Puerto Rico.

**~~Dominicanese~~** · 08-11-2015, 09:51 PM

Puerto Rico.

Culture:
The culture of Puerto Rico is the result of a number of international and indigenous influences, both past and present. Modern cultural manifestations showcase the island's rich history and help to create an identity which is a melting pot of cultures - Taíno (Aboriginal/First Nation/Indigenous), European (Spanish, Canary Island, Corsican and Irish), African(West African), Anglo American (U.S.A.), Latin/Caribbean and other influences.

Cuisine:
Puerto Rican cuisine has its roots in the cooking traditions and practices of Europe (Spain), Africa and the native Taínos. In the latter part of the 19th century, the cuisine of Puerto Rico was greatly influenced by the United States in the ingredients used in its preparation. Puerto Rican cuisine has transcended the boundaries of the island, and can be found in several countries outside the archipelago. Basic ingredients include grains and legumes, herbs and spices, starchy tropical tubers, vegetables, meat and poultry, seafood and shellfish, and fruits. Main dishes include mofongo, arroz con gandules, pasteles, and pig roast. Beverages include maví and piña colada. Desserts include arroz con dulce (sweet rice pudding), piraguas, brazo gitanos, tembleque, polvorones, and dulce de leche.

Locals call their cuisine cocina criolla. The traditional Puerto Rican cuisine was well established by the end of the 19th century. By 1848 the first restaurant, La Mallorquina, opened in Old San Juan. El Cocinero Puertorriqueño, the island's first cookbook was published in 1849.[264]

From the diet of the Taíno people come many tropical roots and tubers like yautía (taro) and especially Yuca (cassava), from which thin cracker-like casabe bread is made. Ajicito or cachucha pepper, a slightly hot habanero pepper, recao/culantro (spiny leaf), achiote (annatto), peppers, ají caballero (the hottest pepper native to Puerto Rico), peanuts, guavas, pineapples, jicacos (cocoplum), quenepas (mamoncillo), lerenes (Guinea arrowroot), calabazas (tropical pumpkins), and guanabanas (soursops) are all Taíno foods. The Taínos also grew varieties of beans and some maíz (corn/maize), but maíz was not as dominant in their cooking as it was for the peoples living on the mainland of Mesoamerica. This is due to the frequent hurricanes that Puerto Rico experiences, which destroy crops of maíz, leaving more safeguarded plants like conucos (hills of yuca grown together).

Spanish / European influence is also seen in Puerto Rican cuisine. Wheat, chickpeas (garbanzos), capers, olives, olive oil, black pepper, onions, garlic, cilantrillo (cilantro), oregano, basil, sugarcane, citrus fruit, eggplant, ham, lard, chicken, beef, pork, and cheese all came to Borikén (Puerto Rico's native Taino name) from Spain. The tradition of cooking complex stews and rice dishes in pots such as rice and beans are also thought to be originally European (much like Italians, Spaniards, and the British). Early Dutch, French, Italian, and Chinese immigrants influenced not only the culture but Puerto Rican cooking as well. This great variety of traditions came together to form La Cocina Criolla.

Coconuts, coffee (brought by the Arabs and Corsos to Yauco from Kafa, Ethiopia), okra, yams, sesame seeds, gandules (pigeon peas in English) sweet bananas, plantains, other root vegetables and Guinea hen, all come to Puerto Rico from Africa.

Music:
The music of Puerto Rico has evolved as a heterogeneous and dynamic product of diverse cultural resources. The most conspicuous musical sources have been Spain and West Africa, although many aspects of Puerto Rican music reflect origins elsewhere in Europe and the Caribbean and, over the last century, from the U.S.A. Puerto Rican music culture today comprises a wide and rich variety of genres, ranging from indigenous genres like bomba y plena, aguinaldo and danza, to recent hybrids like reggaeton.

In the realm of classical music, the island hosts two main orchestras, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Puerto Rico and the Orquesta Filarmónica de Puerto Rico. The Casals Festival takes place annually in San Juan, drawing in classical musicians from around the world.

With respect to opera, the legendary Puerto Rican tenor Antonio Paoli was so celebrated, that he performed private recitals for Pope Pius X and the Czar of Russia Nicholas II. In 1907, Paoli was the first operatic artist in world history to record an entire opera - when he participated in a performance of Pagliacci by Ruggiero Leoncavallo in Milan, Italy.

Over the past fifty years, Puerto Rican artists such as Jorge Emmanuelli, Yomo Toro, Ramito, Jose Feliciano, Bobby Capo, Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Ray Barreto, Dave Valentin, Omar Rodríguez-López, Hector Lavoe and Marc Anthony have thrilled audiences around the world.

