Talk:Puerto Rican American/Merge

Puerto Ricans in the United States

Main article: Puerto Ricans in the United States

A majority Puerto Ricans left the island looking for jobs during the 1930s in the midst of the Great Depression, but the great migration didn't start until the mid-1940s and 1950s. (See also the "La gran migracion" and Operation Bootstrap.) However, several had been in the U.S since the early 1900s and most migrated to the United States for a better life. Most Puerto Ricans who did move to the United States mainland during the 1940s and 1950s were jíbaros, the Puerto Rican term for "hillbilly." Many were poor, uneducated and rural laborers, and they experienced open racism by native-born white Americans, but Puerto Ricans are part of the many waves of immigrants whom came before them, settled the urban centers of America and overcame similar problems awaited the Puerto Ricans.

At that time a majority of Puerto Ricans settled in New York City, Philadelphia, northern New Jersey, Hartford, Connecticut, Boston, Washington, DC and Chicago, Illinois. A smaller influx of Puerto Ricans invited as "guest workers" with US citizenship came to Canada, but mostly settled in Toronto and Montreal. In later years 1980s and 1990s a new wave of Puerto Ricans have migrated from the island to areas and cities now considered to have large Puerto Rican communities: Central Florida and the Tampa Bay areas, Raleigh, North Carolina, Norfolk, Virginia, Cleveland, Houston, Texas, and farther west in the Coachella Valley, California.

Since Puerto Ricans became U.S. citizens in 1917 they could easily travel to and from Puerto Rico, but most stayed in the mainland since the conditions on the island were dire. The media in Puerto Rico portrayed New York and other U.S. cities with "streets made of gold", cities that were free from poverty, discrimination, or prejudice. As soon as they arrived in New York, however, many Puerto Ricans found out that what they had heard was wrong. Many faced discrimination, police brutality or harassment. (The 1967 civil rights case ordered the NYPD to remove the racial category "Puerto Rican" from criminal arrest records.) Puerto Ricans were called racial epithets (i.e. spics, Joses or Pedros, and even called the "N" word) and were often laughed at, because curiosity attracted Puerto Ricans to many things in the U.S. that they never seen on the island. Puerto Ricans are portrayed as project housing dwellers, and criminal gang members in movies, TV shows and crime novels, and even by nativist and white racist hate groups compared the "Ricans" with other Latinos (Mexicans) or wrongly viewed Puerto Ricans not as people and raved on their "jungle island origins" in the Caribbean, despite that Puerto Rico isn't in Africa nor the south Pacific.

Furthermore, during that period, social and racial conditions in the US were very intense. Like most immigrant groups their predecessors, many moved into poorest areas of the major cities and many lived in over-crowded tenements. During that time Puerto Ricans experienced discrimination, segregation and racism because of some of their dark features and the language barrier. Many were denied employment opportunities and housing in wealthier neighborhoods because they spoke Spanish. This trapped many of them in a cycle of poverty, drugs and crime. In the 1990's, the news media focused on a "high number of low-income and working-poor" second and third-generation "Puerto Ricans" or Americans of Puerto Rican descent. They remained in the bottom of America's racially defined socioeconomic level, but these statements are held to be untrue or exaggerated by Puerto Rican and Latino community activists.

Although Puerto Ricans have faced many social ills in the United States, they still managed to obtain higher levels of education and moved up the socioeconomic ladder. Some have become doctors, lawyers, judges, bankers, etc. (e.g. Dr. Antonia Novello, Hon.Edwin Torres). Many have also moved out of the barrio and into the suburbs. Beside participating in the civil rights movement, Puerto Ricans have become politically well established in the northeastern United States, particularly in New York City. Since the 1960 presidential election after the John F. Kennedy campaign ("Viva Kennedy") organizers attracted many Puerto Rican and Mexican-American voters, back then the majority of them were registered Democrats, the Puerto Rican voting bloc has generated and expanded Latino political influence in the U.S. in the late 20th century.

Also, others have endured greatly in entertainment and sports; Jose Ferrer, Rita Moreno, Ricky Martin, Big Pun, Crazy Legz, Fat Joe, Daddy Yankee, N.O.R.E., Marc Anthony, Jennifer Lopez, Jimmy Smits, Roberto Clemente, Bernie Williams, Carlos Beltran, Luis Guzmán, Raul Julia and Roberto Alomar. In the early 2000's, Puerto Rican street dancers and pop/folk singers from the island introduced a new music genre, reggaeton. Reggaeton is a mixture of Afro-Caribbean, reggae, Latin dance, rap and hip-hop rhythms. It swept the U.S. via Puerto Rican and other Latino communities, and then the world's popular music scene. Reggaeton has brought a new Puerto Rican musical flavor by storm.

New York City has several Puerto Rican neighborhoods, including: Sunset Park and Bushwick, Brooklyn; the South Bronx; the Lower East Side of Manhattan; and Spanish Harlem in northeastern Manhattan. Many of these neighborhoods were economically or socially depressed, though this did not stop the flourishing of Puerto Rican culture. Puerto Rican people liked to listen to salsa music and cook typical Puerto Rican foods or grow plants at home. They celebrate Christmas, New Year's Day and Three Kings day/Epiphany. Old men played dominoes in front of Puerto Rican bars. Families sat on stoops and talked and laughed. Advertisements on buses and billboards were both in English and Spanish or, sometimes, just in Spanish.

