Puerto Rican citizenship
In 1952, upon U.S. Congress approving the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, also reaffirmed that Puerto Rican citizenship continued in full force. This was further reaffirmed in 2006 while the U.S. Senate probed into the President's Task Force on Puerto Rico's status. In 1953, U.S Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., in a memorandum sent to the United Nations, recognized that "the people of Puerto Rico continue to be citizens of the United States as well as of Puerto Rico."
Cayetano Coll y Cuchí
On February 7, 1910, U.S. Congressman Marlin E. Olmsted, who at the time served as Chairman of the United States House Committee on Insular Affairs, presented a project before Congress in which U.S. citizenship would be optional for Puerto Ricans. If the Bill passed Puerto Ricans would have the option of having American citizenship instead of Puerto Rican citizenship with the condition that those who choose the American citizenship would swear allegiance to the United States. The Bill was also specific in that only the Puerto Ricans with the American citizenship would be allowed to vote in the local elections. The Union Party organized a protest committee which besides Coll y Cuchí included party president Luis Muñoz Rivera and Eugenio Benitez Castaño. The committee traveled to Washington, D.C., and presented their protest to the measure. The protest was successful and the Bill died in the U.S. Senate floor.