Fotos

The Great Migration

Long attracted by the lure of the American Dream, the Puerto Ricans rank alongside the Irish in their long-standing tendency to the United States – in particular to New York City. Indeed, by the late 1990s, the Puerto Rican diaspora in the US was as large as the island’s total home-based population, with close to 3.8 million expats living stateside. Puerto Rican émigrés have even fermented their own US-based culture, creating such hybrid musical genres as salsa and reggaeton, and spawning a plethora of foreign-based – but proudly Puerto Rican – superstars such as Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez and Mark Anthony.
Although migration to the US has been common since the early 1800s, the largest exodus didn’t occur until the mid-20th century, when the granting of US citizenship to all Puerto Ricans, coupled with a lack of economic opportunities on the island, led to tens of thousands of people flocking north. The process snowballed in the late 1940s when a new air link to New York sent another wave of homecoming GIs and dispossessed agricultural workers to the Big Apple where they settled in East Harlem, a quarter that was promptly rechristened “Spanish Harlem” or – in Latin lingo – El Barrio. In the year 1953 alone an estimated 75,000 Puerto Ricans arrived in New York City and by 1960, over half a million called the Big Apple home.
In the early years, the migrant experience wasn’t always a harmonious one, with Puerto Ricans invariably gravitating towards New York’s poorest neighborhoods, where the faced economic hardship and discrimination. The situation wasn’t aided by a failed assassination attempt on President Truman in 1950 and an abortive shooting on Capitol Hill four years later, both acts by Puerto Rican nationalists. Subsequently islanders came to be seen as unpatriotic and were often viewed with distrust and suspicion. As a defensive mechanism many Puerto Ricans banded together in groups and began to re-assert their cultural identity. This led, in part, to the birth of the art-house Nuyorican movement of the 1960s and ‘70s. Centered at the Nuyorican Poet’s Café on New York’s Lower East Side, this progressive artistic movement helped to promote salsa music and showcase classic Puerto Rican-inspired movies such as Carlito’s Way.
With economic conditions improving since the 1980s, many Puerto Ricans have worked their way up the career ladder and moved towards more white-collar jobs. As a result, sizable Puerto Rican enclaves now exist in the affluent suburbs of cities such as Miami and Chicago, and a number of US-born Puerto Ricans have moved back to the old country where they have invested in second homes.

Aus: Lonely Planet Puerto Rico 2008

You know you're Puerto Rican if...

Your cousins have "original" names, like a blend of their
parent's names (ViMari = Victor + Maria)

You go to a wedding or Quinceanera party, gossip about how bad
the food is, but take a plate to go.

Telenovenas have the status of holy ceremonies.

You think platanos are a whole separate food group.

You walk around saying "Chacho", or "Chacha" or "Ay Bendito".

Others tell you to stop screaming when you're really talking.

You call all sneakers "tenis".

All breakfast cereals are called "Con Fley".

All tissue papers are called "Klinex".

All brands of diapers are called "Pampel".

A balanced meal consists of rice and beans and some kind of meat.

You've put a penny on your forehead to stop a nosebleed.

Your mother has put a balled up piece of thread on your baby
cousin's forehead to stop her hiccups.

You have at least 30 cousins. At least!

You know how to drive an "estandar" or "estic chift" car.

Fotos Uni

El Gran Combo - A Mi Me Gusta Mi Pueblo

Fotos

Conservation vs. Construction

Unchecked development has long been Puerto Rico’s biggest environmental threat. On a small island where space is limited and tourists mean money, the territory’s sultry Caribbean beauty has often been its undoing. Big developers and hotel companies regularly eye the country’s lush coastline and pristine beaches in search of the next high-rise condo tower or 18-hole golf course. But, as economically beneficial as tourism might be, its continued expansion could ultimately lead to a law of diminishing returns. If the famed Isla del Encanto (Enchanted Isle) suffers many more reconfigured coastlines or bulldozed palm groves, it will no longer be worth of its illustrious nickname.
Many argue that development – particularly in the tourist sector – has already gone too far. Puerto Rico currently has a higher population density than any of the 50 US states, with an average of 1000 people per square mile. It also supports one of the highest concentrations of roads in the world. Outside of the central mountains, it is rare to drive for more than a mile or two without being engulfed by a housing complex, a shopping mall or a fast-food restaurant, and the islands peripheral coast road is often more redolent of a giant parking lot than a well-ordered highway.
One perennial worry for environmentalists is the flouting of property laws, a factor that regularly sees buildings going up on protected land. Side-stepping protection laws, large hotels properties often merely act as a cover for future subdivisions and within a couple of years you’ll often find a comparatively new resort shuttered up to make way for a new housing estate.
The good news is that grassroots pressure has already begun to yield resultsagainst some of the more politically aligned property developers. In 2007, a proposed condo development known as Costa Serena was indefinitely blocked by community groups in Loiza, near San Juan. If realized, this project would have erected an 880-unit gated community, along with 1350 parking spaces, a casino, tennis courts and a beach club at Pinones on what is currently one of Puerto Rico’s most authentic and undeveloped beaches.
Seen by many as a refreshing antidote to the resort strip of Isla Verde, Pinones is home to Puerto Rico’s largest mangrove habitat and acts as a natural protective barrier against coastal flooding in the area.
Another weighty tourist was similarly stalled a couple of months later in Luquillo, when the Puerto Rican government signed a protection order on a 270-acre parcel of land that had been earmarked by two major hotel chains for a luxury resort. According to the Sierra Club’s recently inaugurated Puerto Rican Chapter, this project would have severely jeopardized an important nesting beach for leatherback turtles and endangered numerous other species in the so-called northeast ecological corridor.
But, as important these hard-won victories may be, they are merely small, prickly skirmishes in an ongoing war. With the government pledging increased tourist numbers throughout 2008, the battle against the bulldozers looks set to continue


«Construction versus Conservation.» Sainsbury, Brendan y Nate Cavalieri. Puerto Rico. 4th Edition. Oakland: Lonely Planet, 2008. 68.