VivirLatino

Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans have been in the news and all over the internet this week in some opposing ways. In fact, one could say that this year, the rise of one particular Puerto Rican woman, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, has put Ricans in the U.S. media’s eye. Despite being a U.S. colony since 1898 (with varying statuses), despite there being a huge Puerto Rican population here inside the continental U.S., many people, including other Latinos have dealt the Rican community a sort of neglect/ignorance, carrying age old stereotypes that are anything but benign.

First there was a report about Puerto Rican poverty which some media outlets expressed their surprise at. “How could this be?” everyone asks. “They” have been here for a long time. “They” are U.S. citizens (even if it is against “our” will). “They” speak English.

In New York City, 31.2 percent of Puerto Ricans live in poverty, compared with 27.8 percent of Latinos more broadly and 18.9 percent of the New York City population overall. Nationally, 22 percent of Puerto Ricans are in poverty, versus 19 percent of Latinos overall (from the American Community Survey via the Pew Hispanic Center).

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