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Puerto Rico

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The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ("Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico") is a self-governing un-incorporated territory of the United States located in the northeastern Caribbean.

Puerto Rico is the smallest of the Greater Antilles, the Dominican Republic is located to the west of Puerto Rico and is commonly called by Puerto Ricans "La Isla Grande" (the Big Island) and a number of smaller islands- Mona, Vieques and Culebra, of which only Vieques and Isla de Culebra are inhabited. It is divided in 78 municipalities.

Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
(Estado Libre Asociado
de Puerto Rico)
Flag of Puerto Rico Puerto Rican Coat of Arms
Flag of Puerto Rico Coat of Arms
Motto: Joannes Est Nomen Eius (John is his name)
Official languages Spanish, English
Capital San Juan
Largest City San Juan
Governor Sila M. Calderón (PPD)
Area

- Total

- % water		 (Not ranked)

9,104 km2

1.6%
Population

- Total (2002)

- Density		 (Not ranked)

3,957,988

434/km²
Independence None
Currency U.S. Dollar (USD)
Time zone UTC -4/ (No DST)
National Anthem La Borinqueña
Internet TLD .pr
Calling code +1 787 and +1 939

History

Main article: History of Puerto Rico

When Europeans first arrived, the island of Puerto Rico was inhabited by a group of Arawak Indians known as Taínos. The Tainos called the island "Borikén". The first European contact was made by Christopher Columbus, on his second voyage to the Antilles, on November 19, 1493. The island was originally named San Juan Bautista, in honor of Saint John the Baptist. Ultimately, it took on the name of Puerto Rico (Rich Port); while the name San Juan is now delegated to its capital and largest city. Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon became the island's first governor of Puerto Rico to take office, while Vicente Yáñez Pinzón was the first appointed governor, though he never arrived at the island.

The island was soon colonized becoming an important stronghold and port for the Spanish empire in the Caribbean. Concerned about threats from its European enemies, over the centuries various forts and walls were built to protect the port of San Juan. Fortresses such as La Fortaleza, Fort San Felipe del Morro and Fort San Cristobal would be built. The French, Dutch and English made attempts to capture Puerto Rico, but failed to wrest long-term occupancy of the island. For many centuries, the island languished relative to Spain's more prosperous colonies on the mainland and Cuba.

In 1809, while Napoleon occupied the majority of the Spanish peninsula, an populist assembly based in Cadiz recognized Puerto Rico as an overseas province of Spain with the right to send representatives to the Spanish Court. The representative Ramon Power died soon after arriving in Spain; and constitutional reforms were reversed when autocratic monarchy was restored. Nineteen century reforms augmented the population and economy, and expanded the local character of the island. After the rapid gains of independence by the South and Central American states in the first part of the century, Puerto Rico and Cuba became the sole remnants of the large Spanish empire.

Toward the end of the 19th century, poverty and political estrangement with Spain led to an small but significant attempted uprising in 1868 known as "El Grito de Lares". The Puerto Rican goal was to achieve personal freedom, the abolition of slavery, and full self-government. The uprising was easily and quickly crushed. Leaders of this autonomist movement included Ramón Emeterio Betances, considered a "father" of the Puerto Rican nation, and other political figures such as Ramon Baldorioty de Castro, and towards the end of the century, Luis Muñoz Rivera. In 1897, Muñoz Rivera and others persuaded a liberal Spanish government to agree to an Charters of Autonomy for Cuba and Puerto Rico. The following year Puerto Rico's first, but short-lived autonomous government was organized. The charter maintained a governor appointed by Spain, with parlamentary structure partially elected.

On July 25, 1898 at the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Puerto Rico was invaded by the United States of America with a landing at Guánica. Spain was forced to cede Puerto Rico to the United States under the Treaty of Paris (1898). The twentieth century began under the military regime of the United States with officials including the governor appointed by the President of the United States. In 1917, the United States Congress granted Puerto Ricans U.S. citizenship. Natural disasters and the Great Depression impoverished the island. Political leaders demanded change, some like Pedro Albizu Campos would lead a nationalist movement in favor of independence. Others, including Muñoz Rivera and Celso Barbosa favored closer integration into the US.

