Portal talk:Puerto Rico/Did you know

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This article was nominated for deletion and the final results are here: Articles for deletion/Did You Know - Puerto Rico Tony the Marine 04:50, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Prettier?

As it stands the article looks like a collection of text snippets. It is too cluttered. The facts should be organized by topic and separated using headlines. --Stux 05:11, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Reverted Edits

Hi Hectorlavoe, with regards to these edits, I may not understand why you are so adamant about keeping your edits the way you want it, but here is why the changes I made I believe make much more sense:

• The article that you listed as a source starts out with the following quote:

  There are eight accepted criteria used to determine whether an entity is an independent country (also known as a State with a capital "s") or not. (emphasis added)

The article itself makes it clear that it is talking about independent countries, eliminating any ambiguities, and therefore not redundant.

• The entry for country from Dictionary.com (based on the Merriam-Webster dictionary I beleive) lists several definitions for country, including:
  1. a state or nation
  2. the territory of a nation (both of these refer to your use of country)
  3. but also more ambigous definitions such as: any considerable territory demarcated by topographical conditions, by a distinctive population, etc.
  4. and from WorldNet (further below in the page): a politically organized body of people under a single government
  5. the people who live in a nation or country
• Even the definition of nation is as ambigous:
  1. a large body of people, associated with a particular territory, that is sufficiently conscious of its unity to seek or to possess a government peculiarly its own
  2. an aggregation of persons of the same ethnic family, often speaking the same language or cognate languages

In other words, the defintions of coutry and nation are not just used to denote politically independent states but also groups of people with similar ethnic or socio-political backgrounds. In short, it is better to be specific about terms than leave terms up to the reader to interpret. That is the reason I reverted your edits. I invite you to discuss the topic rather than incite any kind of edit war. --Stux 21:41, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

• Hectorlavoe, to blantly state that Puerto Rico is not a country or nation is wrong. Puerto Rico is a "Nation" with its own culture, customs, traditions and Spanish dialect. The correct term would be as stated by User:Stux. Puerto Rico is not an "independent country" and that is a fact. Continous reverts on your behave maybe deemed as vandalism and you maybe blocked from further editing. Look, we want your contributions in Wiki, but one thing that we do not tolerate is the posting of a statement which may be considered as POV or politically inclined. Remember, I already told you that the "Did you know-Puerto Rico" is for little known facts and not for commonly known ones. Tony the Marine 00:46, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

You may want to read the United Nations Special Commitee on Decolonization press release regarding Puerto Rico's self-determination process [1]. Specifically this text:

Reiterating that the Puerto Rican people constitute a Latin American and Caribbean nation that has its own unequivocal national identity, the Special Committee would call upon...

Therefore, there shouldn't be any problem if 'nation' or 'country' is used to refer to Puerto Rico or to things related to Puerto Rico. Scotland, Wales, and other entities are widely referred to as nations, even by non-nationalists.

Hectorlavoe, I ask you to please refrain from reverting again. That "Puerto Rico is not an independent country" is a fact. To state that it isn't a "country" just because it doesn't have its' independence is POV regardless of a definition which maybe incorrect. Tony the Marine 02:21, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Oldest Cathedral in the Western Hemisphere?

Construction of the San Juan Cathedral did not begin until 1521 when Monsignor Alonso Manso picked the plot of land and began work. Work on the Santo Domingo Cathedral began in 1516. The Santo Domingo Cathedral was consecrated in 1541. The San Juan Cathedral was not consecrated until 1865. Not even the San Juan Cathedral makes the claim that it is the oldest in the Western Hemisphere, it only claims it is the first church of Puerto Rico. Flybd5 17:54, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

Re "one of the oldest", nicely done, Tony. I like that better than my idea. :) Flybd5 18:52, 30 December 2006 (UTC)