Portal:Puerto Rico


The Puerto Rico Portal

Location of Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico (Spanish for 'Rich Port'; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a self-governing Caribbean archipelago and island organized as an unincorporated territory of the United States under the designation of commonwealth. Located about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) southeast of Miami, Florida, between the Dominican Republic in the Greater Antilles and the U.S. Virgin Islands in the Lesser Antilles, it consists of the eponymous main island and numerous smaller islands, including Vieques, Culebra, and Mona. With approximately 3.2 million residents, it is divided into 78 municipalities, of which the most populous is the capital municipality of San Juan, followed by those within the San Juan metropolitan area. Spanish and English are the official languages of the government, though Spanish predominates.

Puerto Rico was settled by a succession of Amerindian peoples beginning 2,000 to 4,000 years ago; these included the Ortoiroid, Saladoid, and Taíno. It was claimed by Spain following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1493 and subsequently colonized by Juan Ponce de León in 1508. Puerto Rico was contested by other European powers into the 18th century but remained a Spanish possession for the next 400 years. The decline of the Indigenous population, followed by an influx of Spanish settlers, primarily from the Canary Islands and Andalusia, and African slaves vastly changed the cultural and demographic landscape of the archipelago. Within the Spanish Empire, Puerto Rico played a secondary but strategically significant role compared to larger and wealthier colonies like Peru and New Spain. By the late 19th century, a distinct Puerto Rican identity began to emerge, centered on a fusion of European, African, and Indigenous elements. In 1898, following the Spanish–American War, Puerto Rico was acquired by the United States.

Puerto Ricans have been U.S. citizens since 1917 and can move freely between the archipelago and the mainland. However, residents of Puerto Rico are disenfranchised from federal elections and generally do not pay federal income tax. In common with four other territories, Puerto Rico sends a nonvoting representative to the U.S. Congress, called a Resident Commissioner, and participates in presidential primaries; as it is not a state, Puerto Rico does not have a vote in the U.S. Congress, which oversees it under the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950. Congress approved a territorial constitution in 1952, allowing residents of the archipelago to elect a governor in addition to a senate and house of representatives. The political status of Puerto Rico is an ongoing debate.

Beginning in the mid-20th century, the U.S. government, together with the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company, launched a series of economic projects to develop Puerto Rico into an industrial high-income economy. It is classified by the International Monetary Fund as a developed jurisdiction with an advanced, high-income economy; it ranks 47th on the Human Development Index. The major sectors of Puerto Rico's economy are manufacturing, primarily pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, and electronics, followed by services, namely tourism and hospitality. (Full article...)

Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.

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Photo credit: josell7

The Ada orchid, like this one found in Peñuelas, is one of many endemic flora found in Puerto Rico.

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WikiProjects

WikiProject Puerto Rico
Parent Projects: Sister Projects:
Geography
    Caribbean Cuba • Dominican Republic
    Latin America Mexico • Mesoamerica
    United States Puerto Rican Highways
Ethnic groups
    Latinos

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Plaza Degetau, one of two main plazas at Plaza Las Delicias

Plaza Las Delicias is the main plaza in the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico. The square is notable for its fountains and for the various monuments it contains. The historic Parque de Bombas and Ponce Cathedral buildings are located within the plaza, which actually consists of two squares: Plaza Muñoz Rivera on the north end, and Plaza Degetau on the southern end. The square is the center of the Ponce Historic Zone, and it is flanked by the historic Ponce City Hall to the south, the early 19th-century Teatro Fox Delicias to the north, the NRHP-listed Banco Crédito y Ahorro Ponceño and Banco de Ponce buildings to the east, and the Armstrong-Poventud Residence to the west. The square dates back to the early Spanish settlement in Ponce of 1670. It is the main tourist attraction of the city, receiving about a quarter of a million visitors per year. (Full article...)

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Military-related topics
65th Infantry Regiment Coat of arms
  • ... that during the Korean War, the Battle of Outpost Kelly accounted for seventy-three of the men missing in action from the total of 121 men reported MIAs of Puerto Rico's 65th Infantry Regiment[1] and that out of the seventy-three MIAs suffered by the regiment in the month of September, fifty of them occurred on the same day September 18? See: Puerto Ricans Missing in Action in the Korean War[2]
  • ... that ninety-five members of Puerto Rico's 65th Infantry Regiment were court-martialed in what is considered the largest mass court-martial of the Korean War?
  • ... that the 65th Infantry Regiment was the only unit ever transferred from active component Army to the National Guard?
  • ... that Admiral Horacio Rivero, Jr., was the first Puerto Rican and second Hispanic to become a four-star Admiral in the U.S. Navy? The first Hispanic full Admiral was David Farragut during the American Civil War.
  • ... that In 1984, Colonel Michelle Fraley, Class of 1984, West Point Academy, became the first Puerto Rican woman to graduate from West Point? Fraley (née Hernández) eventually served as chief of staff of the Army Network Enterprise Technology Command.[3][4]
  • ... that over 53,000 Puerto Ricans served in World War II?
  • ... that Lieutenant Carmelo Delgado Delgado a member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, was amongst the first U.S. citizens to die in the Spanish Civil War?[5]
  • ... that the U.S. Naval Station Roosevelt Roads was meant to be the Pearl Harbor of the Atlantic and that it was the largest naval installation in the world? Yes, in 1940, when Germany attacked Great Britain, the United States feared that if Germany controlled Great Britain, Mexico and the U.S. would be next. In 1940, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered the construction of a naval base in the Atlantic similar to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The site was meant to provide anchorage, docking, repair facilities, fuel, and supplies for 60% of the Atlantic Fleet. The naval base, which was named U.S. Naval Station Roosevelt Roads, became the largest naval installation in the world in land mass. The fate of the base was changed after the Germans were defeated and the Navy's attention shifted from the Atlantic to the Pacific.[6]
  • ... that Brigadier General José M. Portela was and still is the youngest C-141 Starlifter aircraft commander and captain in the United States Air Force at age 26?[7]
  • ... that during the Intentona de Yauco of March 26, 1897, the current version of the Flag of Puerto Rico was flown on the island for the first time by Fidel Vélez?[8]

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The following are images from various Puerto Rico-related articles on Wikipedia.

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On Wikipedia, anyone can edit. So if you're interested in Puerto Rico and its related subjects and articles, feel free to add and edit current content or start a new article. After all, the Wikipedia community encourages all readers and users to be bold in updating pages. If you're unsure on where to start, you can choose any of the open tasks listed below. The Puerto Rico WikiProject thanks you!
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Sources

  1. ^ "Outpost Kelly: A Tanker's Story", by Jack R. Siewert, Publisher: Fire Ant Books, ISBN-13: 9780817353414
  2. ^ "The 65th Infantry Regiment on Kelly in September 1952". Mervino.com. Retrieved 2007-09-07.
  3. ^ "Tuller designa a coronela retirada como ayudante especial - El Nuevo Día". Elnuevodia.com. 2014-02-22. Retrieved 2014-03-03.
  4. ^ "Yo vengo de una cultura machista". El Nuevo Día (in Spanish). 2014-02-25. Retrieved 2014-03-03.
  5. ^ US citizens that fought against fascism, Retrieved November 12, 2007
  6. ^ Puerto Rico Herald May 1, 2003
  7. ^ National Guard Bureau
  8. ^ "Historia militar de Puerto Rico"; by Héctor Andrés Negroni (Author); Publisher: Sociedad Estatal Quinto Centenario (1992); Language: Spanish; ISBN-10: 8478441387; ISBN-13: 978-8478441389
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