Puerto Rico Capitol Building

capi­to­lio-de-puer­to-rico

A few steps to the east of Fort San Cristóbal is the Capi­tol build­ing of Puer­to Rico, sim­ply known to Puer­to Ricans as “el capi­to­lio”.  Just take one look at this build­ing and you’ll notice that it resem­bles the US Capi­tol Building.

“El Capi­to­lio” was inau­gu­rat­ed on Feb­ru­ary 11, 1929 on a plot of land that was pre­vi­ous­ly part of the Fort San Cristóbal glasis.  Pri­or to inau­gu­rat­ing the present capi­tol build­ing the Puer­to Rican leg­is­la­ture met at the old “Diputación Provin­cial” build­ing, where the present Depart­ment of State is on the cor­ner of San Fran­cis­co and San José streets in Old San Juan.

The build­ing is beau­ti­ful. In fact, it was list­ed in the US Reg­is­ter of His­toric Places in 1977. There’s mar­ble and bronze all around and the orig­i­nal 1952 Con­sti­tu­tion is there for all to see in the mid­dle of the “roton­da” under its immense dome.

As for the leg­isla­tive process, well, let’s say that it’s like a sausage fac­to­ry.  It isn’t pret­ty but it needs to be done.

The Leg­isla­tive Assem­bly of Puer­to Rico is a bicam­er­al sys­tem con­sist­ing of an upper house called the Sen­ate of Puer­to Rico, with 31 sen­a­tors, and the low­er House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Puer­to Rico, which has 53 rep­re­sen­ta­tives. Eleven mem­bers of each house are elect­ed at-large, and not from any spe­cif­ic leg­isla­tive dis­trict. All mem­bers of the Leg­isla­tive Assem­bly are elect­ed for a four-year term with­out term limits.

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