J. A. Galvan - Culture and Customs of Puerto Rico
Greenwood Press | 2009 | ISBN-10: 0313351198 | ISBN-13: 9780313351198 | PDF | 196 pages | English | 1,66 Mb
Greenwood Press | 2009 | ISBN-10: 0313351198 | ISBN-13: 9780313351198 | PDF | 196 pages | English | 1,66 Mb
Puerto Rico has never been an independent and sovereign nation. Its official name is the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (or Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, in Spanish). Despite the fact that the island has now been part of the United States for over one hundred years, the legal and economic relationship between the two regions is not always crystal clear to most Americans. At first, the island seems to be full of political contradictions and ambiguities. For example, Puerto Ricans (known as boricuas) are citizens of the United States, but they cannot vote for the U.S. president when they live on the island. They select a resident commissioner to represent them in the U.S. Congress, but that person is only allowed to voice opinions and is not permitted to vote. Boricuas can be drafted into the U.S. military, but they cannot control the foreign policy decisions that sometimes send them to armed conflicts.