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By "Anglo-Puerto-Rican," I mean native, born-and-raised Puerto Ricans -- not transplants from the States -- who speak English as their first (and possibly only) language. People with a similar status to Quebec's native Anglophones or German-speaking Mexicans.
I know PR has been a U.S. territory for 100 years and English is an official language. However, I've never met a (native) Puerto Rican who spoke English natively. Spanish. Given the island's political status, it would make sense for there to be an Anglo-Puerto-Rican community, but does one really exist?
By "Puerto Rican," I meant people born in Puerto Rico of any ethnicity -- white, black, Asian, whatever. I wasn't referring to ethnic Puerto Ricans, who would be Latino and speak Spanish obviously.
So there isn't an established native-born Anglo-American (not "Puerto Rican" in the ethnic sense) community in PR?
While there are large numbers of transplants, some of whom live there full time, I don't think there are very many ethnic Anglo-Puerto Ricans. Unlike many of the European colonial powers the US has never really encouraged Anglo-Americans to settle in it's colonies.
Sure, my 23, 21 and 13 year-old daughters. They were born in Ponce, PR and lived their until 5 years ago. Now they live in Texas, South Carolina and Georgia, respectively. Their everyday language is fluent English. The old stereotype of the backwoods 'jibarito' talking in halting pidgin English with his head tucked in like a turtle is fast fading, yuppies from Puerto Rico are coming to the 'states in droves with bilingual skills on company tranfers or to work careers or trades and settle down. The welfare bunnies do better if they stay in PR nowadays.
I have a friend over here whose grandmother was born and raised on the island and all of their subsequent decendants have stayed. They are white as milk and all of their names are as Anglo Americana as you can possibly imagine, but if you hear them speak Spanish with your eyes closed you wouldn't have a clue. It's a trip.
Also, we were discussing in class (I'm getting a Master's in Education here) the case of a 4 year old whose parents didn't speak any English, or very little anyway, and were not very involved in his life. They let the Disney Channel and other cable networks raise the child instead, and when he showed up for school the first day his teachers realized he couldn't speak Spanish but knew perfect, unaccented English, as clear as the shows that raised him. Pretty crazy huh?
Both examples I gave you may be the only cases that exist on the island, but they exist.
Location: El Segundo/All of South Bay up to Palos Verdes
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My cousin Yvonne, born and raised there, till she got out of high school and came to New York and met her husband there. Now she resides in California, where she primarily speaks English, flys back and forth to the island and also to grab food supply....
There's a baby girl born and living in Rincon with her mainland Caucasian parents. I assume that they primarily speak English in their household so by your definition, this makes their baby girl an "Anglo-Puerto Rican". You can read more about their blog here:
I'm sure they are not the only mainland Caucasian parents with their kids born and raised on the island with English as their first language.
Last edited by joelr89; 04-26-2011 at 03:45 PM..
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