Many Puerto Ricans like to display the country's flag from windows and from car antennas and paint it on brick walls because they are very proud of their heritage. This may sometimes create controversy among other ethnic groups because they are annoyed they don't display an American flag. Please note the relationship between the US and Puerto Ricans can be grey and troublesome. Not all Puerto Ricans are anti-American or pro U.S. meaning everyone is entitled to their own opinions. There's an uncertainty of whether Puerto Rico should be admitted as the 51st US state, separate into an independent republic, or continue their current territorial status but as a "Commonwealth" more similar in political representation and autonomy, to Canada's relationship with the United Kingdom.

There were always only a few Puerto Rican owned businesses because the neighborhoods were usually in high crime areas and Puerto Ricans didn’t have enough money to pay for insurance if their stores were broken into. (This should be further researched?) Actual fact is that most bodegas and other appliance stores during the 1950's through the 1980's were Puerto Rican owned. But many have moved on to nearby suburbs and other states, or retired back to the island and other immigrant groups have continued from where they have left off. Currently, one will occasionally find a Puerto Rican owned business through out the city or in other Hispanic neighborhoods.

Even though 85% of Puerto Ricans are Catholic there is also a strong Protestant community. These are mainly Pentecostal or Seventh Day Adventist. Many of these churches were called "storefront" churches due to their informality. There is also a mix between spiritualism and Catholicism. This is evidenced by botanical stores, present around Puerto Rico and the Latino neighborhoods in U.S. cities. Puerto Ricans also are Jehovah's Witnesses, a fast-growing Mormon group, and even have Unitarians, while some are adherents of Judaism and a very small percentage follow Islam. The Afro-Caribbean/part Christian folk spiritual religion Santeria (or the preferred "Lukumi") also has adherents on the island, as well as on the U.S. mainland. Palo Mayombe, a blend of Taino and Kongo African belief, is more well-known amongst Puerto Ricans, an indicator of the island's visible African cultural influence.

Puerto Rican food is mainly rice and beans (arroz con frijoles) with some sort of meat (either carne-beef, pollo-chicken and cerdo-pork). It also features pasteles, platanos, sofrito, las frutas islenas (tropical fruits native or introduced to Puerto Rico) and gandules. In addtition, Puerto Rican food varies depending on what part of the island one were to visit (i.e. Aguada, Loiza, Ponce, Mayaguez and Fajardo). The island is renowned as the origin of Bacardi brand Puerto Rican rums, sold in the U.S. and worldwide.

Feelings among Puerto Ricans in the U.S.

Many Puerto Ricans who are born from Puerto Rican parents and live in New York City are called "Nuyoricans" because they maintain their Hispanic cultural heritage and identify being [more] Puerto Rican than American, although they were born in the United States. This may have evolved because of the social conditions in New York City during the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s. See also "Nuyorican Poets Cafe" and "Loisaida". The Puerto Rican immigrants encountered a great deal of racism, not only they came from another place or carried their culture to the mainland, they were held to be "mulatto" or mixed-race people of partial African slave ancestry and Puerto Ricans moved into areas where African-Americans are the majority.

There has been several attempts by Puerto Rican Nationalists to achieve Puerto Rican Independence and a majority of these groups or movements have been silenced by the FBI. The most famous of these persons or groups is el Doctor Pedro Albizu Campos. Mr. Campos led a long and unsuccessful campaign to achieve independence from the United States, from the early 1920s until his death in 1965. Although he did not reach his goal he is admired by many and is considered a national hero. However, today there is the Puerto Rican Independence Party on the island but it barely gets the votes it needs to achieve it primary objective, which is obviously independence from the U.S.

Asked about whether she felt Puerto Rican or not by a popular men's magazine, New York native model and rap singer Gloria Velez declared that although "(she) and her parents" were born in New York City and Long Island and her grandparents were from Puerto Rico, she is still 100 percent "Puerto Rican". Also, there are many of those who are half Puerto Rican that have publicly stated their pride in being Puerto Ricans, such is the case of N.O.R.E., Hip-hop/reggaeton singer Daddy Yankee, Sheila E. (birthname Sheila Escovedo) the first famous female drummer, Tonight Show announcer John Melendez, Tony Orlando, Jimmy Nievez, Sammy Davis, Jr.(his mother was later revealed to be Cuban), Freddie Prinze and his son Freddie Prinze, Jr., and Geraldo Rivera (half-Russian Jewish from his mother, half-Puerto Rican from his father). This is a feeling shared by most (if not all) Puerto Ricans born outside Puerto Rico. Wilfred Benitez is another famous person who was not born in Puerto Rico but feels proud of being Puerto Rican. Many others are proud to be U.S. citizens as well.

Nowadays many Puerto Ricans are proud to be "American" citizens and many have served (and are serving) in all of branches the United States armed forces. Furthermore, many have also died fighting in all of the United States wars since World War I. Some Puerto Ricans criticized the ethnocultural label "Hispanic" and others questioned the usage of self-titles like "Latino" or "Boricua". Older generation Puerto Rican Americans rather have less to do with hyphenated identities popularly used by other ethnic groups and racial minorities, and some Puerto Ricans adapted the "American first" movement to indicate they are Americans of Puerto Rican descent.