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It seems puerto ricans accept their black blood the most out of the countries with latinos. Do you think Im correct in my assesment of the latin countries. Why is that then when it comes to hispanics? In the early year's of the world their were alot of blacks in puerto rico. But also panama, colombia, mexico, brazil, cuba, venezeula dominican, and other parts of south america. What makes puerto ricans so diffrent?
What have you seen that makes you think that? As an American, I wouldn't even assert that blacks in Mississippi are proud of their heritage more than blacks of Harlem, or vice versa. How can you measure that? I'm not disputing your view, just wondering how you arrived at it?
Um, your premise is wrong all the way down to demographics. Most Puerto Ricans are mestizo (essentially the genetic cross mixing of white european and the native indigenous population of the island around 1490), so that blows out of the water your contention that at any point in PRs 500 year history (mostly written under Spain's history books) there were a majority African slave population.
More importantly, this majority mestizo population, when asked point blank about their racial identity, overwhelmingly assert that they are "white", literally. So that's strike two for your hypothesis. Wiki Puerto Rico and read up on the demographics data points about race in the island and you'll get a better understanding of what Puerto Ricans consider themselves racially.
I believe you've unfortunately come across too many Newyoricans. That is to say, second to 4th generation individuals from Puerto Rican heritage who did not grow up in the island, who are native to the urban to suburban areas of NYC and New Jersey (and Chicago and Boston and Philly and Western MA.....), whose parents emigrated to the states during the 50s and 60s and found nothing on the way of gainful employment and quickly assimilated to the cultural identity of urban blacks in said cities. 3 generations later their cultural identity intermingled with the american black experience to such an extent to make it APPEAR to the uneducated (on the topic) mainland american that "puerto ricans embrace their 'blackhood' more than other hispanics???¿¿¿" ....Yeah that pretty much explains your confusion.
Make no mistake about it, puerto ricans are as euro-centric in their racial identity as Venezuelans, Cubans, Brazilians, and even mainland americans. As such, they value white on a generally higher strata than being black and in general identify themselves as white even among those who are mestizo. I'm first generation Puerto Rican (i.e. born raised and graduated high school in the island with parents still residing there) and I burn like an irish man when I go to the beach (I even sport the freckles on the shoulders....). I'm not considered white in the conventional definition up in the states because I have a hispanic last name and I'm bilingual. But nobody would seriously consider me "black" up here by any stretch, and certainly not considered anything but white down in the island. So talk to Puerto Ricans from the island and see what you get, you'd be surprised how quickly your question becomes moot.
This is a question that has plagued me since I was a young teen when I first moved to PR. Although my mother was born and raised there, I was not considered PRican by my peers because my mother was the child of Spaniards, and I was not born in PR. This caused me great consternation because I had grown up with tales of wonderful PR and Sunday evening walks around the plaza, etc. Perhaps, it was my age, but I chose to reject PR as I had been rejected.
Years later at a large midwestern university, I was asked to participate in the formation of a PuertoRican student association. I had grown some and was pleased with the idea. However, when it came to who the members should be . . . even though I would have been a founding member, I could not have full membership because of my circumstances, neither could a number of people who either grew up in PR or just loved it. Rejected once again, I realized that many PRicans don't know who they are--they just know who isn't. Forgive me I'm still bitter.
As to the question of race. My anecdotal knowledge and my visual perceptions lead me to believe that on the island of Puerto Rico, the great majority of the people are white with some pure black and some mestizos.
If you are using the definition of mestizo as a mixture of Spaniard and indigenous, there are few true mestizos in PR. There are a lot of mulattoes there (Spaniard, indigenous and African) however. The island is largely Spanish and largely mulatto, with some more or less pure blacks (people like me whose heritage is mostly African) in Loiza, Carolina and other parts.
It's weird, because the Puerto Ricans I know personally "in my life" must be straight up white Spaniard descent with very little or no "mixing."
But yeah, Dominicans and Puerto Ricans are pretty much encapsulate the "blatino" label.
Lots of blatino Cubans, Panamanians and Colombians too. I know some blatino Nicaraguans, Ecuadorians, Guatemalans (mostly in a town called Livingston) and Peruvians as well.
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PuertoRican Identity