Ethnic Racial Composition:
* 70.5% White (some have admixture with African and Indigenous blood)
* 20.9% Mulatto (some tri-Racials)
* 8.0% Black
* 0.6% Others

Population genetics - A recent genetic DNA study conducted in Puerto Rico suggests that between 52.6% and 84% of the population possess some degree of Amerindian mtDNA in their maternal ancestry, usually in a combination with other ancestries. In addition, these DNA studies show Amerindian ancestry in addition to the Taíno.

One genetic study on the racial makeup of Puerto Ricans found them to be roughly around 61% West Eurasian (overwhelmingly of Spanish provenance), 27% Sub-Saharan African and 11% Native American.[207] Another genetic study from 2007, claimed that "the average genomewide individual (ie. Puerto Rican) ancestry proportions have been estimated as 66%, 18%, and 16%, for European, West African, and Native American, respectively."[208] Other study estimates 63.7% European, 21.2% (Sub-Saharan) African, and 15.2% Native American; European ancestry is more prevalent in the West and in Central Puerto Rico, African in Eastern Puerto Rico, and Native American in Northern Puerto Rico.[209]

And according to DNA Tribes SNP Admixture Results by Population 2013, Puerto Ricans are 72.2% West Eurasian (49% European, 18.3% Saharan-Arabian, 4.9% West Asian), 12.7% Native American, 12.5% Sub-Saharan African, and 1.4% Northeast African.

Languages:
English and Spanish is the official languages of Puerto Rico. The Spanish accent of Puerto Ricans is largely of Andaluzian and Canarian Spanish origin with some words and vocabularies of Carib-Taino-Arawakan and West African origin. All Puerto Ricans today either speak English or know some sort of English. English is spoken with a Spanish accent from heavy to none.

Religion:
The Roman Catholic Church was brought by Spanish colonists and gradually became the dominant religion in Puerto Rico. The first dioceses in the Americas, including that of Puerto Rico, were authorized by Pope Julius II in 1511.[230] One Pope, John Paul II, visited Puerto Rico in October 1984. All municipalities in Puerto Rico have at least one Catholic church, most of which are located at the town center or "plaza". African slaves brought and maintained various ethnic African religious practices associated with different peoples; in particular, the Yoruba beliefs of Santería and/or Ifá, and the Kongo-derived Palo Mayombe. Some aspects were absorbed into syncretic Christianity.

Protestantism, which was suppressed under the Spanish Catholic regime, has slightly reemerged under United States rule, making modern Puerto Rico more interconfessional although Catholicism continues to be the dominant religion. The first Protestant church, Holy Trinity Church in Ponce, was established by the Anglican diocese of Antigua in 1872.[231] German settlers in Ponce founded the Iglesia Santísima Trinidad, an Anglican Church, the first non-Roman Catholic Church in the entire Spanish Empire in the Americas.[232][233]

Growth has occurred among Pentecostals. Estimates of the Protestant population vary greatly. Pollster Pablo Ramos reported in 1998 that the population was 38% Catholic, 28% Pentecostals, 4% Baptist, and 18% members of independent churches; Protestants collectively numbered almost two million of an island population of 3.6 million. "The conclusion is that Puerto Rico is no longer predominantly Catholic." (The San Juan Star, April 12, 1998: "Study reflects growing numbers of churchgoers").

Another researcher gave a more conservative assessment of the proportion of Protestants:

Puerto Rico, by virtue of its long political association with the United States, is the most Protestant of Latin American countries, with a Protestant population of approximately 33 to 38 percent, the majority of whom are Pentecostal. David Stoll calculates that if we extrapolate the growth rates of evangelical churches from 1960-1985 for another twenty-five years Puerto Rico will become 75 percent evangelical. (Ana Adams: "Brincando el Charco..." in Power, Politics and Pentecostals in Latin America, Edward Cleary, ed., 1997. p. 164).[234]

An Eastern Orthodox community, the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos / St. Spyridon's Church is located in Trujillo Alto, and serves the small Orthodox community. The congregation represents Greeks, Russians, Serbians, Bulgarians, Americans, Moldavians, and Puerto Ricans.[235]

In 1940, Juanita García Peraza founded the Mita Congregation, the first religion of Puerto Rican origin.[236] Taíno religious practices have been rediscovered/reinvented to a degree by a handful of advocates. Similarly, some aspects of African religious traditions have been kept by some adherents.

