Puerto Rico :: essays research papers

Identity CrisisThe effect of colonialism on a colonized people can often provide in a situation better known to us today as an identity crisis. Studying the history of Puerto anti-racketeering law under Spanish convention helps us to identify the problems found within groundbreaking flavours of Puerto Rican identity. such notions of interior(a) identity stem from the stamp that Puerto Rico is a "self-defined community of people who overlap a sense of solidarity based on a belief in a common heritage and who claim political rights that may include self-government" (Morris 12). However, such modern notions of solidarity contradict the fact that by 1898 Puerto Rican ships company was characterized by great racial and class differences. As claimed by Jos Luis Gonzlez in his Puerto Rico The quaternion Storeyed Country, these differences made "Puerto Rico a country so divided racially, socially, economically and culturally that it should be described as two countri es rather than virtuoso" (Gonzalez14). The rise and fall of the international sugar market, and the subsequent authorization of the coffee market in the Puerto Rican economy, helped to create the "foreign elements" within Puerto Rico that make modern views of Puerto Rican identity extremely problematic. The study and use of history has vie an important role in helping to construct the concept of Puerto Rican national heritage. Francisco Scarano, in his gelt and Slavery in Puerto Rico, 1815-1949 An Overview, asserts that notions of Puerto Rican national heritage have been visualised as being an "anomalous case" within the Americas. He writes that m whatsoever historians have claimed that Puerto Rico had an "economy and society which developed an advanced sugar intentness during times of fairly open Atlantic slave trade, yet did not rely to any significant degree on the labor of African slaves" (Scarano 25). This suggests that the racial "heritage& quot of Puerto Ricans is not predominately black, and therefore, other races must have attributed to this hybridity, as well. Moreover, it also suggests that because forced bondage was not widely practiced on the island, a notion of solidarity could have existed amongst the Puerto Rican people during the 19th Century. However, could this example also serve as a creator for modern uses of history to reinforce perceptions of national identity? Unfortunately, the dilate surrounding the islands social and economic structure at that particular time keep back its history from serving as a model for national unity. In the 1840s, sugar became very important in the international market.Puerto Rico essays research document Identity CrisisThe effect of colonialism on a colonized people can often result in a situation better known to us today as an identity crisis. Studying the history of Puerto Rico under Spanish rule helps us to identify the problems found within modern notions of Pue rto Rican identity. Such notions of national identity stem from the belief that Puerto Rico is a "self-defined community of people who share a sense of solidarity based on a belief in a common heritage and who claim political rights that may include self-determination" (Morris 12). However, such modern notions of solidarity contradict the fact that by 1898 Puerto Rican society was characterized by great racial and class differences. As claimed by Jos Luis Gonzlez in his Puerto Rico The Four Storeyed Country, these differences made "Puerto Rico a country so divided racially, socially, economically and culturally that it should be described as two countries rather than one" (Gonzalez14). The rise and fall of the international sugar market, and the subsequent ascendancy of the coffee market in the Puerto Rican economy, helped to create the "foreign elements" within Puerto Rico that make modern views of Puerto Rican identity extremely problematic. The study and use of history has played an important role in helping to construct the concept of Puerto Rican national heritage. Francisco Scarano, in his Sugar and Slavery in Puerto Rico, 1815-1949 An Overview, asserts that notions of Puerto Rican national heritage have been portrayed as being an "anomalous case" within the Americas. He writes that many historians have claimed that Puerto Rico had an "economy and society which developed an advanced sugar industry during times of fairly open Atlantic slave trade, yet did not rely to any significant degree on the labor of African slaves" (Scarano 25). This suggests that the racial "heritage" of Puerto Ricans is not predominately black, and therefore, other races must have attributed to this hybridity, as well. Moreover, it also suggests that because forced slavery was not widely practiced on the island, a notion of solidarity could have existed amongst the Puerto Rican people during the 19th Century. However, could this exa mple also serve as a precedent for modern uses of history to reinforce perceptions of national identity? Unfortunately, the details surrounding the islands social and economic structure at that particular time prevent its history from serving as a model for national unity. In the 1840s, sugar became very important in the international market.