Puerto Rico and the United States

Puerto Rico and the United States

Since Puerto Rico was first discovered by Christopher Columbus on November 19, 1493, and Spanish colonization ensued in 1508, Puerto Rico has experienced all of these pressures of identity and culture.

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.

Though living in the secluded mountains, the Tainos were still colonists of Spain, but at heart were Borinquens. Even though they were a part of the "State" of Spain, i.e. a legal and political organization, with the power to require obedience and loyalty from its citizens. (Morris, p.12) the Tainos were a Nation or "a self defined community of people who share a sense of solidarity based on a belief in a common heritage and who claim political rights that may include self determination, history, language, culture and territory". (Morris, p. 12) This was the beginning of the Foundation of the four storeyed building.

In Jose Luis Gonzalez's article Puerto Rico, The Four Storeyed Country and Other Essays he too uses the metaphor of floors, stairs or foundation. Gonzalez saw that Puerto Rico's foundation though has grown more and more obscure over time, either by Puerto Ricans or other people who have transferred or erased the first and second floors. (Prof. Figueroa, lecture notes of 9/15/98)

In Rosario Fe...

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...tality and their way of life. The question is how much longer will it going on being this way?

Bibliography:

Fernandez, Ronald. The Disenchanted Island: Puerto Rico and the U.S. in the Twentieth Century. 2d. ed. (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1996).

Ferre, Rosario. The House on the Lagoon. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995).

Glasser, Ruth. My Music is My Flag: Puerto Rican Musicians in New York and their Communities, 1917-1940. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996).

Gonzalez, Jose Luis. "The Four-Storey Country," in The Four-Storey Country and Other Essays. (Princeton: Marcus Weinner, 1993).

Morris, Nancy. , Puerto Rico: Culture, Politics, and Identity. (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1995).

Rigau, Jorge. Puerto Rico 1900.

Santiago, Roberto (ed.), Boricuas: Influential Writings—An anthology. (New York: Ballantine Books, 1995).