Change in the status came about as a form of compromise spearheaded under by Luis Muñoz Marin and others, and culminatedwith the appointment by President Harry S. Truman in 1946 of the first Puerto Rican-born governor, Jesus T. Piñero. In 1948, the United States granted the right to democratically elect the governor of Puerto Rico. Luis Muñoz Marín would become the first elected governor of Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico adopted its own constitution in 1952 adopting a commonwealth relation with the United States. During the 1950s Puerto Rico experienced a rapid industrialization, with such projects as Operation Bootstrap which aimed to change Puerto Rico's economy from agriculture-based into manufacturing-based. Present-day Puerto Rico has become a major tourist destination and a leading pharmaceutical and manufacturing center. Still, Puerto Rico continues to struggle to define its political status. Several Puerto Ricans, who participated in armed struggle against a perceived U.S. occupation, remain incarcerated at high security prisons in the United States. A number of plebiscites have been held over the last decades to decide whether Puerto Rico should request independence, enhanced commonwealth status, or statehood. Narrow victories by commonwealth supporters over statehood advocates have not yielded substantial changes in the relationship between the island and United States.

Geography

Main article: Geography of Puerto Rico

Map of Puerto Rico
Map of Puerto Rico

The archipelago of Puerto Rico consists of the main island of Puerto Rico and various smaller islands, including Vieques, Culebra, Mona, Desecheo and Caja de Muertos. Of the small islands, only Vieques and Culebra are inhabited. The mainland measures some 170 km by 60 km (105 miles by 35 miles). It has a population of approximately 4 million. The capital city, San Juan, is located on the main island's north coast and has a population of approximately 430,000.

Geology

Puerto Rico is composed of Cretaceous to Eocene volcanic and plutonic rocks, which are overlain by younger Oligocene to recent carbonates and other sedimentary rocks. Most of the caverns and karst topography on the island occurs in the northern Oligocene to recent carbonates. The oldest rocks are approximately 190 million years old (Jurassic) and are located at Sierra Bermeja in the southwest part of the island. These rocks may represent part of the oceanic crust and are believed to come from the Pacific Ocean realm. Puerto Rico lies at the boundary between the Caribbean and North America plates. This means that it is currently being deformed by the tectonic stresses caused by the interaction of these plates. These stresses may cause earthquakes and tsunamis. These seismic events, along with landslides, represent some of the most dangerous geologic hazards in the island and in the northeastern Caribbean.

Politics

Main article: Politics of Puerto Rico

The government is composed of 3 branches: the Executive branch headed by the Governor, the Legislative branch consisting of a bicameral Legislative Assembly (a Senate and a House of Representatives) and the Judicial branch. The legal system is based on the Spanish civil code.

The Constitution of Puerto Rico was approved through refendum in 1952, and ratified by the U.S. Congress, which maintains ultimate sovereignty over Puerto Rico. Under this constitution, Puerto Rico is a territorial commonwealth of the United States and is permitted a high degree of autonomy. Although Puerto Rico does not have representation in the U.S. Electoral College or U.S. Congress, it is permitted a non-voting Resident Commissioner in the U.S. Congress. Although citizens of Puerto Rico are also U.S. citizens, they do not pay federal income tax on income from island sources. The Jones Act of 1917, which imposed citizenship on the island, also allowed the U.S. armed forces to draft many Puerto Rican men into the military service. Puerto Ricans who reside on the island do not vote in the U.S. Presidential elections, but they can freely travel into the other states, and if they reside in one of the 50 states they have full citizen rights including voting for the President of the United States.

Liberation Movement

Puerto Rico had and probably still has a significant liberation movement, opposed to US control over their land. Several prominent puerto rican political figures remain in high-security US federal prisons convicted for car bombings, etc.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Puerto Rico

The economic conditions in Puerto Rico have improved dramatically since the Great Depression due to external investment in capital-intensive industry such as petrochemicals pharmaceuticals and technology. Once the beneficiary of special tax treatment from the US government, today local industries must compete with those in more economically depressed parts of the world where wages are not subject to US minimum wage legislation. Many U.S. and foreign owned factories have left to lower wage countries in Latin America and Asia, while Puerto Rican owned businesses suffer from U.S. imposed trade laws which place heavy restrictions on free trade with other countries.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Puerto Rico

It has been stated that everyone in Puerto Rico originated somewhere else as they are a people comprised primarily of Taino, African and European origin.

