Essay about The Identity of Puerto Rican People

For most of its history, Puerto Rico has been controlled by an outside power, and its people oppressed. While Puerto Rico is currently a U.S. territory, Spanish colonialism has had a significant impact on the island’s development and identity. The history of the island itself is proof of this fact, demonstrating each step Puerto Rico took to reach its current state. By examining the stages of Spanish control that Puerto Rico experienced, we can determine how each stage affected the structure and identity of Puerto Rico.

In America today, we are faced with several different minority groups arriving to the United States. The most common of all minority groups are the Hispanics. America is known for their language being English, but as the year's approach, that language has faded and a new face in English language has taken over, it's called Spanish. We as the people of America have become controversial over this major change, and due to that major bilingualism and political movements that have occurred from the government to the education departments. In this paper, I am going to talk about the four most common Hispanic groups in our country today and the political, social, linguistic, economic, religious, and familial conventions and/or statuses that they

Section A: I am a Mexican-American woman, born to Mexican immigrant parents, and by birthright an American citizen. In my phenotype, I do not look like a stereotypical American, with blonde hair, blue eyes, or a light complexion. I have black hair, dark brown eyes, and a light brown skin complexion. While exploring my identity and my sense of belonging in my Mexican-American, or Chicana identity, I can relate to the growth and development described in the Model of Death and Dying. For, I have the privileges of an American, but have witnessed discrimination against my fellow Mexicans counterparts.

The autobiography When I was Puerto Rican, written by Esmeralda Santiago, tells a story of a poor girl trying to succeed. The settings in this novel have an important influence on Esmeralda. They influence her behavior and change her ideals as an adult. Negi goes through many changes based on the challenges she faces by moving to new locations where society is different. All of these changes allow her to become a stronger person. When she lives in El Mangle, Negi has to face extreme prejudice against her upbringing as a jibara. When she leaves Puerto Rico to move to Brooklyn, she is forced to face an entirely different society. All of these events that took place in Esmeralda’s childhood had a significant impact in shaping her into an adult.

In "A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood," Judith Cofer accomplishes three powerful achievements: she gives details on the stories of her family experiences, shows her family stories in a strong imaginative language, and points out how family stories can take over a person's life. This essay seems to be very tricky because she goes from one story to another. Cofer's claim would be very difficult to understand if she started with one story; instead, she should finish explaining the initial story before moving on to the next one. Instead, Cofer shows how a woman can potentially go crazy if her man mistreats her.

Pablo Camacho was one of my old family friend who lives in Puerto Rico, since that’s where my family’s from. He used to be my dad’s family accountant who ran all the numbers and did all the financial operations of the business. Since my dad moved away from the island, we still keep in touch because of how close they were. Therefore, I thought this was the perfect person to vex or ask him questions for my interview. I have to disclose that Puerto Rico’s primary language is not English and I had to translate this interview from Spanish. I did my best in translating everything and summarizing it.

I relate each component with a historical event in Puerto Rican politics and also consider how through this historic mobilization Puerto Ricans have gained entitlement to more power, equality, representation, consciousness from other ethnic groups, and to some degree, social change. I focus on the Puerto Ricans’ migration to Connecticut, their development of ethnic awareness and power awareness, their realization of common interests, their competing ethnic projects, and the brokered representation they have endured as detailed in Jose Cruz’s book, Identity and Power: Puerto Rican Politics and the Challenge of Ethnicity. Finally, I examine an important point that Cruz only touched upon briefly, which is the idea of cultural citizenship in the Puerto Rican community. This added point helps us to fully understand the role identity politics played in Puerto Ricans’ lives.

Even though there is no specific Puerto Rican skin tone there is a color that is favoured amongst Puerto Ricans on the island. That color is white. My mother and brother both have a lighter skin complexion than mine, and they both identify as white. I would say that I am the black sheep in my

The "discovery" or infiltration of the island of Borinquen (or Puerto Rico as it was later renamed) in 1493 by Spain resulted in the decimation of the native Taino population. With the loss of an immediate source of cheap labor to work the fields for their sugar cane industry, they introduced African culture into the region by importing slaves to replace the Taino field workers. In addition to the introduction of African culture into Puerto Rico voluntary immigration brought

What's a common location that comes up in discussion when someone thinks of a destination to get away from all the hustle and bustle of the Main land of the United States? Normally Puerto Rico isn't too far away from conversation. Puerto Rico is a beautiful place with the perfect climate and many historical sites to take that getaway that you have always wanted. Today we will discuss major issues in/of Puerto Rico, the significance of this research and data sources, and lastly I will describe the data collected and research found during my inquiry on the region known as Puerto Rico

In fact, the racial composition of Puerto Rico is 80% white and 20% black. In earlier times, slaves, imported from Africa and other ethnic groups, were brought to work on plantations, and introduced this racial diversity. Slavery, started in Puerto Rico by the Spanish, forced the island into becoming a large agricultural area. Some of the agriculture that still exists includes sugar production and dairy production. Today however, most Puerto Ricans hold jobs that are industrial and exist in the metropolitan areas. Important industries of the island include pharmaceuticals, electronics, textiles, petrochemical, and processed foods. Tourism has also been an important source of income for the island2.

When Columbus first arrived he found the island populated by thousands of Taino Indians who made the mistake of showing Columbus gold nuggets in the river. This was all Spain needed to finance its crown. Differences between the Spaniards and the Taints began around two years later when Diego Salcedo was killed by the Indians. The Taino Indians revolt against the Spaniards was met with no success and many left the island or fled into the mountains where they began new lives.

The Latinos in my class differed in the way that they were proud to say they were Puerto Rican, Mexican, and Dominican. Thus, I pursued a relationship with these classmates and I began to feel differently about Latinos. I realized that I was taking part in the prejudice thoughts my previous classmates had toward Latinos by concealing my identity. I also recognized that Latinos were struggling to pursue a better life and that we are looked down upon. As a result of discrimination, it is difficult for us to accomplish our goals in life. Presently, every opportunity I get, I talk about my culture. I discuss the hardships Latinos face and I describe my experience growing up Puerto Rican. Although I am Puerto Rican, I don't know as much about my culture as I should. Reading Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America by Juan Gonzalez has brought new insights to my knowledge of Puerto Ricans and Latinos in general. Gonzalez focuses on language and writes that speaking Spanish is treated as a handicap instead of as an asset.

One of the most interesting and exciting places I have had the pleasure of visiting was the Island of Puerto Rico. Getting on the plane and arriving on the island was the easy part, but learning to navigate the island and getting reliable transportation was a whole other ball game.

Morales talks about Puerto Rican cultures by explaining what Caribbean people like to do: eat, sing, how they have different ways to dance and enjoy different types of music. “I am Caribeña, island grown. Spanish is in my flesh, ripples from my tongue, lodge in my lodge in my hips; the language of garlic and mangoes, […] (Morales 1174). She associates with those specific tastes and her home culture. Food is an important element of cultural identity.