Puerto Rican Americans

Puerto Rican Americans are the second-largest Hispanic group in the United States (following Mexican Americans); they constitute approximately 10% of the Hispanic population and 1% of the total population in the United States. In a legal sense, Puerto Ricans in the United States are migrants, American citizens coming from a U.S. territory. However, their experiences in the mainland resemble those of immigrant groups, because they come from a Hispanic sociocultural tradition and speak Spanish as their primary language. Because Puerto Ricans move frequently from the island to the mainland and back, to understand the mental health issues among Puerto Rican Americans it is necessary to be familiar with their experiences both in the island and on the mainland United States.