Puerto Rican people
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Puerto Rican People or Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens originating from Puerto Rico. Puerto Ricans are largely the descendants of native Taíno Indians, Spaniards and African slaves. Ancestry also includes Lebanese, Scots, Corsicans, Irish, French, Germans and Chinese, in the Antilles in America.
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[edit] Background and History
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 Spanish colonization, called the island of Puerto Rico. However, as in other parts of the North & 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 fatal 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 islands of Cuba, La Hispaniola and Puerto Rico 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 Spanish 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, French, Dutch, Chinese and German immigrants. In recent times, Puerto Rico has been the destination for immigrants from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, South America and Spain. So many immigrants have settled in Puerto Rico to vastly outnumber the native Taíno population originally recorded on the island to the extent that figures claiming Taíno ancestry among present day islanders are greatly exaggerated. While Taíno culture survives in place names and words borrowed and incorporated into Spanish, on the whole, Puerto Rican culture is largely Spanish European with a blend of African, the same way it is in Cuba and some parts of Latin America like Panama and the caribbean coast of Colombia and Venezuela.
[edit] Puerto Rico under United States rule
On July 25, 1898 at the outbreak of the Spanish–American War, Puerto Rico, being a colony of Spain, was invaded by the United States of America with a landing at Guánica. Spain was forced to cede Puerto Rico, along with Cuba and the Philippines, to the United States under the Treaty of Paris (1898) .
During the decades of the 1930's and 40's, there was heavy migration from Puerto Rico to the continental U.S.A. in search of better economic conditions. In 1945 there were 13,000 Puerto Ricans living in New York City - by 1955 there were 700,000, and by the mid-1960s there were over a million.
[edit] Ethnical and Cultural Identity
In the 2000 U.S. Census Puerto Ricans were asked to identify which racial category with which they personally identify. 95.8% answered with only one choice. The breakdown is as follows: 80.5% described themselves as "white"; 8% described themselves as "Black"; and only 0.4% described themselves as "Native American" . These figures demonstrate that racial terms are relative, not absolute, and highlight the potential for confusion when they are used in a definitive and distinct way. About 95% of the population consider themselves to be Puerto Rican (regardless of race or skin color).
[edit] Demographics Background
During the 1800s, hundreds of Corsican, French, Lebanese, Chinese, and Portuguese families, along with thousands of immigrants from the Canary Islands as well as numerous Spanish loyalists from Spain's former colonies in South America, arrived in Puerto Rico. Other settlers have included Irish, Scots, Germans, and many others who were granted land from Spain during the Cédula de Gracias of 1815 , which allowed European Catholics to settle in the island with a certain amount of free land. A census conducted by royal decree on September 30,1858, gives the following totals of the Puerto Rican population at this time, Whites 300,430, Free colored 341,015, Slaves 41,736, Unclassified 127, this census also clearly verifies Puerto Rico's diverse Ancestral heritage. More recently Puerto Rico has become the permanent home of over 100,000 legal residents who immigrated from not only Spain, but from Latin America as well. Argentines, Cubans, Dominicans, Colombians, Panamanians and Venezuelans can also be accounted for as settlers. The variety of surnames which exist in Puerto Rico suggests widespread immigration to the island from many regions of the world.
[edit] Language
The language of almost 98% of the archipielago Puerto Ricans is Spanish. Official languages are Spanish and English.
In 1991, Governor Rafael Hernández Colón signed a law declaring Spanish as the sole official language of the island's government. Upon signing this law into effect, English had lost its status as an official second language. While many applauded the governor's decision, mainly members of the parties supporting commonwealth-status and independence, statehood supporters saw it as a threat to their ideology. The signing of the law also brought the island acclaim, as the people of Puerto Rico won the prestigious Prince of Asturias Award in literature in 1991. The award is given annually to individuals and organizations worldwide for their defense and contribution to the growth of the Spanish language by Principe Felipe of Spain .
Upon his election as governor in 1993, Governor Pedro Rosselló overturned the law and re-established English as an official language. This was seen by many as a move by the pro-statehood governor to move the island closer to statehood, something that never came about under his two consecutive four-year terms.
There have been sevaral debates for making Spanish the official constitutional language (making it almost impossible English to become co-official), but they haven't been carried on.
[edit] Religion
The Roman Catholic religion has been historically dominant and is the religion of the majority of Puerto Ricans (census: 70%), although the presence of Protestant, Latter-Day Saint (Mormon) and Jehovah's Witnesses denominations has increased under American sovereignty, making modern Puerto Rico an interconfessional country.
