This investigation originated from the following questions: How has Puerto Rico's social legislation of the last sixty years attempted to eradicate poverty from the island? How does a group of participants define poverty and perceive the government's efforts to eradicate it? What would constitute a model for designing effective anti-poverty and equalizing social policies for Puerto Rico?

The methodological strategy utilized in the study had a triangulated and qualitative design: a historical investigation of the Leyes de Puerto Rico collection of the years 1948-2008, along with a secondary analysis of the qualitative information obtained through four reflective conversations with each of the study's 37 participants.

Research suggests that social policies aimed at eradicating poverty have shifted focus several times: between 1948 and the 1970s, disadvantaged people were encouraged to move to the United States; after the decade of 1970, the impoverished segments of the population were utilized as intermediaries between federal fund transfers and the market economy; between 2001 and 2004, several attempts were made to improve the life condition of the disadvantaged population, but this movement lacked any coherent project for this population's economic development or increased political agency. Since 2005, Puerto Rico's poor have been marginalized from public policy agendas, and, at this time, the island has no social policies in place to tackle this chronic problem.

Underprivileged participants in this study did not self-identify as “poor.” However, some of the public servants who participated did say they “felt poor.” The study's findings show that because participants' situation with respect to many of the traditional indicators of poverty—e.g. educational opportunities, adequate housing, and access to health services—has improved significantly, participants' view of what constitutes poverty has also shifted to reflect these changes.

Finally, this work presents a theoretical model for the design of social policies to eradicate poverty. This model emphasizes the re-humanization of the personal dimension, reasserts the value of the social and economical components, and promotes restitution and democratization in the political arena as effective strategies for the achievement of social justice and equality for Puerto Rico's poor.