Puerto Ricans
Puerto Ricans (Spanish: Puertorriqueños), most commonly known as Boricuas, but also occasionally referred to as Borinqueños, Borincanos,[a][12] or Puertorros,[b][13] are an ethnic group native to the Caribbean archipelago of Puerto Rico, and a nation identified with the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico through ancestry, culture, or history. Puerto Ricans are predominately a tri-racial, Spanish-speaking, Christian society, descending in varying degrees from Indigenous Taíno natives, Southwestern European colonists, and West and Central African slaves, freedmen, and free Blacks. As citizens of a U.S. territory, Puerto Ricans have automatic birthright American citizenship, and are considerably influenced by American culture. The population of Puerto Ricans is between 9 and 10 million worldwide, with the overwhelming majority residing in Puerto Rico and mainland United States.
This article is about the broad category of people from Puerto Rico. For stateside people of Puerto Rican origin, see Stateside Puerto Ricans.Number of Puerto Ricans
Population (1765–1897)
The populations during Spanish rule of Puerto Rico were:
Language
Spanish and English are the official languages of the entire Commonwealth. A 1902 English-only language law was abolished on April 5, 1991. Then on January 28, 1993, the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico approved Law Number 1 again making Spanish and English the official languages of Puerto Rico.[61][89] All official business of the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico is conducted in English. The official languages[90] of the executive branch of government of Puerto Rico[91] are Spanish and English, with Spanish being the primary language. English is the primary language of less than 10% of the population.
Puerto Rican Spanish is the dominant language of business, education and daily life on the island.[92] The US Census Bureau's 2015 update provides the following:[93] 94.1% of adults speak Spanish, 5.8% speak only English and little to no Spanish, 78.3% do not speak English "very well", 15.8% are fully bilingual in both English and Spanish, 0.1% speak other languages.[94]
Public school instruction in Puerto Rico is conducted almost entirely in Spanish. There have been pilot programs in about a dozen of the over 1,400 public schools aimed at conducting instruction in English only. Objections from teaching staff are common, perhaps because many of them are not fully fluent in English.[95] English is taught as a second language and is a compulsory subject from elementary levels to high school.
Home to a sizeable deaf community, the actual numbers are unknown due to unavailable source data.[96] A 1986 estimate places the Puerto Rican deaf population to be between 8,000 and 40,000.[97] Due to ongoing colonization from the US mainland, the larger American Sign Language (ASL) is supplanting the local Puerto Rican Sign Language (PRSL, also known as LSPR: Lenguaje de Señas Puertorriqueño).[96] Although assumed to be a dialect or variant of ASL, it is currently unknown the degree of mutual intelligibility between Puerto Rican Sign Language nor whether it is even a Francosign language like ASL. Indeed, there is a hesitancy amongst Puerto Rican Deaf to even mention LSPR after heavy handed oralist education of English, Spanish, and Signed English.[96][98] Today, there is much contact between ASL, PRSL, and Signed Spanish.[96]
The Spanish of Puerto Rico has evolved into having many idiosyncrasies in vocabulary and syntax that differentiate it from the Spanish spoken elsewhere. While the Spanish spoken in all Iberian, Mediterranean and Atlantic Spanish Maritime Provinces was brought to the island over the centuries, the most profound regional influence on the Spanish spoken in Puerto Rico has been from that spoken in the present-day Canary Islands. The Spanish of Puerto Rico also includes occasional Taíno words, typically in the context of vegetation, natural phenomena or primitive musical instruments. Similarly, words attributed to primarily West African languages were adopted in the contexts of foods, music or dances.[99]
