives. The Mari Brás case is a perfect example of how counter-narratives make their way into the courtroom and, thus, have the potential to alter the norms. Borrowing from Butler (2006, 185–193), through this case Mari Brás aimed to subvert the normative structure of US citizenship for Puerto Ricans from within history, culture, law, and discourse by bringing attention to the norms and questioning their foundation and effects; there is no outside the system, therefore the agency needed to subvert the structure is grounded in the very same system he wanted to supersede (see also, Chambers and Carver 2008, 137–157).