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Puerto Rico is a country, its simply not independent yet.
Colloquially in Spanish many people call Puerto Rico a country but the official terminology is "Estado Libre Asociado" and in English "the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico".
"We, the people of Puerto Rico, in order to organize ourselves politically on a fully democratic basis, to promote the general welfare, and to secure for ourselves and our posterity the complete enjoyment of human rights, placing our trust in Almighty God, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the commonwealth which, in the exercise of our natural rights, we now create within our union with the United States of America."
Last edited by Sugah Ray; 07-14-2014 at 07:59 AM..
"The IOC allowed the formation of National Olympic Committees representing nations that did not meet the strict requirements for political sovereignty that other international organizations demand. As a result, colonies and dependencies are permitted to compete at Olympic Games. Examples of this include territories such as Puerto Rico, Bermuda, and Hong Kong, all of which compete as separate nations despite being legally a part of another country.[59] The current version of the Charter allows for the establishment of new National Olympic Committees to represent nation which qualify as "an independent State recognized by the international community".[60] Therefore, it did not allow the formation of National Olympic Committees for Sint Maarten and Curaçao when they gained the same constitutional status as Aruba in 2010, although the IOC had recognized the Aruban Olympic Committee in 1986.[61][62]"
Even the Puerto Ricans themselves refer to their island as a country. As an example of this, listen to this typical Puerto Rican news where they mention, in this case, the effects of the economic crisis in Puerto Rico. When they say "en el pais" they are saying "in the country" as in the country of Puerto Rico. I don't know how good is your Spanish, but just keep your ears open for the "en el pais" term. It appears quite early in the video.
Here is a Puerto Rican political commercial. Notice how often she says "pais" for Puerto Rico, she even says that she wants to do something for her country. When she says "mi pais" or my country, she's not referring to the USA at all.
This other Puerto Rican titles her video "This is Puerto Rico. My country."
In this last video I will use as an example, the guy wrote in the description:
"My country Puerto Rico try to play the Dream Team USA in Tournament of Americas 1992."
Only in City-Data is reality ever debatable. We're just going in circles here and repeating the same things in different words. If you want to believe it's a country. I can't stop you.
Why are some of you saying Belize is latinamerican because of its racial composition? Following that, America and Canada are latinamerican too.
@AntonioR
That doesn't make sense. Now we can call anything we want and that'll make it true?
Puerto Rico is not a country!
Thank you! By that definition, each and every state in the US is it's own country as each occupies it's own land, has it's own government which is even more sovereign than Pureto Rico's at this point and each has it's own constitution and freedom to make laws independent of the federal government. And California's flag even says, "California Republic". Damn, all this time I didn't know we were a country because I missed this all important definition. Silly me.
The United Nations defines GRULAC as the Latin American and Caribbean Group It excludes dependencies of the European countries, but makes no effort to distinguish the historical basis of the independent countries. Member states of the Latin American and Caribbean Group, as of 2010:
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
El Salvador
Grenada
Guatemala
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
Jamaica
Mexico
Nicaragua
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Suriname
Trinidad and Tobago
Uruguay
Venezuela
So even organizations like the United Nations treat Belize and Surinam as Latin American countries.
BTW: Trivia question. What did the dutch trade for Suriname? Can you guess without using wikipedia?
Spoiler
New York
The operative words are "AND THE CARIBBEAN". The latter being seen as distinct from the former, and designed to include the non Hispanic Caribbean nations.
Suriname is not "Latin" unless you claim that the Netherlands is, as their European heritage is Dutch, and to a minimal degree English, this in addition to its very vibrant influences from Africa, India, Indonesia, the Middle East, and China.
Belize is both Latin and non Latin. People can raise either argument.
We don't care what the United Nations thinks about Puerto Rico ... for what it's worth that "resolution" was pushed by Cuba, Iran, Syria, Venezuela, China, and Zimbabwe. In other words, it's a joke.
Over 90% of Puerto Ricans support permanent union with the United States ... they just differ over whether that relationship should be as a state of the Union or through retaining the current territorial status quo.
