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Im a fair-skinned, green-eyed American with no hispanic roots... I dyed my hair dark when I lived there 14 years ago (the western side of the island). I got a lot of stares (from every1 lol, ppl always looked @ me, not many Americans in the west- even tourists. It seemed that they were curious, it was never negative) and when I was out with my MIL, people would always talk to her about my eyes... It was a little awkward @ the time, but super endearing.
Even now, when my MIL describes fair American men, she makes the sound as if she were describing a hottie, hahaha!
Never been to PR, but they showed a TV program in Spain about Spaniards living there. People criticize the program "Españoles en el mundo" because it only shows Spaniards that made it big. Most of the Puerto Ricans that appeared in the program were white, a lot of descendants from the Balearic Islands in Spain. The governor comes from one of those families. I don't think any American would look out of place wherever those people live (I suppose they live in repartos or whatever) except if he looks like Dolph Lundgren.
As Eduardo stated, any average American living in many Latin America countries such as Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Panama and elsewhere would be assimilated first hand as descendant of European immigrants there, Italian, Spanish, Lebanese, Hungarian, Irish, Jews, you name it.
@ manolon... In my experience living/ visiting there- I think a lot of, if not most, Americans of non-hispanic descent do stick out, less in the metro area though.
I can often pick out non-native Puerto Ricans/ hispanics vacationing on the island as well- you just get to know people and their ever so slight cultural differences.
Be respectfully friendly with the locals without being patronizing.
I had no problems being accepted in Mexico while living there in the early '60s. Of course all my school buds still referred to me as "El Gringo".....without rancor. Even got thrown in jail together after a bar fight with some guys from a rival school. lol
And it didn't hurt to attend a cattle roundup on a ranch early one morning to eat "Rocky Mountain Oysters" & drink Bohemia beer for breakfast.
Old San Juan, Isla Verde and Guaynabo are all friendly areas for English speakers. I agree with the statement above that most crime is either related to drugs or domestic violence. I don't want you to get a ticket, so I thought you should know that the "stoplight" law is no longer in effect as part of an effort by the government to raise money. I wouldn't recommend you carry around a phrase book. You might want to practice a few phrases here and there. Don't worry, there will be lots of people willing to teach you Spanish; for some reason we love teaching Americans the language!
I'm puertorriqueña! I'm from a small town and came to San Juan for studying and stayed here. I can tell you, foreigners are well received here. Some people have said here that you have to be respectful friendly to us and you're good to go. That's right. We are more friendly, I have to say, with foreigner than with our own fellows. Sometimes you will see that we are mean to ourselves but never with a foreigner, depends on the attitude. We like to be good hosts, to show you the best of our island, of ourselves. We like to make a good impression. If you want to live here, we will very helpful to make your life easier, give you advice, tell you what you should avoid, places you should go and if we can, we will take you for a tour!!!
We are a mix of 3 races, so being racist for us is not a good option, we have to look ourselves on the mirror and understand that even if we are white, we have curly hair and wide nose. hahaha We are spaniard + tainos + africans = boricua!!!!! Yes, some people are racist in the inside, but tolerant, to call it some way.
Many people here at least, understand a little bit of english. If they don't they will say you with their hands "wait here" and they will look for someone who can help you. I've seen this!!!!! That makes me feel so proud!!! I wish we could do the same with other puerto ricans!!!!
From afar I have always seen Venezuelans similar to Puerto Ricans. The countries you did like (Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina), I think are quite different to the island. Take heed.
Puerto Rico is a strange mix; quite different to the mainland, but not to underestimante it's similarities.
I think it would be interesting for you to check it out and then share your impressions here. I am personally interested in hearing from people that don't carry strong preconceptions about a place. Hopefully your experience won't be like T.J. Mihelich's ("Puerto Rico: Land of Lost Dreams"), though I totally understand the guy.
I've read the book. While Mihelich is spot-on concerning so many of the negative things that make life in Puerto Rico so challenging, especially now, he comes across as a naive, pretentious milquetoast who expected too much from a society that lives on roughly half of the per-capita income of the state of Mississippi yet is forced to intake most of it's goods through U.S. ports, was treated as a military-governed war-bounty territory by the U.S. until 1947 and has seen it's economy and best industries slowly being decimated by pandering politicians since the '70s. He seems oblivious to the faced that many U.S. rural and urban communities under far less duress seem today bombstruck and dystopian in comparison to P.R. (Detroit, Memphis). In light of the fact that many like me were born and raised in the poor inner-city urban U.S., were shanghaid to Puerto Rico during our youth where we successfully concluded our educations and made productive, full lives despite all the hardships and have successfully moved stateside to places we have never been before, to pursue better compensated careers while we spend our vacations on the island, it seems Mr. Mihelich's tale of woe makes him come across as a bit...frail.
I've read the book. While Mihelich is spot-on concerning so many of the negative things that make life in Puerto Rico so challenging, especially now, he comes across as a naive, pretentious milquetoast who expected too much from a society that lives on roughly half of the per-capita income of the state of Mississippi yet is forced to intake most of it's goods through U.S. ports, was treated as a military-governed war-bounty territory by the U.S. until 1947 and has seen it's economy and best industries slowly being decimated by pandering politicians since the '70s. He seems oblivious to the faced that many U.S. rural and urban communities under far less duress seem today bombstruck and dystopian in comparison to P.R. (Detroit, Memphis). In light of the fact that many like me were born and raised in the poor inner-city urban U.S., were shanghaid to Puerto Rico during our youth where we successfully concluded our educations and made productive, full lives despite all the hardships and have successfully moved stateside to places we have never been before, to pursue better compensated careers while we spend our vacations on the island, it seems Mr. Mihelich's tale of woe makes him come across as a bit...frail.
I think anyone from Detroit or Memphis still has a better chance at the better piece of the pie than most Puerto Ricans. There is an underlying ill that goes in a society that has been a colony for so long and then suddenly has had access to money and the nice things from developed countries, only to start losing it again. In essence, that's what I think someone like Mihelich (a mainlander) got a taste of.
Puerto Rico needs its pride, other than beauty queens and boxers (which are fine, but should be secondary); it needs to get out of that second-class relationship and make its own thing, be proud of its contribution, either as state of the U.S. or as independent nation.
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