Puerto Rico 2.

**~~Dominicanese~~** · 10-29-2016, 11:51 PM

Puerto Rico 2.

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, Asian especially Japanese and Chinese,Hawaiian, and other influences.

Cuisine:
Puerto Rican Cuisine has its root in the cooking traditions and practices of Europe (mostly Spain), Africa and the native Taínos. Starting from the latter part of the 19th century, the cuisine of Puerto Rico has been greatly influenced by the United States in the ingredients used in its preparation. Puerto Rican cuisine has transcended the boundaries of the island and also has a lot of Asian influence especially Japanese and Chinese, and can be found in several other countries.

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.

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, in the last century, the USA. Puerto Rican music culture today comprises a wide and rich variety of genres, ranging from essentially indigenous genres like bomba to recent hybrids like reggaeton. Broadly conceived, the realm of "Puerto Rican music" should naturally comprise the music culture of the millions of people of Puerto Rican descent who have lived in the mainland USA (and Hawaii), and especially in New York City. Their music, from salsa to the boleros of Rafael Hernández, cannot be separated from music culture of Puerto Rico itself. Nevertheless, this entry will emphasize music culture as it has flourished on the island; readers should naturally consult other entries for genres like salsa (most commonly thought of).

Jibaros are small farmers of primarily Hispanic descent—constituted the overwhelming majority of the Puerto Rican population until the mid-twentieth century[citation needed]. They are traditionally recognized as romantic icons of land cultivation, hard work and self-sufficiency, hospitality, and love of song and dance. Their instruments were relatives of the Spanish vihuela, especially the cuatro—which evolved from four single strings to five pairs—and the lesser known tiple. A typical jíbaro group nowadays might feature a cuatro, guitar, and percussion instrument such as the güiro scraper and/or bongo. Lyrics to jíbaro music are generally in the décima form, consisting of ten octosyllabic lines in the rhyme scheme abba, accddc. Décima form derives from 16th-century Spain. Although it has largely died out in that country (except the Canaries), it took root in various places in Latin America—especially Cuba and Puerto Rico—where it is sung in diverse styles. A sung décima might be pre-composed, derived from a publication by some literati, or ideally, improvised on the spot, especially in the form of a “controversia” in which two singer-poets trade witty insults or argue on some topic. In between the décimas, lively improvisations can be played on the cuatro. This music form is also known as "Tipica" as well as "Tropica".

Ethnic Racial Composition:
* 70.5% White (many have some African & Native ancestry to some degree)
* 20.9% Mulatto
* 8.0% Black
* 0.6% Others

People:
The culture held in common by most Puerto Ricans is referred to as mainstream Puerto Rican culture, a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of Spain, and more specifically Andalusia and the Canary Islands. Over 90% of Puerto Ricans descend from migrants from these two southern regions of Spain. Puerto Rico has also been influenced by African culture, Afro-Puerto Ricans being a significant minority. Puerto Rico has also received immigration from other parts of Spain such as Catalonia as well as from other European countries such as France, Ireland, Italy and Germany. Recent studies in population genetics have concluded that Puerto Rican gene pool is on average predominantly European, with a significant Sub-Saharan African, Guanche and Indigenous American substrate, the latter two originating in the aboriginal people of the Canary Islands and Puerto Rico's pre-Hispanic Taíno inhabitants, respectively.

European Puerto Ricans - Are Puerto Ricans who descend from people who came over from Europe, mainly from the Iberian peninsula. After the discovery and conquer of Puerto Rico in 1492-1508, thousands of Spaniards came over to Puerto Rico, especially in the 19th century when many Canarians came over. The vast majority of White Puerto Ricans came came over from Andaluzia and The Canary Islands which constitutes more than 90% of Puerto Ricans in general. White Puerto Ricans makeup around three fourths of the population or about 70-75%, with about 25% being pure White. The Canary Islands are the main the bulk of the Puerto Rican culture due to the mass migration that Puert Rico recieved from there especially during the 19th century.

African Puerto Ricans - Are Puerto Ricans who descend from the continent of Africa. African slaves were brought over to Puerto Rico from the early 1500s to 1870s and were forced to work in labor in sugar cane mills, house keepers, miners, farmers, fishermen, and as maids. Although more than 31 African tribes from all over West Africa were taken to Puerto Rico, the Senegambians, Liberians, Nigerians, Congolese, and Angolans happen to be the most dominant and most influential, which consisted of Wolof, Vai, Mande, Yorubas, Ibos, and Bantu tribes. Black Puerto Ricans makeup nearly 10% of the population with less than 2% being Pure Black or Near it. An additional 20% of Puerto Ricans are Mulattoes, together with Black they constitute around 30% of the Puerto Rican population.

Pure Native Puerto Ricans are non-existent, however a great many of Puerto Ricans have sagnificant Taino-Arawakan, and Carib ancestry to the point where it is shown still to this day in many Puerto Ricans facial and body morphology. Other more recent migrants such as Asians and Arabs can also contribute to the modern Puerto Rican population.

Languages:
English & Spanish are the two official languages of Puerto Rico. The Puerto Rican accent of Spanish derives largely from the Spanish spoken in SouthWestern Spain (Andaluzia) and The Canary Islands, with some minor influences from Catalan & Gallego. Many words of Arawakan and African origin are also heard in daily conversations and names for objects or food. English is spoken by virtually all Puerto Ricans whether it is fluent or not.

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. 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 contemporary Puerto Rico more interconfessional than in previous centuries, although Catholicism continues to be the dominant religion. The first Protestant church, Iglesia de la Santísima Trinidad, was established in Ponce by the Anglican diocese of Antigua in 1872. It was the first non-Roman Catholic Church in the entire Spanish Empire in the Americas.

Sports:
Sports in Puerto Rico can be traced from the ceremonial competitions amongst the pre-Columbian Native Americans of the Arawak (Taíno) tribes which inhabited the island to the modern era in which sports activities consist of an organized physical activity or skill carried out with a recreational purpose for competition. One of the sports which the Taíno's played was a ball game called "Batey". The "Batey" was played in "U" shaped fields two teams, however unlike the ball games of the modern era, the winners were treated like heroes and the losers were sacrificed.

The Spanish Conquistadores who conquered the island introduced various sports such as horse racing, cockfighting, dominoes and a game similar to "Bowling" called "Boliche". The Spaniards however did not participate in team sports.

Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the United States as a result of their defeat in the 1898 Spanish–American War. American soldiers who organized games as part of their training introduced the sport of Boxing and Basketball to the people of Puerto Rico, however the sport of Baseball which was invented in the United States was introduced to the island by a group of Puerto Ricans and Cubans who learned the sport in the United States.

Puerto Rico participates in the Olympics as an independent nation even though it is a territory of the United States. Puerto Rico has participated as such since the 1948 Summer Olympics celebrated in London. On March 2, 1917, Puerto Ricans became citizens of the United States as a result of the enactment of the Jones–Shafroth Act (Pub.L. 64–368, 39 Stat. 951. Therefore, the Puerto Ricans who resided in the United States mainland are permitted to participate and represent that country in international sports events and their achievements are part of the history of the sports in Puerto Rico.

The following is the list and history of the most common sports practiced in Puerto Rico and of Puerto Ricans or people of Puerto Rican descent who have excelled in those sports locally and/or in international events as representatives of Puerto Rico or any other country.

Puerto Rican videos