Puerto Ricans in the context of "Free Negro"

Puerto Rico (abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a self-governing Caribbean archipelago and island organized as an unincorporated territory of the United States under the designation of commonwealth. Located about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) southeast of Miami, Florida, between the Dominican Republic in the Greater Antilles and the U.S. Virgin Islands in the Lesser Antilles, it consists of the eponymous main island and numerous smaller islands, including Vieques, Culebra, and Mona. With approximately 3.2 million residents, it is divided into 78 municipalities, of which the most populous is the capital municipality of San Juan, followed by those within the San Juan metropolitan area. Spanish and English are the official languages of the government, though Spanish predominates.

Puerto Rico was settled by a succession of Amerindian peoples beginning 2,000 to 4,000 years ago; these included the Ortoiroid, Saladoid, and Taíno. It was claimed by Spain following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1493 and subsequently colonized by Juan Ponce de León in 1508. Puerto Rico was contested by other European powers into the 18th century but remained a Spanish possession for the next 400 years. The decline of the Indigenous population, followed by an influx of Spanish settlers, primarily from the Canary Islands and Andalusia, and African slaves vastly changed the cultural and demographic landscape of the archipelago. Within the Spanish Empire, Puerto Rico played a secondary but strategically significant role compared to larger and wealthier colonies like Peru and New Spain. By the late 19th century, a distinct Puerto Rican identity began to emerge, centered on a fusion of European, African, and Indigenous elements. In 1898, following the Spanish–American War, Puerto Rico was acquired by the United States.

The geography of Puerto Rico encompasses the geographical features of Puerto Rico, a Caribbean archipelagic and island nation centered around a collective identity based on its land, history, ethnicity, culture, and language, and organized as a self-governing unincorporated territory of the United States. Located between the Greater and Lesser Antilles in the northeastern Caribbean Sea, east of Hispaniola, west of Saint Thomas, north of Venezuela, and south of the Puerto Rico Trench, it consists of the eponymous main island of Puerto Rico and 142 smaller islands, islets, and cays, including San Juan Islet in the north, Vieques and Culebra islands in the Virgin Islands, and Palominos island and Icacos cay in La Cordillera nature reserve in the east, Caja de Muertos island in Caja de Muertos reserve, and Caracoles and Media Luna cays in La Parguera reserve in the south, and Mona, Monito, and Desecheo islands in the Mona Passage in the west.

Measuring 177 km (110 mi; 96 nmi) in length and 65 km (40 mi; 35 nmi) in width with a land area of 8,868 sq km (3,424 sq mi), the main island of Puerto Rico is the 4th largest in the Caribbean, 29th in the Americas, and 81st in the world, making it the 170th largest country or dependency by surface area. With 3.2 million residents, it is also the 4th largest in the Caribbean, 4th in the Americas, and 31st in the world, making it the 136th largest country or dependency by population.

The Taíno were the Indigenous peoples of the Greater Antilles and surrounding islands. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of what is now The Bahamas, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and the northern Lesser Antilles. The Lucayan branch of the Taíno were the first New World people encountered by Christopher Columbus, in the Bahama Archipelago on October 12, 1492. The Taíno historically spoke an Arawakan language. Granberry and Vescelius (2004) recognized two varieties of the Taino language: "Classical Taino", spoken in Puerto Rico and most of Hispaniola, and "Ciboney Taino", spoken in the Bahamas, most of Cuba, western Hispaniola, and Jamaica. They lived in agricultural societies ruled by caciques with fixed settlements and a matrilineal system of kinship and inheritance. Taíno religion centered on the worship of zemis. The Taíno are sometimes also referred to as Island Arawaks or Antillean Arawaks. Indigenous people in the Greater Antilles did not refer to themselves originally as Taíno; the term was first explicitly used in this sense by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1836.

Historically, anthropologists and historians believed that the Taíno were no longer extant centuries ago, or that they gradually merged into a common identity with African and Hispanic cultures. Scholarly attitudes to Taíno survival and resurgence began to change around the year 2000. Many people today identify as Taíno and many more have Taíno descent, most notably in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Dominica. A substantial number of Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Dominicans have Indigenous mitochondrial DNA, which may suggest Taíno descent through the direct female line, especially in Puerto Rico. While some communities describe an unbroken cultural heritage passed down through the generations, often in secret, others are revivalist communities who seek to incorporate Taíno culture into their lives.

