Puerto Rican

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Puerto Rican can refer to anyone who was born in, or whose ancestors are from Puerto Rico. It can also refer to anything from Puerto Rico, such as "Puerto Rican rums" or Puerto Rican cuisine, however this article is about Puerto Rican as a person and as a people.

Puerto Ricans also commonly identify themselves as Boricua, loosely based on Borincano (archaic), both words originating from the Taino word Boriken (also known as Boriquén, Borinquen, or Borinquén). The word Boriken, which translates to "the great land of the valiant and noble Lord",^[1] was used by the original Taino Indian population to refer to the island of Puerto Rico before the arrival of the Spanish. The use of the word Boricua has been popularized in the island and abroad by descendents of Puerto Rico heritage, commonly using the phrase, "Yo soy Boricua" ("I am from Boriquen", or "I am from Puerto Rico") to identify themselves as Puerto Ricans.

1 Ancestry
2 Modern Puerto Ricans
3 Puerto Rican identity and heritage
4 Continued evolution of the Puerto Rican identity
5 Political and international status
- 5.1 Footnotes
6 Further reading
7 See also

Ancestry

According to U.S. Census 2000 records the Puerto Rican population is of (81%) European (Spanish) ancestry. Broad U.S. census categories allows the mixed ancestry of most Puerto Ricans to be officially acknowledged. For an example an American in Puerto Rico would choose if he/she is 'Hispanic' or 'Latino' then they would choose from the variety of races. for instance they can choose one or more of the following choices, white, black, or Amerindian/Native American. A 2003 U.S. National Science Foundation funded study measured Puerto Rican ancestry through both patrilineal and matrilineal ancestry. Matrilineal mtDNA ancestry revealed 67% of all Puerto Ricans were shown to have a female Amerindian ancestor, 27% to have a female African ancestor and 12% to have a female European ancestor. Patrilineal Y chromosome, showed that 75% of all Puerto Ricans possessed a male European ancestor, 20% had a male African ancestor and less than 5% were shown to have had a male Amerindian ancestor. These combinations vary as Puerto Ricans can be of any variety of combined ancestries. Native American (Arawak/Taino) or/and African ancestry are common among "white" Puerto Ricans after four centuries of intermarriage between the island's racial groups.

Modern Puerto Ricans

Most Puerto Ricans are either of African ancestry, European ancestry, or a combination of both. The Puerto Rico of today has evolved, as have all other former Spanish colonies, its own social customs, cultural matrix, American influences, historically-rooted traditions and its own unique pronunciation, vocabulary, and idiomatic expressions within the Spanish language. While Spanish is the main language, many words and phrases come from the African and Taíno influences of the island, which can be seen in the food and in the arts, including dances, music, literature and visual works.

As a result of the Spanish-American War in 1898 and the eventual transfer from Spanish Colony to U.S. sovereignty (1898-1952) to Commonwealth (1952-present), the majority of the people of Puerto Rico feel pride in their nationality as "Puerto Ricans", regardless of the individual's particular racial, ethnic, political or economic background. Puerto Ricans consists of the blend of African ancestry, Caribbean or American Indian, and from European descent, mainly from Spain. A small portion of Puerto Rico was inhabited by the French in the 1700's, followed by other Europeans invited by Spanish colonial officials to populate Puerto Rico and Cuba well into the 1800's.

Puerto Rican identity and heritage

Some Puerto Ricans also refer to themselves as "Boricua." This term comes from the word "Boriken" (Borínquen) which was what the Taíno Indians, the native people who inhabited the island of Puerto Rico at the time of the European colonization, called the island of Puerto Rico. However, as in other parts of the North and South American continents and the Caribbean, the native peoples soon diminished in number due to exploitation, warfare, suicide and to their lack of immunity to the diseases that the European settlers brought with them. Measles, chicken pox, mumps, influenza and even the common cold proved detrimental for the Taínos in Puerto Rico and surrounding Caribbean islands.

So much was this the case that by the early 1500s, very few Taínos existed on the island and the Spanish (like the French, the English, the Dutch and the Portuguese) in their efforts to establish colonies on the island quickly began to import Sub-Saharan African slaves as the Portuguese had already done in other American colonies.

In the 16th century a significant part of Puerto Rican culture began when large numbers of African slaves began to be imported along with sugar cane from the Canary Islands. Of the Spanish colonists, thousands of settlers from the Canary Islands emigrated to Puerto Rico especially during the 18th and 19th centuries where whole villages and towns were founded by Canarian immigrants that their descendants formed the majority of the Spanish population. Later, waves of Corsican immigrants settled in Puerto Rico along with, smaller waves of French, Dutch, Chinese, Greek, Italian, Maltese, Portuguese (especially Azoreans) and German immigrants. In recent times, Puerto Rico has been the destination for immigrants from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, South America and Spain, as well from islands of the West Indies.

Continued evolution of the Puerto Rican identity

In 1791, the slaves in Saint Dominique (Haiti), revolted against their French masters. Many of the French escaped to Puerto Rico via the Dominican Republic and settled in the west coast of the island, especially in Mayagüez. Racial mixing, even before abolition, was more common in Puerto Rico than in Cuba or English colonies. This trend continued after 1873 when the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico occurred (note that the date for the abolition of slavery is the date when all slaves were granted freedom, but, before that day and starting on 1837, the freedom of blacks could always be bought at the time of baptism). In the mid 19th century Spain revived the Royal Decree of Graces of 1815 which permitted the immigration of Italians (principally from Corsica), Germans and Irish to the island. In addition, Chinese started arriving at the island, as rail-road workers, during the 1840s to 1850s. These groups settled mainly in the southern cities of Puerto Rico. The main idea behind Spain's new immigration policy was to keep the local population from asking for its independence by permitting people whom they believed would be loyal to the Spanish Crown to live in the island. This trend continued after 1898, when Puerto Rico was invaded by the United States after the Spanish-American War, with the migration of Germans and Lebanese. More recent arrivals include inhabitants from nearby islands, including Dominicans and a substantial population of Cuban immigrants after 1959. There is a percentage of U.S. residents from the U.S mainland who live mainly in the San Juan Metro area but these represent less than 1% of the population.

Political and international status

Since Puerto Rico is a territory and not an incorporated State of the United States of America, not all constitutional rights, privileges and immunities provided by the U.S. Constitution of the were extended to the island and its residents by the Jones Act of 1917.

Since 1917, Puerto Ricans born prior to 1899 were considered naturalized citizens of Puerto Rico, and anyone born after 1898 were declared naturally-born citizens of the United States; unless the Puerto Rican expressed intentions to remain as a subject of Spain by notifying the U.S. within 6 months of the effective date of the 1917 Jones Act. Since Puerto Rico had been part of the Spanish Empire for four centuries before any U.S. assimilation, certain island residents wished to continue as part of Spain.

Footnotes

^ Chief Pedro Guanikeyu Torres. The Dictionary of the Taíno Language. Taino Inter-Tribal Council Inc.. Retrieved on February 11, 2006.