LA ISLA MAS BLANCA DEL CARIBE

[MILENA]

White Puerto Ricans of European, mostly Spanish descent, are said to comprise the majority with 75.8% of the population identifying as white. In the year 1899, one year after the U.S invaded and took control of the island, 61.8% of people identified as White. For the first time in fifty years, the 2000 United States Census asked people to define their race. One hundred years later, the total has risen to 80.5% (3,064,862), less than one percent more than reported in 1950.

From the beginning of the twentieth century American observers remarked on the "surprising preponderance of the white race" on the island. One travel writer called Puerto Rico "the whitest of the Antilles". In a widely distributed piece, a geologist, wrote that the island was "notable among the West Indian group for the reason that its preponderant population is of the white race." In a more academic book he reiterated that "Porto Rico, at least, has not become Africanized.

During the 19th century, hundreds of Corsican, French, Middle Eastern, and Portuguese families, along with large numbers of immigrants from Spain (mainly from Catalonia, Asturias, Galicia, the Balearic Islands, Andalusia, and the Canary Islands) and numerous Spanish loyalists from Spain's former colonies in South America, arrived in Puerto Rico. Other settlers have included Irish, Scots, Germans, Italians, and thousands of others who were granted land from Spain during the Real Cedula de Gracias de 1815 (Royal Decree of Graces of 1815), which allowed European Catholics to settle in the island with a certain amount of free land. After the United States took possession of Puerto Rico after the Spanish-American War, an influx of Jews and White Americans began settling in Puerto Rico, continuing to the present day. Spanish refugees arrived in Puerto Rico during Francisco Franco’s rule in Spain.

Editado Octubre 14, 2011 por MILENA