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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 around 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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Photo credit: Tony the Marine

The 1868 Lares revolutionary flag was used during the 1868 rebellion against Spain, later known as the Grito de Lares. It was knitted by Mariana Bracetti.

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An artist's rendition of the chupacabra

The chupacabra or chupacabras (Spanish pronunciation: [tʃupaˈkaβɾas], literally 'goat-sucker', from Spanish: chupa, 'sucks', and cabras, 'goats') is a legendary creature, or cryptid, in the folklore of parts of the Americas. The name comes from the animal's purported vampirism—the chupacabra is said to attack and drink the blood of livestock, including goats.

Physical descriptions of the creature vary. In Puerto Rico and in Hispanic America it is generally described as a heavy creature, reptilian and alien-like, roughly the size of a small bear, and with a row of spines reaching from the neck to the base of the tail, while in the Southwestern United States it is depicted as more dog-like. (Full article...)

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Navarro in 2008

Jaime Navarro Cintrón (born March 27, 1967) is a former Puerto Rican baseball player and current pitching coach for the Uni-President Lions for the Chinese Professional Baseball League in Taiwan. Navarro was a 6-foot, 4-inch tall right-handed pitcher in the major leagues from 1989 to 2000, playing for the Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, and Cleveland Indians. He is the son of former Major League Baseball pitcher Julio Navarro. (Full article...)

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Pedro Montanez
  • ... that Ron Rivera was the first person of Puerto Rican descent to play in the National Football League (NFL), to win a championship as a member of the 1985 Chicago Bears, who won Super Bowl XX, and to become a head coach of an NFL team (Carolina Panthers)?[1]
  • ... that Emilio "Millito" Navarro (born September 26, 1905) was the first Puerto Rican to play baseball in the Negro Leagues and that at 102, is also the oldest living professional baseball player to have played in the Negro Leagues?[2]
  • ... that Orlando Meléndez in 2008, became the first Puerto Rican-born player to ever to play for the Harlem Globetrotters?[3]
  • ... that Orlando Antigua, whose mother is Puerto Rican, in 1995, became the first Hispanic and the first non-black in 52 years to play for the Harlem Globetrotters?[4]
  • ... that Pedro Montañez, also known as El Torito De Cayey (The Little Bull of Cayey), considered by many to be one of the best boxers in history, never to won a world title? In his career he was 92-7-4.[5]
  • ... that Professional wrestler Pedro Morales in 1995 became the first and only Puerto Rican inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame?
  • ... that Alfred "Butch" Lee, became the first Puerto Rican in the NBA when in 1978 he was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks. Lee was also the first Puerto Rican to play on the NBA play-offs as a member of the 79-80 Los Angeles Lakers. He was awarded an NBA Championship ring, even though he did not participate in the "Finals" because of his injuries.

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Sources

  1. ^ ESPN: Rivera joins the Chargers as linebackers coach
  2. ^ Negro League Museum
  3. ^ Harlem Globetrotters
  4. ^ New York Times - A Non-Black Player Joins Globetrotters
  5. ^ "Pedro Montanez - Boxer". Boxrec.com. Retrieved 2010-09-18.
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