His-Panic / My Panic

This chapter explores the Hispanophobia of U.S. colonial officials and of those working-class Puerto Ricans who supported annexation to the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. For both of these groups, Spain represented a backward, antidemocratic influence and—albeit for different reasons—a suspect source of whiteness. San Antón residents expressed disdain for Spaniards in various ways in formal and informal conversations, regardless of their political affiliation. These stories do not portray Spaniards as a civilizing source of national identity but rather as a barbaric people engaged in gruesome practices. However, opinions about Spaniards were less negative in narratives of older residents who were more specifically grounded in San Antón and who personalized stories through telling about their own families.