Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Puerto Rico/Archives/2020/December

Use of "Boricua"

Hello members of WikiProject Puerto Rico. Since the announcement of Miguel Cardona as the United States Secretary of Education (designate), questions have been raised about the appropriate use of the word "Boricua." I explained some background information here. My questions are as follows: Is the word "Boricua" a slang term? Is it considered colloquial? Is it considered a slur? Is it offensive? Is it appropriate to mention in his article if Spanish-language sources refer to him as such? Thank you. KidAd talk 00:55, 25 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Before Columbus and the Spaniards arrived to the island the native Tainos had named the island Borinken. The term Boricua is nether a slang nor a slur or offensive. Puerto Ricans consider themselves to be Boricuas as a sign of being proud of their heritage. Normally when a Puerto Rican meets or see a person with a Puerto Rican flag or something indicating that the other person is Puerto Rican he will call him or her "Boricua" and the other person will return the salutation with the same term. This also includes people who are born outside of Puerto Rico whose families are Puerto Rican or of Puerto Rican heritage. I was born in New York and I am a Boricua and proud of it. I hope this answers your question which is a good one. Tony the Marine (talk) 03:15, 25 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@KidAd: You can probably answer all of your own questions if you think of the term "Boricua" as you would think of the term "Yankee". I relist them for comparison, clarity and (potentially) analysis:

Is the word "Boricua" a slang term?
Is it considered colloquial?
Is it considered a slur?
Is it offensive?
Is it appropriate to mention in his article if Spanish-language sources refer to him as such?

As for #5, this is, imo, a 50-50 toss; it's neither appropriate nor inappropriate. I wouldn't use the term in the lead, though (just as I wouldn't use the term "Yankee" in equivalent articles). In addition, I would use it in the body of the article but only if it fits in appropriately with the rest of the discussion in the section or paragrapgh in question. For example, I wouldn't just say "He is a boricua. by itself, without building up to it.

To help compare with Tony's response above, I was born in the Puerto Rico and, thus, I too am a Boricua, and proud of it. So, the equivalent of "Boricua" is simply "Puerto Rican".

Hope this helped answer your questions! Mercy11 (talk) 02:47, 27 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Appreciate the great explanations. I would just like to point out the use of the term "Yankee" does have rather complicated meanings depending on context. Though not saying that necessarily means it's a bad comparison. From the article:

A poem by E. B. White (the writer of Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web among other things) put it best, "to foreigners a yankee is an American. To Americans, a Yankee is a Northerner. To Northerners, a Yankee is an Easterner. To Easterners a Yankee is a New Englander. To New Englanders a Yankee is a Vermonter. And in Vermont, a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast."

And I would add to that: To Southerners a Yankee is either a Northerner or any non-southern American. Also, most Americans rarely, if ever, refer to a Southerner as a Yankee. It just wouldn't make any sense. --DB1729 (talk) 03:47, 27 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]