National Cemetery Exclusion: Unequal Veterans' Treatment

The absence of a national veterans' cemetery in Puerto Rico for over a century is a small but revealing example of how colonial status affects every aspect of life — including how the colonized are honored in death.

Military Service: Puerto Ricans have served in every American war since WWI:
- ~18,000 in WWI
- ~65,000 in WWII
- ~61,000 in Korea
- ~48,000 in Vietnam
- Thousands in subsequent conflicts
- Total: Over 200,000 Puerto Rican veterans

The Gap: Despite this extraordinary military service, Puerto Rico did not have a U.S. national cemetery. Veterans who wanted burial with full military honors in a national cemetery had to have their remains transported to the mainland — at family expense. This was true for no U.S. state.

Puerto Rico National Cemetery: After decades of advocacy by Puerto Rican veterans' organizations, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs established the Puerto Rico National Cemetery in Bayamón, which opened for burials in 2023. The cemetery was approved in 2016 and took seven years to complete.

What This Reveals: The national cemetery gap is symbolic of the broader pattern: Puerto Ricans bear the obligations of citizenship (including dying in war) without receiving equal benefits. A veteran who dies in Puerto Rico receives fewer burial benefits than an identical veteran who dies in any U.S. state.

The military-cemetery paradox captures colonialism's essential bargain: the colony's people are good enough to die for the empire but not equal enough to be buried by it.