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Portal:Puerto Rico

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The Puerto Rico Portal

Location of Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico (Spanish for 'rich port'; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a self-governing Caribbean archipelago and island organized as an unincorporated territory of the United States under the designation of commonwealth. Located about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) southeast of Miami, Florida between the Dominican Republic in the Greater Antilles and the U.S. Virgin Islands in the Lesser Antilles, it consists of the eponymous main island and numerous smaller islands, including Vieques, Culebra, and Mona. With approximately 3.2 million residents, it is divided into 78 municipalities, of which the most populous is the capital municipality of San Juan, followed by those within the San Juan metropolitan area. Spanish and English are the official languages of the government, though Spanish predominates.

Puerto Rico was settled by a succession of Amerindian peoples beginning 2,000 to 4,000 years ago; these included the Ortoiroid, Saladoid, and Taíno. It was claimed by Spain following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1493 and subsequently colonized by Juan Ponce de León in 1508. Puerto Rico was contested by other European powers into the 18th century but remained a Spanish possession for the next 400 years. The decline of the Indigenous population, followed by an influx of Spanish settlers, primarily from the Canary Islands and Andalusia, and African slaves vastly changed the cultural and demographic landscape of the archipelago. Within the Spanish Empire, Puerto Rico played a secondary but strategically significant role compared to larger and wealthier colonies like Peru and New Spain. By the late 19th century, a distinct Puerto Rican identity began to emerge, centered on a fusion of European, African, and Indigenous elements. In 1898, following the Spanish–American War, Puerto Rico was acquired by the United States.

Puerto Ricans have been U.S. citizens since 1917 and can move freely between the archipelago and the mainland. However, residents of Puerto Rico are disenfranchised from federal elections and generally do not pay federal income tax. In common with four other territories, Puerto Rico sends a nonvoting representative to the U.S. Congress, called a Resident Commissioner, and participates in presidential primaries; as it is not a state, Puerto Rico does not have a vote in the U.S. Congress, which oversees it under the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950. Congress approved a territorial constitution in 1952, allowing residents of the archipelago to elect a governor in addition to a senate and house of representatives. The political status of Puerto Rico is an ongoing debate.

Beginning in the mid-20th century, the U.S. government, together with the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company, launched a series of economic projects to develop Puerto Rico into an industrial high-income economy. It is classified by the International Monetary Fund as a developed jurisdiction with an advanced, high-income economy; it ranks 40th on the Human Development Index. The major sectors of Puerto Rico's economy are manufacturing, primarily pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, and electronics, followed by services, namely tourism and hospitality. (Full article...)

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The 1985 Mameyes landslide in Ponce was one of the worst landslide disasters in North American history. Caused by excessive rains, it destroyed more than 100 homes and killed anywhere from 129 to 300 residents.

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Female Puerto Rican rock frog

The Puerto Rican rock frog (Eleutherodactylus cooki), also known as the Puerto Rican cave-dwelling frog or rock coquí, and locally as coquí guajón, or guajón for brevity, is a threatened frog species from the coqui genus. This unique species of tropical frogs dwells primarily in crevices and grottos in the Cuchilla de Panduras mountain range in southeastern Puerto Rico. The native name guajón is derived from its habitat, guajonales, which are caves formed by rock formations between huge stones. Despite being the state animal and considered emblematic of the region, of the 17 species of coquí, three are believed to be extinct and the rest are rare and declining in numbers. The Puerto Rican rock frog is extremely restricted in geographical distribution. The frog is threatened due to deforestation, agricultural, rural, and industrial development, and the associated infrastructure. It is sometimes called the "demon of Puerto Rico" (demonio de Puerto Rico in Spanish) because of its eerie call and phantom-like appearance. The species was first described by American herpetologist, Chapman Grant in 1932. (Full article...)

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Bad Bunny in 2019

Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio (Spanish: [beˈnito anˈtonjo maɾˈtines oˈkasjo]; born March 10, 1994), better known by his stage name Bad Bunny, is a Puerto Rican rapper and singer. Known as the "King of Latin Trap", Bad Bunny is credited with helping Spanish-language rap music achieve mainstream popularity in the worldwide market and is considered one of the best Latin rappers of all time. He became the first non-English language American artist to be Spotify's most streamed artist of the year, doing so three consecutive times in 2020–2022. He also holds the record for the most-streamed album on Spotify, with Un Verano Sin Ti (2022).

Born and raised in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, Bad Bunny rose to prominence in 2016 with his song "Diles", which led to a recording contract with Hear This Music. He continued gaining traction with songs such as his feature on Cardi B's Billboard Hot 100 number-one single "I Like It" alongside J Balvin and his top-ten single "Mía" (featuring Drake). Bad Bunny's debut studio album, X 100pre (2018), peaked at number 10 on the US Billboard 200, while his collaborative album with J Balvin, Oasis (2019), reached number nine. His second solo album, YHLQMDLG (2020), became the highest-charting all-Spanish album to appear on the Billboard 200 at the time at number two, and was followed by the compilation album Las que no iban a salir (2020). (Full article...)

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Mona Island Lighthouse

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Sources

  1. ^ Company History
  2. ^ Coffee Growers Try to Revive a Toast of Cafe Society. Archived 2018-12-26 at the Wayback Machine Abby Goodnough. The New York Times. (A version of this article appears in [The New York Times print version] on July 24, 2005, with the headline: "Adjuntas Journal; Coffee Growers Try to Revive a Toast of Cafe Society.") 24 July 2005. Accessed 25 December 2018.
  3. ^ The Lighthouse People
  4. ^ a b Puerto Rico is Not a Country
  5. ^ IRS Topic 901 - Is a Person With Income From Puerto Rican Sources Required to File a U.S. Federal Income Tax Return?
  6. ^ Hispanic Trends: Enchanted Enterprise
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