Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

The beautiful island of Puerto Rico was first discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1493 on his second sojourn into the New World. After landing at Aguadilla on the western shore, Columbus named the island San Juan Bautista, after St. John The Baptist. The island was renamed Puerto Rico, meaning rich port, in 1521.
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Puerto Rico

The beautiful island of Puerto Rico was first discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1493 on his second sojourn into the New World. After landing at Aguadilla on the western shore, Columbus named the island San Juan Bautista, after St. John The Baptist. The island was renamed Puerto Rico, meaning rich port, in 1521.

Located southeast of the larger islands of the Greater Antilles: present day Cuba; Jamaica; and Hispaniola, home to Haiti and the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico sits at the virtual center of the Caribbean archipelago. Both for the sake of its key position and natural resources, the island quickly became a contested asset of Europe’s colonial powers, namely the Dutch and British. Of the first settlements to be established on the island were Caparra, Fajardo, and Boquerón, all of which took on the traffic of military navies as well as marauding pirates. But for minor occupations by the British in the 16th century, Spanish sovereignty of the island was sustained until the late 19th century.

Puerto Rico was granted “a measure of autonomy” by the crown in 1897 and then finally ceded to the United States after the Spanish-American War of 1898, but this did not end its “colonial” status which has continued to evolve.
In 1900 Puerto Rico was officially recognized by the U.S. Congress as an unincorporated territory of the United States.

In 1917 residents here were granted full U.S. citizenship. Not all of them claimed it. The island’s current status as a Commonwealth, which permits it to have its own constitution and a representative government, was officiated first in 1952. There has been much debate, both in Puerto Rico and in the U.S. Congress, over making the island the 51st state, but in 1993 the Puerto Rican people voted to retain their commonwealth status. As such, they pay no U.S. taxes, but do benefit enormously from Big Brother’s economic assistance.

GEOGRAPHY
Geographically diverse, the island is bisected by the mountain range known as the Cordillera Central, forged out of seismic eruptions deep beneath the ocean floor millions of years ago. This same geology accounts for the lovely, though often treacherous, coral reefs and cays that pepper the waters off Puerto Rico’s coast.

While the southwestern side of the island remains relatively dry due to the Cordillera’s rain shadow, the eastern flank enjoys so much moisture as to boast one of the Caribbean’s only real tropical rain forests. Wildlife preservation is prevalent here, evidence of a community proud of and intent on protecting the island’s uniquely diverse resources and habitat. Industry on the island was traditionally and has remained largely agricultural. Sugarcane and pineapple plantations are literally omnipresent. Rum distilleries, which include the famed brand name Bacardi, benefited from the sugar boom at the turn of the century and have brought the island’s name recognition ever since. The fishing industry is another mainstay of the island’s economy, particularly on the western shore where canneries operated by StarKist, Bumble Bee, and Caribe Tuna are located. Together, they are responsible for nearly all of the tuna imported into the U.S. annually.

TRADE
Commercial development, particularly in the banking district of San Juan’s Hato Rey, has turned the island into a banking center for the Antilles. Interior developments, like the construction of the first trans-island highway connecting Ponce to San Juan, when taken in tandem with the numerous state sponsored preservation projects of Puerto Rico’s historic cities, have deftly helped to bring the island up to speed with the outside world while at the same time made great strides in securing the continuation of its rich historical heritage.

By these accounts, coupled with an aggressively cultivated tourist industry, the tiny island of Puerto Rico has been brought out onto the international fore: in 1979 the Pan American Games were held in San Juan and in 1986 Pope John Paul II paid a highly publicized and cherished visit. San Juan itself has grown to a population of 1.6 million. In addition to its tropical amenities and resort townships, this bustling city is often credited as an incubator of intellectual and artistic fervor. San Juan plays host to several universities, has a countless number of art galleries and museums, and its streets are, quite literally, filled with the celebratory music of the Caribbean, day and night.

Some of the world’s greatest writers, performers, and artists including, Salvador Brau, José Campeche, José De Diego, René Marquéz, Francisco Oller, Alejandro Tapia y Rivera and Manuel Zeno Gandía, were Puerto Rican natives. Still others immigrated here to benefit from San Juan’s culturally rich mecca. Other Puerto Ricans of international acclaim include performers Chita Rivera, Jimmy Smits, Rita Moreno and the late Raul Julia.

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