José Enrique Serrano, a New York politician who has represented Bronx residents and Boricuas for more than 35 years, is presently the most senior Member of Congress of Puerto Rican descent. As one of only two Puerto Rican-born members of the House of Representatives, Serrano has long been known to take the lead on Puerto Rican-related issues.

Serrano has long pushed for more federal support for Puerto Rico and considers Puerto Rico to be a colony of the U.S. He has repeatedly offered bills calling for a referendum in Puerto Rico to change its political status. The last time the question was put to a vote, Puerto Ricans narrowly voted against statehood and for keeping their status as a commonwealth. “I’m against the colony and I can live with whatever replaces it, either statehood or independence,” Congressman Serrano was quoted as saying in 2006.

In 2007, Serrano introduced a bill entitled the Puerto Rico Democracy Act. The bill would provide for a referendum that would give Puerto Ricans living on the island the choice between maintaining their present political status or choosing a new status. If a new status is chosen Puerto Ricans would have the option of being admitted as a U.S. State “on equal footing with the other states,” or becoming a “sovereign nation, either fully independent from or in free association with the United States.”

For more on U.S. Congressman José E. Serrano you can read the current political column at El Boricua.