The Indian, Spanish and African races came together on the island of Puerto Rico, contributing their blood and traditions to the formation of the Puerto Rican culture.
The original inhabitants of Puerto Rico at the time of the Spanish conquest were the Taíno and Carib Indian-tribes.
We are young and old, we are women and men, we are professionals and blue collar workers, we are farmers and doctors, we are architects and farmers, we are actors and painters.
🇵🇷💞🇵🇷 … ONE YEAR AGO TODAY … I POSTED THIS!! 🇵🇷💞🇵🇷
Hi! My name is Horty Rexach.
I am Puerto Rican and I grew up in an island (according to the president of the US Virgin Islands) in the middle of the ocean.
Surrounded by water. Big water.
A lot of water!
Oh! … and we ARE American citizens, not by choice but rather by imposition.
We have been American citizens since 1917 because there was no other option. My people have served in the might U.S. of A. military forces since 1917.
Yep, citizenship was imposed in the beginning of World War One.
We speak both English and Spanish.
The Puerto Rican people receive $22.5 million dollars in social help as well as subsidies from the American government.
However, we produce around $77 million dollars toward the economy of the mighty U.S. of A.
Why do we have two last names?
No Puerto Rican woman loses her last name when she marries because we don’t want to forget our very own mothers.
We are an archipelago (because we are not only a small island – we have Culebra, Vieques, Isla de Mona and several others).
The geography of Puerto Rico consists of an archipelago located between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands.
The main island of Puerto Rico is the smallest and most eastern of the Greater Antilles.
Our small archipielago, surrounded by big water, provides more members to the military forces per capita than ANY other state of the Union!!
Our Island has produced astronauts, NASA engineers, scientists, a Judge in the US Supreme Court, a recipient of a Medal of Honor, 5 Miss Universe crowns, the Borinqueneers (65th Infantry Division – google this one), Oscar and Grammy recipients, athletes, actors of world fame and many more distinguished citizens who call our beautiful Island HOME.
We are a beautiful and interesting mix of Spanish (European), African and Taíno blood. This mix gives us an incredible drive to survive.
Nothing Breaks our Boricua Spirit
NOTHING!!
We do not fit in any BOX.
Biologist says Puerto Rican women possess the ideal genotype of the ‘Perfect‘ human via DNA ancestry.
It is a fact that this genetic composition represents the human race because of its wide heritage of races. #PuertoRicoStrong … 🇵🇷 … ¡Weeepa!
“That looks like a Puerto Rican statue of liberty on steroids.”
(a friend told me)
Some of you may know, others not.
I am a fan of tattoos, having a few of them myself.
I’m also Puerto Rican, born and raised, living in the mainland.
Since September 20, 2017, when Hurricane María battered and almost flattened my country, my personal feelings have come to the surface.
My heart and soul ache for Puerto Rico.
It’s been a week today since I visited my tattoo artist for add ons, updates, coloring and completion.
Colors, shading, The ‘cemí’, the hibiscus flowers, the ‘Taíno coquí’ and the ‘Taíno sun‘ were completed.
The process is almost totally done.
Only minor details for the last sitting.
My tattoo artist, Barefoot Stacy, is amazing!
Here it is!
This is a proud Boricua woman, holding her head up high, ready to hold her stand and give the good fight.
This happens in Puerto Rico every minute of every day.
The fortitude of the Puerto Rican woman has been tested during the trying times since Hurricane María battered the Island on September 20, 2018, a bit beyond six months ago today.
I wanted to share another ‘almost complete’ result with you today.
“I am not African.
Africa is in me, but I cannot return.
I am not Taina.
Taino is in me, but there is no way back.
I am European.
Europe lives in me, but I have no home there.
I am new. History made me. My first language is Spanglish.
I was born at the crossroads
and I am whole.”
“Yo soy Boricua, pa’que tu lo sepas!” (English: I am Puerto Rican, so that you know!) is a song composed in 1995 by Joel Bosch a.k.a. Taino released in various albums (Con Mi Corona, Numero Uno, Power Mix Latino).
“Yo soy Boricua, pa’que tu lo sepas” became the anthem of Puerto Ricans around the world.
To date, the song still identifies itself as the social statement of proud Puerto Ricans. It is constantly chanted at the NY Puerto Rican day parade, political events and sporting events to rally Puerto Rican athletes.
(For those interested, you can find the video on YouTube).
Puerto Rico, Discover a Magnificent and Unique Island
Puerto Rico, officially known as the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico), is an “unincorporated territory” of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the U.S. Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.
