Puerto Ricans

Puerto Ricans have a diverse ethnic heritage, that includes ancestry from the Taino people of the island, Spaniards, and Africans primarily from West Africa. Most Puerto Ricans speak Spanish at home (in 2010, 95 percent of those on the island did so as well as 65 percent in the 50 states) and identify as Hispanic or Latino. Although most Puerto Ricans are Roman Catholic, some also celebrate Santería, which survived from Yoruba beliefs in Nigeria. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, but island residents do not pay federal taxes or have a voting representative in Congress; they also cannot vote for the U.S. president.

Despite Puerto Ricans’ diverse backgrounds and migration throughout the United States, they have retained a sense of community and identity fueled by their history, continued use of the Spanish language and its dominance on the island, and ease of back-and-forth travel from the island to the 50 states.

The Spaniards first claimed the island for Spain in 1493. By 1511, the Taino population had declined so dramatically—from diseases and hard labor—that Spaniards then turned to enslaved people from West Africa to provide their new workforce. Puerto Ricans remained under Spanish control until 1897, when the Spaniards granted them greater autonomy; the following year, they chose their first elected officials, who served a few months until the Americans invaded the island in July 1898 at the close of the Spanish-American War.

In December 1898, Spain gave the United States the island of Puerto Rico as part of the Treaty of Paris, which formally ended the war. No Puerto Ricans participated in the proceedings, and Puerto Rico remained under U.S. military occupation, with its status uncertain, until the Foraker Act of 1900 established a civil government under the control of the United States. The following year, English became the dominant language in the school system. As with other U.S. territories, the American president appointed the territory's governor and justices, but it was not clear whether the U.S. Constitution would apply to island residents and whether or not the island was a territory similar to the continental ones.

In 1901, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Downes v. Bidwell that the islands of Puerto Rico and Guam were unincorporated territories and not on the path to statehood like previous ones. Puerto Ricans received the status of “nationals” rather than citizenship. Later decisions clarified that Puerto Ricans had the right to migrate freely to the United States but did not have voting rights or control over the government of their island; thus, they were neither foreigners nor citizens.