Every day, Puerto Rico is slowly adapting to the American lifestyle and is gradually losing what remains of its culture. Maybe it's because Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the United States. The poem “Coca Cola and Coco Frio” by Martin Espada is a great example of someone encountering the Americanized culture of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is struggling to preserve its identity. On July 25, 1898, United States troops invaded Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War. As Olga Jimenez de Wagenheim and Kal Wagenheim state: “The war marked new eras for both the United States and Puerto Rico. It was America's first major step as an imperialist power. The Spanish-American War was a small war, destined to have immense consequences” (77). December 10, 1898 The Treaty of Paris is signed between the United States and Spain, Spain cedes Puerto Rico to the United States. Thereafter the United States gained total control of the island of Puerto Rico and “undertook a sustained campaign of Americanization designed to make Puerto Rico in its sympathies, opinions, and attitude toward life and government essentially American” (Morris 7 ). The United States claimed that their intention in owning the island was to liberate it from the Spanish but, the Puerto Ricans soon learned that they would only become a controlled possession of the United States, this made some of the natives very unhappy. In a short period of time Puerto Rico went from a possession of Spain to a possession of the United States. Going through these sudden changes has caused many problems in the political, economic and social status of Puerto Rico. With all these drastic changes occurring "the United States first...... middle of paper......d the jíbara , as lazy pleasure seekers and "loose" or rather "sensual and seductive", would lead to negative implications for racism and stereotyping of Puerto Ricans in the future Although it was never intended to be the case, the acquisition of Puerto Rico led to Puerto Rico becoming a colony of the United States, in the face of laws passed by Congress. and the nature with which the United States sought to "Americanize" the island. Puerto Rico was a colonial government in the hands of Spain, and although Puerto Ricans hoped that with the American invasion they would be granted more freedom. Unfortunately, the situation did not change when the United States assumed control of the island..