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Portal:Puerto Rico

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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 around 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 40th 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...)

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The 1868 Lares revolutionary flag was used during the 1868 rebellion against Spain, later known as the Grito de Lares. It was knitted by Mariana Bracetti.

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The Rafael Cordero Santiago Port of the AmericasSpanish: Puerto de las Américas Rafael Cordero Santiago (PLA)— is a megaport currently under construction in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The project aims to convert the current Port of Ponce into a value-added tax-free customs-free international shipping hub similar to, though not as large as, the megaports located in Singapore and Rotterdam. The Port of the Americas is Puerto Rico's main Caribbean port, and, at a depth of 50 feet, it is also the deepest port in the Caribbean.

The port was originally overseen by the Port of the Americas Authority (Spanish: Autoridad del Puerto de las Américas) a defunct government-owned corporation of Puerto Rico. As of December 2012, it was overseen by the newly created Autoridad del Puerto de Ponce. The Authority reported that when completed, the new port will have a storage capacity of 2.2 Million TEUs. The Authority also reported that the port handled an estimated 504,044 short tons of cargo in 2007, and projected it to handle over 1.5 million in 2012. (Full article...)

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Alejandro Tapia y Rivera

Alejandro Tapia y Rivera (November 12, 1826 – July 19, 1882) was a Puerto Rican poet, playwright, essayist and writer. Tapia is considered to be the father of Puerto Rican literature and as the person who has contributed the most to the cultural advancement of Puerto Rico's literature. In addition to his writing, he was also an abolitionist and a women's rights advocate. (Full article...)

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Sports topics
[Monica Puig
  • ... that José Juan Barea made history, by becoming the first Puerto Rican to play in the "Finals" for a winning NBA Championship team, when the Dallas Mavericks were crowned the 2011 NBA Finals Champions?
  • ... that in 1942, Hirám Bithorn became the first Puerto Rican to play in the major leagues?
  • ... that in 1980 Alberto Mercado was the only Puerto Rican ("American" citizen) to actually participate in the Moscow Olympics?
  • ... that Herbert Lewis Hardwick a.k.a. "Cocoa Kid" was the only Puerto Rican member of boxings "Black Murderers' Row" and that he was the only Hispanic to win the World Colored Championships in both the welterweight and middleweight divisions? On June 10, 2012 Hardwick was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame[1]
  • ... that Leon Day, a pitcher in the Negro Leagues who played for "Los Tiburones de Aguadilla" (the "Aguadilla Sharks") loved Puerto Rico so much that when he was inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame in 1995 he was enshrined with a cap on his plaque that depicts him as an "Aguadilla Shark"? He is the only Hall of Famer to be enshrined with a cap of a team outside the mainland United States.[2]
  • ... that Orlando Fernández, a.k.a. "The Puerto Rican Aquaman" is the first Puerto Rican swimmer to cross the Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco?[3][4]
  • ... that the first time that a Puerto Rican Ski Team was sent to represent the island in an Olympic Winter ski competition was the 1988 Winter Olympics, officially known as the "XV Olympic Winter Games", celebrated in Calgary, Alberta, Canada?[5]
  • ... that Mary Pat Wilson, who participated in the 1988 Olympics Games, is Puerto Rico's first and only female Olympic skier?[5]
  • ... that On August 13, 2016, Monica Puig won Puerto Rico's first Gold Medal in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, exactly 68 years to the day when Juan Evangelista Venegas won the first Olympic Medal (Bronze) for Puerto Rico in the 1948 Olympics celebrated in London, United Kingdom?
  • ... that On October 28, 2018, Alex Cora, became the first Puerto Rican to manage a World Series winning team when the Boston Red Sox defeated the LA Dodgers?[6]

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