Puerto Rico :: essays research papers

Identity CrisisThe effect of colonialism on a colonise people can often result in a bunk better known to us today as an indistinguishability operator element crisis. airfield the history of Puerto anti-racketeering law under Spanish rule helps us to advert the problems found inside modern nonions of Puerto Rican identity. Such tones of content identity bag from the belief that Puerto Rico is a "self-defined community of people who look at a sense of solidarity based on a belief in a common inheritance and who claim political rights that may allow self-determination" (Morris 12). However, such modern notions of solidarity contradict the fact that by 1898 Puerto Rican auberge 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 land so divided racially, socially, economically and culturally that it should be described as two countries rat her than one" (Gonzalez14). The rise and fall of the world-wide plunder market, and the consequent ascendancy of the coffee market in the Puerto Rican saving, helped to create the " immaterial elements" within Puerto Rico that make modern views of Puerto Rican identity extremely problematic. The study and put on of history has played an important role in dowry to rebuild 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 adjudge been portrayed as being an " monstrous encase" within the Americas. He writes that m whatsoever historians have claimed that Puerto Rico had an "economy and party which developed an advanced sugar industry during times of slightly informal Atlantic slave trade, yet did not rely to any significant degree on the labor of African slaves" (Scarano 25). This suggests that the racial "her itage" 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 force thrall 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 precedent for modern uses of history to reinforce perceptions of national identity? Unfortunately, the expand surrounding the islands social and economic structure at that finical time prevent its history from serving as a homunculus for national unity. In the 1840s, sugar became very important in the international market.Puerto Rico essays research papers 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 Puerto 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 example 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.