Rafael Picó was one of Governor Luis Muñoz Marín

Luis Muñoz Marín

Don José Luis Alberto Muñoz Marín was a Puerto Rican poet, journalist, and politician. Regarded as the "father of modern Puerto Rico," he was the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico. Muñoz Marín was the son of Luis Muñoz Rivera, a renowned autonomist leader...

's closest advisors. He served as chairman of the Puerto Rico Planning Board

Puerto Rico Planning Board

The Puerto Rico Planning Board was created in the 1940s during Rexford G. Tugwell's governorship and is the only state government agency in charge of centralized planning under the American flag...

, and served from 1965 to 1968 as a member of the Puerto Rico Senate elected by Muñoz' Popular Democratic Party

Popular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico

The Popular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico is a political party that supports Puerto Rico's right to self-determination and sovereignty, through the enhancement of Puerto Rico's current status as a commonwealth....

 (PDP).

The islands' first pro-statehood governor, Don Luis A. Ferré

Luis A. Ferré

Don Luis Alberto Ferré Aguayo was a Puerto Rican engineer, industrialist, politician, philanthropist, and a patron of the arts. He was the third Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico from 1969 to 1973, and the founding father of the New Progressive Party which advocates for Puerto Rico...

 and President Richard M. Nixon, in 1970 created a joint United States-Puerto Rico Ad Hoc Committee to study the possibility of granting Puerto Ricans the right to vote for President as a means of building upon Puerto Rico's territorial relationship with the United States. They appointed pro-status quo PDP member Rafael Picó to co-chair the Ad Hoc Committee.

Picó was always considered to be one of the more pro-American members of the PDP.