The Reasons Behind Puerto Rican Migration to America
As a Puerto Rican who was born and raised in Hartford, I did not think much about how or why my parents are here in the United States. It was after reading the articles in Hist 247 Reader: Latinos in the USA that I began to question the reasons and conditions of my grandparent's migration. Many think that Puerto Ricans began to migrate to the United States after 1898 when the United States took over Puerto Rico but Puerto Ricans have been migrating to the US since 1840's. The Puerto Rican migration is best described in two different experiences. The first experience from later 19th Century to early 20th Century is the migration due to the economic and social situations in Puerto Rico while the second experience from 1940's to the present is mostly due to the chain migration and the thought that the United States will offer them a better life. Both waves of migration brought new experiences to the United States like the struggle of identity, politics, and power.
The fundamental motive for leaving Puerto Rico was economic. The article "The Genesis of the Puerto Rican Migration" mentions that during 1878-1879 there was a major shift in capitalist mode from haciendas to sugar plantations. Around 1870 braceros and peasants began to leave the island to go to Santo Domingo, Cuba, etc... Under North American domination 1898-1901, Puerto Rico became an expansion in which allowed " for control of the means of production in the colony and the transformation of the "sugar islands" into exporters of products needed in the metropolis" (Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueño 348). To the United States, Puerto Rico became a means to gain more capital and power in the Caribbean. I agree with C...
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...which our early ancestors had to deal with we still have to deal with like discrimination, stereotypes, and unemployment but not as badly as they did. We need to become one instead of trying to compete with each other in order to achieve what our ancestors wanted. Our politics have gone from class politics, ethnic politic to identity politics. We need to keep fighting in order to be represented in government and for our voices to be heard.
Bibliography
Barradas, Efrain. "How to Read Bernardo Vega" Hist. 247 Reader
Cruz, Jose E. Identity and Power: Puerto Rican Politics and the Challenge of Ethnicity. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998.
Dietz, James. "Migration and International Corporations: The Puerto Rican Model of Development" Hist. 247 Reader
Figueroa, Luis, ed. His. 247 Reader. Department of History. Trinity College. Spring 1999 edition.
Trade is the most common form of transferring ownership of a product. The concepts are very simple, I give you something (a good or service) and you give me something (a good or service) in return, everyone is happy. However, trade is not limited to two individuals. There are trades that happen outside national borders and we refer to that as international trading. Before a country does international trading, they do research to understand the opportunity costs and marginal costs of their production versus another countries production. Doing this we can increase profit, decrease costs and improve overall trade efficiency. Currently, there are negotiations going on between 11 countries about making a trade agreement called the Trans-Pacific
In this chapter of Naked Economics, by Charles Wheelan, he describes many aspects of trade. It begins by showing the capabilities of trade and how it affects everyone as a whole. It makes it so that everyone is better off than normal. To put it into perspective, he put the image in your head of how hard your life would be without trade, you would have to make your own clothes, find a way to get/make your own food, make your own car, etc... After showing some of the advantages to trade, he applies it to a global persona and begins to introduce his opinion on how global trade (globalization) makes us richer. One of the key explanations of this point is that trade frees up time in our busy schedule, therefore allowing us to use that freed up
In order to understand the current situation of Puerto Ricans one must look at their history and retrace the sequence of events that led to the current formation of the Puerto Rican people. An important component of this history is the time Puerto Rico spent under Spanish rule. Studying this portion of Puerto Rican history forces us to acknowledge the contribution the Spaniards, European immigrants, and African slaves had on Puerto Rican identity as we consider it today. This also addresses contemporary debates on Puerto Rican identity. An example of this is evident in an essay written by Jose Luis Gonzales entitled "Puerto Rico : Th Four Storied Country". In the article Gonzales points out what he feels is a disregard toward the African contribution to the Puerto Rican identity. He argues that the first Puerto Ricans were black , based on his interpretation that Africans were the first group to come to Puerto Rico and reproduce who did not have ties to a "motherland" because they were slaves. This is unlike the Spaniard elites and Criolles that demonstrated their commitment and loyalty to Spain. Since they had no other place to go, Puerto Rico was their motherland. Gonzalez also points out that the culture of a region is always the culture of the elite, not the popular culture.
