Portal:Puerto Rico

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Location of Puerto Rico

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 between the Dominican Republic in the Greater Antilles and the U.S. Virgin Islands in the Lesser Antilles about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) southeast of Miami, Florida, it consists of the eponymous main island and numerous smaller islands, including Vieques, Culebra, and Mona. With approximately 3.2 million people, 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 Indigenous peoples of the Americas 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. Within the Spanish Empire, Puerto Rico played a strategically significant role. 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.

Puerto Ricans have been U.S. citizens since 1917 and can move freely between the archipelago and the U.S. Residents of Puerto Rico are disenfranchised from federal elections and pay federal taxes and Puerto Rico income taxes; most are exempt from federal income tax on personal income earned in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico sends a nonvoting representative to the U.S. Congress, called a resident commissioner, and participates in presidential primaries; as it is not a state, Puerto Rico does not have a vote in the U.S. Congress, which oversees it under the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950. Congress approved a territorial constitution in 1952, allowing residents to elect a governor in addition to a senate and house of representatives. The political status of Puerto Rico is an ongoing debate.

Beginning in the mid-20th century, the U.S. government, together with the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company, launched a series of economic projects to develop Puerto Rico into an industrial high-income economy. It is classified by the International Monetary Fund as a developed jurisdiction. It ranks 47th on the Human Development Index. The major sectors of the economy are manufacturing, primarily pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, and electronics, followed by services, namely tourism and hospitality. (Full article...)

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Photo credit: US Department of Agriculture
The Common coquí is considered the unofficial national symbol of Puerto Rico. Although miniature in size (average length of 34 mm), the male's sound calls can sometimes reach 100 dB.

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The Puerto Rican spindalis (Spindalis portoricensis) is a bird endemic to the island of Puerto Rico, where it is commonly known as reina mora or cigua puertorriqueña. The species is widely distributed throughout the island and is an important part of the Puerto Rican ecosystem because of its help in seed dispersal and plant reproduction. (Full article...)

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Official portrait, 2008

Joxel García is a Puerto Rican physician and a former four-star admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. He served as the fourteenth Assistant Secretary for Health (ASH), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from March 13, 2008, to January 20, 2009. He served as the Director of Health in the District of Columbia. He served as the Executive Director of the MD Anderson Cancer Control and Prevention Platform and Member of the Leadership Team of the MD Anderson Moon Shots program until May 2017 before joining American Express as Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. (Full article...)

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Juano Hernandez

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Sources

  1. ^ Speakers on healthcare
  2. ^ "Proyecto de Recuperación de la Casa Defilló" (in Spanish). Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. Retrieved 2007-01-25.[dead link]
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