Stateside Puerto Ricans (Spanish: Puertorriqueños en Estados Unidos), also known as Puerto Rican Americans (Spanish: puertorriqueños americanos, puertorriqueños estadounidenses), or Puerto Ricans in the United States, are Puerto Ricans who reside in the United States proper of the 50 states and the District of Columbia who were born in or trace any family ancestry to Puerto Rico, an insular area of the United States.

Pursuant to the Jones–Shafroth Act, all Puerto Ricans born on the island have US citizenship. At 9.3% of the Hispanic population in the United States, Puerto Ricans are the second largest Hispanic group nationwide after Mexicans, and are 1.78% of the entire population of the United States. Stateside Puerto Ricans are also the largest Caribbean-origin group in the country, representing over one-third of people with origins in the geographic Caribbean region. The 2020 Census counted the number of Puerto Ricans living in the States at 5.6 million, and estimates in 2022 show the Puerto Rican population to be 5.91 million.

East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem, or El Barrio, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City, north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, Fifth Avenue to the west, and the East and Harlem Rivers to the east and north. Despite its name, it is generally not considered to be a part of Harlem proper, but it is one of the neighborhoods included in Greater Harlem.

The neighborhood has one of the largest Hispanic communities in New York City, mostly Puerto Ricans, as well as Dominicans, Cubans, and Mexicans. The community is notable for its contributions to Latin freestyle and salsa music. East Harlem also includes the remnants of a once predominant Italian community, or Italian Harlem. The Chinese population has increased dramatically in East Harlem since 2000.

The flag of Puerto Rico (Spanish: Bandera de Puerto Rico), officially the Flag of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (Spanish: Bandera del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit. 'Flag of the Free Associated State of Puerto Rico'), represents Puerto Rico and its people. It consists of five equal horizontal stripes, alternating from red to white, with a blue equilateral triangle based on the hoist side bearing a large, sharp, upright, five-pointed white star in the center. The white star stands for the archipelago and island, the three sides of the triangle for the three branches of the government, the blue for the sky and coastal waters, the red for the blood shed by warriors, and the white for liberty, victory, and peace. The flag is popularly known as the Monoestrellada (Monostarred), meaning having one star, a single star, or a lone star. It is in the Stars and Stripes flag family.

In September 1868, the Revolutionary Committee of Puerto Rico launched the Grito de Lares (Cry of Lares) revolt against Spanish rule in the main island, intending to establish a free and independent "Republic of Puerto Rico" under the Bandera del Grito de Lares (Grito de Lares Flag), commonly known as the bandera de Lares (Lares flag). Marking the establishment of a national consciousness for the first time in Puerto Rico, it is recognized as the first flag of the archipelago and island.

Luis Guillermo Fortuño Burset (born October 31, 1960) is a Puerto Rican politician who served as the governor of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States, from 2009 to 2013.

Fortuño served as the first secretary of economic development and commerce of Puerto Rico (1994–1997), as the executive director of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company (1993–1994), and as the president of the Puerto Rico Hotel Development Corporation during the administration of Pedro Rosselló. In 2004, Fortuño was elected resident commissioner of Puerto Rico, defeating Senator Roberto Prats. As resident commissioner, Fortuño represented Puerto Rico in the United States House of Representatives from 2005 to 2009; during his tenure, he served as Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Conference, as a Member of the newly created United States House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Insular Affairs and as co-chair of the Friends of Spain Caucus.

Museo de Arte de Ponce (MAP) is an art museum located on Avenida Las Américas in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It houses a collection of European art, as well as works by Puerto Rican artists. The museum contains one of the most important Pre-Raphaelite collections in the Western Hemisphere, holding some 4,500 pieces of art distributed among fourteen galleries.

Museo de Arte de Ponce is the finest art museum in Puerto Rico. The largest art museum in the Caribbean, it has also been called one of the best in the Americas. It was the first museum in Puerto Rico accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.