In the US, every state of the Union is a sovereign nation that shares it's sovereignty with the other states of the Union with certain powers relegated to the Federal government. Since 1952 Puerto Rico has exercised the same level of sovereignty as the states of the Union through an Act of Congress but lacks the corresponding presidential vote and voting reprensetation in Congress ... which is the reason for the existance of the statehood movement and the proposals to "improve"/"develop"/"enhance" the status quo but without giving up the Federal income tax exemption which many supporters of the status quo believe is essential to the island economy. New York is a country, but it is not a nation. Likewise Puerto Rico is a country but it is not a nation.
BTW: due to the evolution of Federal laws and policies Puerto Rico is actually a de-facto incorporated territory.
BTW #2: the "reclaiming our country" in that video has nothing to do with separation but rather a rejection of the policies of the previous governor Luis Fortuno who upset many lazy people by cracking down on lazy union workers and unnecessary government workers. I mean *gasp* heaven forbid their be accountability!
BTW #3: the Spanish language version of the New Mexico State Song refers several times to New Mexico as "mi pais". Pais is better translated as homeland rather then as country.
Why are some of you saying Belize is latinamerican because of its racial composition? Following that, America and Canada are latinamerican too.
I didn't said Belize is Latin American because of its racial composition, I said its Latin American due to cultural/demographic reasons. Most of the people in Belize speak Spanish as their mother tongue and last time I checked, Spanish is a Latin language.
The Belize of today is not the black English-speaking country of when it became independent. It has been flooded with Latinos from neighboring countries, and in Guatemala there is a growing movement asking for the annexation of Belize because they claim that land was originally theirs and Britain stole it from them. The fact that Belize is flooded with Guatemalans is a plus for the people in favor of annexation.
Spanish speakers in the USA and Canada are minorities. If things continue as they have been, the USA will become a Latin American country because Latinos impose Spanish as the language of choice where ever Latinos make up a significant population. If Latinos ever become more than 50% of the US population, you can rest assure that Spanish will replace English as the language of choice. Its already happening in areas of the USA that are filled with Latinos, where native English-speakers are the one's that feel out of place.
Thank you! By that definition, each and every state in the US is it's own country as each occupies it's own land, has it's own government which is even more sovereign than Pureto Rico's at this point and each has it's own constitution and freedom to make laws independent of the federal government. And California's flag even says, "California Republic". Damn, all this time I didn't know we were a country because I missed this all important definition. Silly me.
I would love to see a Californian Pride Parade or maybe a Marylander Pride Parade somewhere in the USA.
In the mean time, enjoy the Puerto Rican Day Parade in NYC:
Look at the love they have for the flag of their country and the identity of their nation.
See now you are just making stuff up. The United Nations is very explicit as to what it means by Caribbean. “Standard country or area codes for statistical use” (ST/ESA/STAT/SER.M/49/Rev.3)
Caribbean
Bahamas
Barbados
Cuba
Dominican Republic
Grenada
Haiti
Jamaica
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Trinidad and Tobago
Anguilla*
Antigua and Barbuda*
British Virgin Islands*
Cayman Islands*
Dominica*
Montserrat*
Saint Kitts and Nevis*
Turks and Caicos Islands*
Aruba
Netherlands Antilles
Guadeloupe
Martinique
Puerto Rico
United States Virgin Islands
I was not aware that the UN uses the terms Latin America and Caribbean in a geographic sense and not in the typical cultural sense. This is obvious because it simply doesn't makes cultural sense to include a country like Suriname as 'Latin American' but not Cuba or to exclude Suriname from the traditional non-Latin based Caribbean term but include Haiti.
Usually Latin America is a term that includes the Spanish/Portuguese/French speaking countries including the one's in the Caribbean but excluding the rest of the islands, and Caribbean is reserved for the non-Latin independent countries of the Caribbean excluding Cuba, Haiti, and Dominican Republic.
The UN's definition has nothing to do with the topic of this thread because this thread is about culture and, as such, the typical cultural definition of Latin America is the one that we should be using here.
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