In 1952, a handful of American Jews established the island's first synagogue in the former residence of William Korber, a wealthy Puerto Rican of Jewish German descent. It was designed and built by the Czech architect Antonin Nechodoma.[237][238] The synagogue, called Sha'are Zedeck, hired its first rabbi in 1954.[239] Puerto Rico has the largest Jewish community in the Caribbean, numbering 3,000, and is the only Caribbean island in which the Conservative, Reform and Orthodox Jewish movements all are represented.

In 2007, there were about 5,000 Muslims in Puerto Rico, representing about 0.13% of the population. Eight mosques are located throughout the island, with most Muslims living in Río Piedras.

In 2011, the 26,546 Jehovah's Witnesses represented about 0.72% of the population, with 329 congregations.

The Padmasambhava Buddhist Center, whose followers practice Tibetan Buddhism, has a branch in Puerto Rico.

Sports:
Baseball was one of the first sports to gain widespread popularity in Puerto Rico. The Puerto Rico Baseball League serves as the only active professional league, operating as a winter league. No Major League Baseball franchise or affiliate plays in Puerto Rico, however, San Juan hosted the Montreal Expos for several series in 2003 and 2004 before they moved to Washington, D.C. and became the Washington Nationals.

The Puerto Rico national baseball team has participated in the World Cup of Baseball winning one gold (1951), four silver and four bronze medals, the Caribbean Series (winning fourteen times) and the World Baseball Classic. On March 2006, San Juan's Hiram Bithorn Stadium hosted the opening round as well as the second round of the newly formed World Baseball Classic. Famous Puerto Rican baseball players include Hall of Famers Roberto Clemente, Orlando Cepeda and Roberto Alomar, enshrined in 1973, 1999, and 2011 respectively.[273][274][275]

Boxing, basketball, and volleyball are considered popular sports as well. Wilfredo Gómez and McWilliams Arroyo have won their respective divisions at the World Amateur Boxing Championships. Other medalists include José Pedraza, who holds a silver medal, and three boxers who finished in third place, José Luis Vellón, Nelson Dieppa and McJoe Arroyo. In the professional circuit, Puerto Rico has the third-most boxing world champions and it is the global leader in champions per capita. These include Miguel Cotto, Félix Trinidad, Wilfred Benítez and Gómez among others.

The Puerto Rico national basketball team joined the International Basketball Federation in 1957. Since then, it has won more than 30 medals in international competitions, including gold in three FIBA Americas Championships and the 1994 Goodwill Games. August 8, 2004, became a landmark date for the team when it became the first team to defeat the United States in an Olympic tournament since the integration of National Basketball Association players. Winning the inaugural game with scores of 92–73 as part of the 2004 Summer Olympics organized in Athens, Greece.[276] Baloncesto Superior Nacional acts as the top-level professional basketball league in Puerto Rico, and has experienced success since its beginning in 1930.

The Puerto Rico Islanders Football Club, founded in 2003, plays in the NASL, which constitutes the second tier of football in North America. Puerto Rico is also a member of FIFA and CONCACAF. In 2008, the archipelago's first unified league, the Puerto Rico Soccer League, was established.

Other sports include professional wrestling, road running and basketball. The World Wrestling Council and International Wrestling Association are the largest wrestling promotions in the main island. The World's Best 10K, held annually in San Juan, has been ranked among the 20 most competitive races globally. The "Puerto Rico All Stars" team, which has won twelve world championships in unicycle basketball.[277]

Organized Streetball has gathered some exposition, with teams like "Puerto Rico Street Ball" competing against established organizations including the Capitanes de Arecibo and AND1's Mixtape Tour Team. Six years after the first visit, AND1 returned as part of their renamed Live Tour, losing to the Puerto Rico Streetballers.[278] Consequently, practitioners of this style have earned participation in international teams, including Orlando "El Gato" Meléndez, who became the first Puerto Rican born athlete to play for the Harlem Globetrotters.[279] Orlando Antigua, whose mother is Puerto Rican, in 1995 became the first Hispanic and the first non-black in 52 years to play for the Harlem Globetrotters.[280]

Puerto Rico has representation in all international competitions including the Summer and Winter Olympics, the Pan American Games, the Caribbean World Series, and the Central American and Caribbean Games. Puerto Rican athletes have won seven medals (two silver, five bronze) in Olympic competition, the first one in 1948 by boxer Juan Evangelista Venegas. The Central American and Caribbean Games were held in 1993 in Ponce and in 2010 in Mayagüez.

Puerto Rican videos