Recent genetic research revealed a surprising picture about Puerto Rican heritage. On the one hand, Mitochondrial DNA analysis, showed that at least 61% of Puerto Ricans have American Indian maternal heritage. This means that if you could trace back in time from daughter to mother, you would eventually reach women who lived in Puerto Rico in Pre-Columbian time. The rest divides between 27% with female African ancestors and 12% with female European ancestors. On the other hand, Y-chromosome analysis, which corresponds to paternal heritage, showed over 70% of Puerto Ricans could trace male European ancestry, 20% could trace male African ancestry, but less then 10% could trace male Native American ancestors.

This high frequency of matrilineal Native American and patrilineal European markers, moderate frequency of matrilineal and patrilineal African markers, and low frequency of patrilineal Native American and matrilineal European markers, correlate perfectly to the colonial history of the island. European settlers were generous and almost exclusively men. These men took most native women, and some African women, as brides. Native and African men on the other hand, had little input into the genetic pool as most African men died prematurely from being overworked as slaves, and native men were wiped out from introduced European diseases and indentured native labour. For those few whose lifespans were slightly greater, their status in society severely reduced their eligibility as worthy mates for the island's females who were already competing to sire children with the womanless European men who had placed themselves at the top of the socio-racial hierarchy.

Although pure Taíno numbers had dwindled due to disease, warfare and forced intermarriages, many, if not most, of the marriages between Spanish men and Amerindian women were actually quite amicable. The "Limpeza de Sangre" documents on the island (used until the 1870's) sheds light on this reality. This document was used by Mestizos and Amerindians to move up in their society ---becoming "whiter" was the only way they could achieve that status. Later, waves of Corsican, French and Portuguese Europeans, along with a large amount of immigrants from the Canary Islands, arrived in Puerto Rico. Many other persons from Spain's other colonies migrated into the island as well. The mestizos (Taino mixed with European) were fully absorbed into the general population. Other settlers have included Irish, Scottish, Germans and many others who were granted lands from Spain during the Cedula de Gracias of 1815. This decree allowed "white" European Catholics from anywhere in Europe to settle in the island with a certain amount of free land and enslaved persons.

A noticeable Asian minority also settled in Puerto Rico. Most Asians are Chinese, who were brought as railroad workers. Another group of Chinese also settled Puerto Rico, most of them are victims of World War II, Mao Zedong's republic, and return of Hong Kong and Macau to mainland Chinese control. They came from other places in mainland China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea. Some Chinese from other Latin American countries also came to Puerto Rico. Other Asians also settled in Puerto Rico — mostly ethnic Japanese and Koreans.

According to the 2000 census, 95% of the population consider themselves of Puerto Rican descent (regardless of race or skin color), making Puerto Rico one of the most culturally unified societies in the world. Since its colonization, Puerto Rico has become the permanent home of over 100,000 legal residents who immigrated from not only Spain, but from other Latino Nations as well. Cubans, Dominicans, Colombians, Panamanians, Curacaoans, and Santomeños 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.

The Roman Catholic religion is dominant and the religion followed by most Puerto Ricans, although there is a notable Protestant presence has increased while under American sovereignity. Taino religious practices have to a degree been rediscovered/reinvented by a few handfuls of advocates. Kongo belief, known as Mayombe or Palo, has been around since the days of the arrival of enslaved Africans. Although, Santeria (stronger and more organized in Cuba) is practiced by some, Mayombe, a fusion of African-Catholic beliefs, find some adherence among mainly individuals in the Northeast coast of the island.

Puerto Rico currently has its own Olympic team, as well as international representation in many other sporting events including the Summer Olympics, the Pan-American Games, the Central American Games, and the Caribbean World Series. Boxing, basketball, and baseball are popular.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Puerto Rico

Municipalities

Main article: List of municipalities in Puerto Rico

As a commonwealth associated with the United States, Puerto Rico does not have any first-order administrative divisions as defined by the U.S. Government, but there are 78 municipalities (as well as Isla Mona, a non-municipality that belongs to Puerto Rico) at the second order. Each municipality has a mayor and a municipal legislature elected for a 4 year term.

See also

Official sites

Others

References

  1. Central Intelligence Agency (USA). The World Factbook (2003). United States of America.
  2. United Nations. General Assembly Resolutions 8th Session (1953). United States of America.

Notes

[1] See http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/8/ares8.htm

Template:West Indies  United States

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