Puerto Rico Researched via: Student Name: Ababacar Sonko Date: 5/13/10

Where is Puerto Rico located?  Puerto Rico consists of the main island of Puerto Rico and various smaller islands, including Vieques, Culebra, Mona, Desecheo, and Caja de Muertos.  Of these last five, only Culebra and Vieques are inhabited year-round.  Mona is uninhabited most of the year except for employees of the Puerto Rico Department of Natural Resources.  There are also many other even smaller islands including Monito and "La Isleta de San Juan" which includes Old San Juan and Puerta de Tierra.

Flag, Motto, Anthem:  The Flags of Puerto Rico represent and symbolize the island and people of Puerto Rico.  The most commonly used flags of Puerto Rico are the current flag which represents the people of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Municipal flags which represent the different regions of the island.  Political flags which represent the political beliefs of the people and sports flags which identify Puerto Rico as the country represented by its athletics during competitions.  Their motto is “John is his name”.

Sports:  Baseball was one of the first sports to gain widespread popularity in Puerto Rico.  The Puerto Rico Baseball League serves as the only active professional league, operating as a winter league.  No Major League Baseball franchise or affiliate plays in Puerto Rico, however, San Juan hosted the Montreal Expos for several series in 2003 and 2004 before they moved to Washington, D.C. and became the Washington Nationals. Puerto Rico has participated in the World Cup of Baseball winning one gold (1951), four silver and four bronze medals and the Caribbean Series, winning fourteen times.  Famous Puerto Rican baseball players include Roberto Clemente and Orlando Cepeda, enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973 and 1999, respectively.

History:  The history of the archipelago of Puerto Rico before the arrival of Christopher Columbus is not well known.  What is known today comes from archaeological findings and early Spanish accounts.  The first comprehensive book on the history of Puerto Rico was written by Fray Iñigo Abbad y Lasierra in 1786, about 293 years after the first Spaniards arrived on the island.

Famous People / Role Models:  Christopher Columbus was an Italian navigator, colonizer, and explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean led to general European awareness of the American continents in the Western Hemisphere.  With his four voyages of exploration and several attempts at establishing a settlement on the island of Hispaniola, all funded by Isabella I of Castile, he initiated the process of Spanish colonization which foreshadowed general European colonization of the "New World".

What do you or your peers like the most about Puerto Rico?  The official languages are Spanish and English with Spanish being the primary language.  English is taught as a second language in public and private schools from elementary levels to high school and in universities.  Particularly, the Spanish of Puerto Rico, has evolved into having many idiosyncrasies that differentiate it from the language as spoken in other Spanish-speaking countries.  This is mainly due to the influences from ancestral languages, such as those from the Taínos and Africans, and more recently from the English language influence resulting from its relationship with the United States.