Puerto Rico Research Paper

Hard Knock Life from the streets of Puerto Rico

The Hispanic diversity of the United States has been well documented in immigration and population numbers for many years. In 1994, there were 26.4 million Hispanic

Americans living in the Continental United States. In 2005 that number had ballooned to over 35 million. Now in 2008 the number is over 45 million people. (US Census 2008) The four main groups of Hispanic citizens are the people from Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Central America. Our Hispanic population has given the United States many contributions to politics, economics, family traditions and bilingual advancement in the world. Hello my name is Julio Fernandez I am an 18 year student from Puerto Rico’s capital San Juan. For

I was determined to make a better life for myself so I did what most Puerto Ricans do. Most of you don’t know but, the history of Puerto Rican Americans dates back to the 1800’s but the significant

Immigration started with the result of the Spanish American war in 1898 when

Puerto Rico was ceded by Spain to the U.S.(Green2008) Immigration was slow to start with because of the relative poverty of Puerto Ricans at the time. The first significant wave of immigration to the U.S. was based in New York where an

Abundance of garment shops welcomed women who worked hard and spoke

.Despite these limitations the Puerto Rican Americans have asserted themselves in their communities and actually exert political power when organized properly. In New York the population holds a swing vote status among voters on issues in the state. Puerto Rican Americans have a heavily rooted influence from the catholic religion and have added a Caribbean flair to the ceremonies such as baptism or weddings.

The Spanish culture in America has its advantages and disadvantages. The main disadvantage of my brown skin tone, is that I get mistaken for being a Mexican. Early on in life, it use to bother me because I would get called names like wetback or river floater. As I got older I learned to just ignore ignorant comments like that.

Usually people often ask where I’m from because of my strong Spanish accent, and assume I come from Mexico. They would ask “did you drive here with ten of your family members in one car from the border?” or “does your family sell fruit off the side of the road?” While most of the questions were insensitive, some people were actually interested in learning my culture. They would ask me about my family, why we were so poor, and what the Caribbean was