New York Latin Culture Magazine™

World-class Indigenous, European, African, Asian & Oceanian Culture since 2012

You are here: Home / Travel / Caribbean / Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico really is the island of enchantment. Famous for its beaches, the mountain heartland is even more beautiful. Puerto Ricans are friendly and incredibly diverse. The food is delicious. Puerto Rico is a small island that dominates tropical and urban music.

The island is just four hours from New York City. It is still a United States colony, so travel is easy (Why does a democracy still have a colony?).

Spanish is the day-to-day language. Many young people speak English, but don’t assume that. Be COVID-19 safe because the medical system is small.

The island is a natural paradise that reveals itself little by little, the longer you stay.

Many places retain their Indigenous Taíno names. You’ve probably been taught that we are long dead, but we are still here. Like everywhere else, the First Nations just intermarried. Taíno social structures remain part of Puerto Rican life today.

Social life is all about eating and drinking with family and friends at chinchorros, the roadside bars on the beaches and in the mountains, just as life has been since before the pirates came. There are even famous chinchorro routes through the mountains and beaches.

Puerto Rico Features

For our Padrino Borinquen, the great Nuyorican surrealist photographer Adál Maldonado (1948-2020) who proved that Puerto Ricans were first on the moon. Yes, really.

Puerto Rico has more than its share of talented artists. Puerto Ricans dominate today’s music industry. Adál said Puerto Rico became a cultural superpower because the colonizers denied Puerto Ricans the basic human right of self-determination.

Puerto Rican Culture

Like all the Latin world, the heart of Puerto Rico is family. The main thing Puerto Ricans do is eat and drink with family and friends on the beaches and in the mountains all over the island.

To “chinchorrear” is to go from one surf shack bar to the next all day long late into the night. Then we start singing and dancing. It’s cultural.

Bomba

Bomba is a living Puerto Rican drum, song and dance tradition of the West African diaspora that has become an expression of Puerto Rican identity.…

Continue Reading Bomba

Salsa

Salsa is 1950s Cuban son montuno and rumba dance music mixed with Puerto Rican bomba and plena, Haitian rhythms and Harlem swing by Caribbean musicians…

Continue Reading Salsa

Reggaeton

Reggaeton is today’s global youth music and the sound of young New York City. Like rock and soft rock, salsa dura and salsa romántica, reggaeton…

Continue Reading Reggaeton

Salsa is Cuban dance music of the 1950s developed by many Caribbean peoples, but it’s mostly Puerto Rican. It has Puerto Rican bomba and plena in it mixed with New York jazz.

Reggaeton is Jamaican-Panamanian-New Yorker, but Puerto Ricans made it global. Latin trap is the next sound after reggaeton.

Puerto Rico has the world’s longest Christmas holiday traditions. The Parranda is Christmas caroling Puerto Rican style. We celebrate from Puerto Rico Discovery Day (why do we still celebrate that?) on November 19 through Thanksgiving, Christmas, Three Kings, Las Octavitas until the Las Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastían (San Sebastián Street Festival) ends in mid-January.

We have strong theatre traditions. Chita Rivera, Rita Moreno and Raul Julia are Broadway and film legends. New Yorker Lin-Manuel Miranda (Freestyle Love Supreme, In the Heights) wrote Hamilton which is the Broadway hit of our generation. Raul Julia, Rosie Perez, Benicio del Toro, Gina Rodriguez, Luis Guzmán and Modesto Lacen are just a few of the many amazing Puerto Rican actors.

Puerto Rico Festivals

Puerto Rico’s biggest festival is Las Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastían (The SanSe or San Sebastían Street Fair) in San Juan in mid-January. It ends Puerto Rico’s Christmas season, the world’s longest.

The big carnivals are Carnaval de Ponce (Ponce Carnival) in February and Loíza’s Festival de Santiago Apóstol (St. James Festival) in July.

There are normally several fiestas patronales (patron saint festivals) every weekend of the year somewhere in Puerto Rico. These small town carnivals are beautiful expressions of their local communities. Like big carnivals, the communities get busy a month before and local events in the week before the big party. Salsa and merengue bands play the fiestas patronales. Many of them are world-famous artists.