The debate on Puerto Rican Identity is a hot bed of controversy, especially in today’s society where American colonialism dominates most of the island’s governmental and economic policies. The country wrestles with the strong influence of its present day colonizers, while it adamantly tries to retain aspects of the legacy of Spanish colonialism. Despite America’s presence, Puerto Ricans maintain what is arguably their own cultural identity which seems largely based on the influence of Spain mixed with customs that might have developed locally.
Why he would be to him advantageous to the U.S.A. to admit to Puerto Rico like state? A political reason - the American generation founding, who underwent in own meat the colonial humiliation, never contemplated that his newborn Republic it became a colonial power. The one is implicit in the American Constitution that all territory acquired by the U.S.A. is directed to a possible statehood.
Guerra, Lillian. Popular Expression and National Identity in Puerto Rico: The Struggle for self, Community, and Nation, chs. 2-3 (Gainesville: U Press of Florida, 1998) 45-121.
The events of 7 June 1969 were but one of many moments in the history of New York City's Puerto Rican community that gave rise to and lent support for the Young Lords Party.[4] Indeed over the course of the next five years this ethnic group of radical intellectuals would help bring attention to the plight of the Puerto Rican community in New York City. This essay explores the history of the late twentieth century Puerto Rican migrants in New York City through an examination of the Young Lords Party (1969 to 1974). In doing so, it examines several significant topics, including the growth of the Puerto Rican population in New York City; the unique challenges this ethnic group faced, and the origins, growth and decline of the Young Lords Party.
Such inequality was not the only thing early Puerto Rican migrants experienced on the island. They also experienced severe economic set backs. Under the domination of the United States, Puerto Rico did not have control over their means of production. Instead, the United States possessed that power and transformed their island into a metropolitan economy. Workers were subjected to the changing demands of US capital expansion, and their migratory movements were shaped accordingly.
Trade, of course, is only part of a larger network of relationships between our two countries. This network evolves in response to many complex influences, and exporters need to consider how our two countries' ever-expanding, ever-changing relationships will affect their activities. To take just a few examples:
Blatt, Irwin B. A study of culture change in modern Puerto Rico. Palo Alto, CA: R&E
...Melendez, Edgardo. Colonial Dilemma: Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Puerto Rico. South End Press. Boston, MA.1993
Mihelich, T.J. Puerto Rico: Land of Lost Dreams: Politics, Religion, and the ''rican'' Way. N.p.: T.J. Mihelich, 2010. Print.
The migration of Puerto Ricans to the United States occurred in two major waves. The first wave was in the 1910s-1940s and the second wave was from the 1960s to the 1990s. Each wave of migrants brought new generations of Puerto Ricans to the United States. Both waves of migrants believed that they were going to live a better life in America and migrated to major cities such as New York City, Chicago, Hartford, etc. The early migrants looked for industrial jobs such as in cigar factories while the later migrants found agricultural work such as in tobacco fields. The communities in which they lived grew larger and larger due to chain migration and because of this, the need for politics evolved. However, the type of politics that evolved as a result were different for each wave, yet had many similarities as well. If you would like to learn a little more about Puerto Rican migration itself, read Jamie Hellman's paper and Shakira Ramos' which goes into more depth.
Americans had many visions for the Island of Puerto Rico of which many, till this day, are still trying to be touched on. From fighting the Spanish-American War to invading the island, the Puerto Rican people did not once stop fighting for what was there’s. Americans tried so hard to make Puerto Rico a little America but through many struggles, were denied all rights. Puerto Ricans have to admit that, though they are not an official state of the United States of America, they are in a sense, still Americans because they have citizenship. And because some finally accepted the English language as a second language, whether by choice or by force.
...ell if the growth rates decline after China reaches maturity. Japan and Germany growth rates that have slowed down in the 1990’s, this is because they industrialised earlier, they are in their mature stage and aren’t backward anymore, again this is consistent with Gerschenkron’s theory.