A few days ago, walking from my apartment to the subway, I spied this brochure lying on the sidewalk of my street. It’s copyrighted 1957 and in pristine shape, and I can only surmise it was discarded by the Metropolitan Montessori School nearby.
The brochure’s concern is Operation Bootstrap, a campaign founded in the 1940s by Teodoro Moscoso that transformed Puerto Rico from an agricultural to an industrial nation. It’s written in a propaganda-like fashion, proudly boasting of all the “many products being manufactured in Puerto Rico’s new factories,” including:
- Ball-point pens
- Chemicals and pharmaceuticals
- Cigars
- Electric shavers
- Fluorescent lamps
- Home appliances
- Jewelry
- Leather belts and shoes
- Machinery and metal products
- Men’s, women’s, and children’s clothing
- Optical lenses
- Paints
- Plastics
- Radar, radio, and television components
- Textiles
- Tools and dies
- Toys
The operation was a success with the brochure noting that by ’56, industrial production had overtaken agricultural production for the first time in the island’s history, thanks to duty-free access to U.S. markets and tax incentives that attracted U.S. investment. These days, Puerto Rico’s chief exports are pharmaceuticals and other chemicals, electronics, clothing and food, including canned tuna and beverage concentrates.