Regions of Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico’s regions are Metro (San Juan), East, West, North, South and the Central Mountains.

The mountains of Puerto Rico’s Cordillera Central are a beautiful countryside with rainforests and everything that goes with that. They are the cultural heart of Puerto Rico.

One of Puerto Rico’s surprises is how much regional and local variation there is in people, culture, and even language.

Famous Puerto Ricans

Many people travel back and forth between Puerto Rico and New York City, but being island Puerto Rican is very different from being New York Puerto Rican. We cover New York Puerto Ricans on our Puerto Rican NYC page.

Maelo Ruiz

Friday, March 20, 2020
LA BOOM NYC
Woodside, Queens
The Puerto Rican salsa romántica singer is joined by Colombian Vallenato group Binomio de Oro.

Continue Reading Maelo Ruiz

Bad Bunny

Friday, December 6, 2019
PROSPECT HEIGHTS, Brooklyn ~ The Puerto Rican bad boy of Latin trap and reggaeton brings his X100Pre Tour (Para Siempre, Forever) to Barclays Center

Continue Reading Bad Bunny

Puerto Rico Government

The government is supposed to work for the people. Make them work for you.

The Puerto Rican Government is at pr.gov
Governor Pedro R. Pierluisi is on Twitter @fortalezapr and @GovPierluisi
Senate President José Luis Dalmau is on Twitter @JoseLuisDalmau
Speaker of the House of Representatives Rafael “Tatito” Hernández is on Twitter @tatitohdz

Police

Call the police by dialing 911

Compañia de Turismo de Puerto Rico

The Puerto Rico Tourism Company promotes tourism.

  • Tourist information is at discoverpuertorico.com (COVID-19 Quarantine information) and Twitter @discover_PR
  • Business information is at prtourism.com and Twitter @CTPuertoRico

Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP)

The Puerto Rican Culture Institute preserves and promotes Puerto Rico’s rich cultural diversity at icp.pr.gov and on Twitter @icppr

Non-Governmental Organizations

The Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce is a business advocate at camarapr.org and Twitter @Camarapr

The Sociedad Protectora de Animales de Puerto Rico (Humane Society of Puerto Rico) protects animal rights at hspr.org

ACOIPR / PR Animal Cruelty Officer/Investigator is on Facebook @acoipr

Federal Government and U.S. Organizations

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is probably the highest ranking member of the U.S. government with a Puerto Rico Rican heritage. She is a New York Puerto Rican from The Bronx.

As a colony, Puerto Rico lacks voting representation in the U.S. Congress, but these organizations and members of Congress regularly support the interests of Puerto Ricans.

  • Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration (PRFAA) and Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico (House of Representatives) Jenniffer González Colón
  • New York Senator Chuck Schumer
  • New York Representative Nydia Velázquez (NY District 7)
  • New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY District 14)

Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico (FOMBPR or La Junta)

Puerto Rico is working through a functional bankruptcy. The federal law PROMESA created this organization to oversee Puerto Rico’s budget at juntasupervision.pr.gov and Twitter @FOMBPR

FEMA

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA District 2, has been active in Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria in 2017. fema.gov and Twitter @femaregion2

Non-Governmental Organizations

ASPCA / American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals advocates for animal rights at aspca.org and Twitter @ASPCA

PETA / People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is at peta.org and on Twitter @peta

Caribbean Travel

Sponsored by NYC's Leading Brands

Leading brands sponsor New York Latin Culture Magazine including: Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, New York City Center and The City's own NYC & Company.

The project is led by travel writer Keith Widyolar, a marketing and communications consultant who builds brands and businesses through public, media and government relations. He was named a “key Hispanic journalist” and “Hispanic market influencer” by NYC & Company, New York City’s official branding and tourism agency.

The New York Stock Exchange had the team ring its closing bell for Hispanic Heritage Month. We can work for you too!

Sponsor