Puerto Rico is only 100 miles long by 35 miles wide, making it the smallest island of the Greater Antilles. Puerto Rico (Spanish for “rich port”) consists of an archipelago that includes the main island of Puerto Rico and several islands: Vieques, Culebra, Mona and numerous islets.
The United States “liberated” Puerto Rico from Spain in 1898. The following year, Hurricane San Ciriaco destroyed millions of dollars in property and nearly the entire year’s coffee crop. Banks swept in, buying land at a steep discount.
Even worse, in 1901, property taxes on every remaining farmer in Puerto Rico were raised. Farmers were forced to borrow from American banks at usurious rates; many lost their land to foreclosure. By 1930, 34 percent of land in use was managed on behalf of absentee owners.
Independence is the only solution, for Puerto Rico and the United States. After 117 years, many Puerto Ricans are victims of Stockholm syndrome, fearful of losing the “safety net” of United States benefits. But it’s clear that the safety net is a chimera. A gradual transition to independence (like that of the Philippines in 1946) would allow both island and mainland to adjust to a sovereign and self-sustaining Republic of Puerto Rico. It is the only way to end this colonial tragedy.
Nelson A. Denis, author of “War Against All Puerto Ricans”
“As it appears in … full credil/full read
I was born and raised in Puerto Rico, always within the framework of the USA presence.
It was a dream for me. I didn’t know anything else.
The American influence is and always be in my most innermost spaces.
Recently I’ve learned a lot about my country’s history.
A country rich in culture, heritage, natural resources and very good and genuine people.
They say “ignorance is bliss” … and this is so very true.
It’s very sad to know the reality of my country’s history. And it even sadder to see what it happening to Puerto Rico now.
This video shows what my country is all about.
The song, the music, the singer, the images all show the greatness of the Island and it’s culture.
Here I am … wishing and hoping but not holding my breath,
Taíno Indians, a subgroup of the Arawakan Indians (a group of American Indians in northeastern South America), inhabited the Greater Antilles (comprising Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola [Haiti and the Dominican Republic], and Puerto Rico) in the Caribbean Sea at the time when Christopher Columbus’ arrived to the New World.
The Taíno culture impressed both the Spanish (who observed it) and modern sociologists. The Arawakan achievements included construction of ceremonial ball parks whose boundaries were marked by upright stone dolmens, development of a universal language, and creation of a complicated religious cosmology.
There was a hierarchy of deities who inhabited the sky; Yocahu was the supreme Creator. Another god, Jurakán, was perpetually angry and ruled the power of the hurricane. Other mythological figures were the gods Zemi and Maboya. The zemis, a god of both sexes, were represented by icons in the form of human and animal figures, and collars made of wood, stone, bones, and human remains.
Taíno Indians believed that being in the good graces of their zemis protected them from disease, hurricanes, or disaster in war. They therefore served cassava (manioc) bread as well as beverages and tobacco to their zemis as propitiatory offerings. Maboyas, on the other hand, was a nocturnal deity who destroyed the crops and was feared by all the natives, to the extent that elaborate sacrifices were offered to placate him.
Myths and traditions were perpetuated through ceremonial dances (areytos), drumbeats, oral traditions, and a ceremonial ball game played between opposing teams (of 10 to 30 players per team) with a rubber ball; winning this game was thought to bring a good harvest and strong, healthy children.
The Taíno Indians lived in theocratic kingdoms and had a hierarchically arranged chiefs or caciques. The Taínos were divided in three social classes: the naborias (work class), the nitaínos or sub-chiefs and noblemen which includes the bohiques or priests and medicine men and the caciques or chiefs, each village or yucayeque had one.
~~GALLERY~~
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Their complexion were bronze-colored, average stature, dark, flowing, coarse hair, and large and slightly oblique dark eyes. Men generally went naked or wore a breech cloth, called nagua, single women walked around naked and married women an apron to over their genitals, made of cotton or palm fibers. The length of which was a sign of rank. Both sexes painted themselves on special occasions; they wore earrings, nose rings, and necklaces, which were sometimes made of gold. Taíno crafts were few; some pottery and baskets were made, and stone, marble and wood were worked skillfully.
At their arrival the Spaniards expected the Taíno Indians to acknowledge the sovereignty of the king of Spain by payment of gold tribute, to work and supply provisions of food and to observe Christian ways. The Taínos rebelled most notably in 1511, when several caciques (Indian leaders) conspired to oust the Spaniards.
They were joined in this uprising by their traditional enemies, the Caribs. Their weapons, however, were no match against Spanish horses and firearms and the revolt was soon ended brutally by the Spanish forces of Governor Juan Ponce de León.
It Is What It Is 