The Puerto Rican Commission was a political group composed of prominent, pro-American Puerto Rican expatriates that accompanied a U.S. expeditionary force sent to assist in the invasion of Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War of 1898. The Commission or "volunteers", as they were otherwise known, that landed at Arroyo on 1 August 1898 consisted of: Pedro Juan Besosa, José Budet, Domingo Collazo, Mateo Fajardo, Emilio González, Antonio Mattei Lluberas, Rafael Marxuach y Abrams, Rafael Muñoz, and Warren Sutton (the only American in the group). Once disembarked, the Commission assisted in effectuating the transition of police, administrative, juridical, and–most importantly–political power to American military and civilian authority. Many of the original Commission "volunteers" had, pre-war, promoted insurgent and annexationist causes, as a result of which they had awoken the vigilance of Spanish authorities. The Puerto Rico Commission's 1 August 1898 landing at Arroyo was both the definitive manifestation and the fruition of their annexationist and pro-American goals.
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“A sense of humour keen enough to show a man his own absurdities as well as those of other people will keep a man from the commission of all sins, or nearly all, save those that are worth committing.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)