I was actually born and raised in Puerto Rico. I moved to the States when I was 19. I was very impressed early on by being around people who spoke my language and ate the same food and listened to the same music, dressed the same. But then you look around and, you know, you’re not in Puerto Rico.
In the ’90s, I think that Bill Clinton would have won in Puerto Rico. I think in the 2000s, George Bush would have won in Puerto Rico.
Pageants were an amazing platform that gave a little girl like me from the mountains of my beautiful Puerto Rico a chance to travel, explore the world, meet amazing people, work for great charities and be a voice to empower women wherever I went. For all those things, I am grateful.
I’d say it’s even harder to cater to Hispanics than to the lesbian or gay community. We’re so culturally separated: Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Mexicans, Venezuelans. We’re all so different.
I worked seven years in territories in Japan and Puerto Rico and worked my way up to the main events on those cards, then went to the WWF and spent a little while there before I got into the Intercontinental run and a main event runs with Shawn Michaels and Kevin Nash.
I’m such a true Puerto Rican.
After four centuries of Spanish rule, Puerto Rico was ceded to the United States in 1898. Residents were granted U.S. citizenship in 1917, and the federal government has allowed Puerto Rico to exercise authority over its local affairs in a manner similar to the 50 states.
I often say to my friends that I felt too Puerto Rican to live in the States; then I felt too American to live in Puerto Rico. So when I settled back in Puerto Rico in 1992, I had to come to terms with all of that.
There were a lot of kids from Puerto Rico at my high school in Florida; people always assumed I was Puerto Rican. Even now in California, I get talked to on the street in Spanish constantly!
But being on location and shooting, whether its in Puerto Rico or Atlanta, it always reminds me of how really cool my job can be. Interacting with the fans is one of the best parts of it.
The first day that I get to Fort Myers, there was a newspaper down there. The newspaper said, ‘Puerto Rican hot dog arrives in town.’
There are 3.5 million Americans in Puerto Rico. So, just like we’re quick to go everywhere else and help, we expect that same of America for Puerto Rico. These are U.S. citizens!
I’ll live in Puerto Rico until the day I die.
Culturally, musically, historically Cuba and Puerto Rico are like two wings of one bird.
What I can tell you is that for Puerto Rico being such a small island, it has culturally impacted the entire world.
I feel that, as a Puerto Rican and Latin American musician, a lot of the stuff that I write, even if I mean it or not, is gonna have some elements of that.
I never thought anything was strange in Puerto Rico other than the big mosquitos; because I was born there, nothing was really foreign to me. I think what I saw strange coming to L.A. was that a lot of people are a little bit two-faced. In Puerto Rico, you don’t get that.
Baby names are a big debate in my family. Like true Colombian and Puerto Rican families, everybody and their mother is putting their two cents in – everything from Jose to Francisco to Victorio to Rain has been suggested.
Grant us more powers, not less; grant us more democracy, not less; grant us the tools to move forward because, I can assure you, Puerto Rico will move forward. We did it in the past; we will do it again.
I am 100% proud Puerto Rican but have lived two-thirds of my life in the United States. So, there will be some things I write in English, but my main way of conversing with my audience is in Spanish because, at the end of the day, I’m a Latino.
I am Puerto Rican. I think Latinas are sexy, and being one, it has influenced a lot of my style, but being an official Los Angelite, this town has influenced most of my daily style, which is relaxed & easy.
There is no price tag on an American life – whether it’s in Florida, Texas, or Puerto Rico.
You’re not from Puerto Rico, so you should say Puerto Rico like all the other people from the place that you come from.
Internal self-government under a local constitution was authorized by Congress and approved by the residents in 1952, but federal law is supreme in Puerto Rico and residents do not have voting representation in the Congress.
I definitely think it’s cool being Puerto Rican and Dominican, but I feel it has no influence on my music.
A strong, durable Puerto Rican economy will leave the island better prepared to handle future natural disasters.
The way you pronounce words the Puerto Rico way, it’s not really global for music. Colombians speak some of the best Spanish in the world. So having a Colombian next to me every time I write makes my music more international.
I’ve never had a stylist. My style is very distinctive from where I am from in Puerto Rico: a housing project in Carolina.
We have over 30 dams in Puerto Rico, and I think only one works. We’re here in the rain forest, and we have plenty of water. It’s insane.
That is why, with optimism instead of fear, all those who want to see Puerto Rico’s status resolved should seek the truth about each option, including the upside and the downside of each.
Puerto Rico is beautiful. I mean, I love it. But it’s hard to film here. It’s hard to film an action movie here where you’re outside, and you’re running around all day.
I wasn’t born to a wealthy or powerful family – mother from Puerto Rico, dad from the South Bronx.
I haven’t traveled in Africa nearly as much as I’d like to. I’ve been there a few times, and I’d like to learn more about the various cultures in Africa. But that’s the basis point of where all of the music that I love is based upon, from Africa to Cuba to Puerto Rico to South America.
I’m proud of both sides, and they are both really well known to be fighting heritages, so I tell everyone all the time – they say, ‘What are you’? – I say I’m Irish. I’m Puerto Rican. I guess I was born to fight.
Puerto Rico, within the span of two weeks, received two Category 4-5 hurricanes. That has never happened anywhere. The devastation has been enormous.
I just want to go down as one of the best Puerto Rican and best Latin fighters ever.
I’m half Puerto Rican and every Friday we have rice and beans and chicken in my house – so that’s like a very Latin staple. It’s just so comforting. I look forward to every single Friday because I just can’t wait for my rice and beans and chicken.
It’s amazing to be a Puerto Rican fighter; we have a great history of fighters.
As a matter of comparative, the U.S. citizens – the Puerto Ricans that live in the United States – have much better incomes, more than twice as much, participate in the labor force of greater scales, have better results in the education system, and so forth.
I’m Cuban and Puerto Rican and Miami is very Cuban oriented. Growing up around the music – all of the salsa and meringue influenced me as an artist. I find myself gravitating to latin influences, sounds.
I’ve got the fighting Irish, and Puerto Ricans are some of the best fighters in the world. I’m proud of who I am, but it doesn’t define me as a person.
I don’t call myself Latin, I call myself Puerto Rican.
I was dancing for my grandpa from the time I was 4 or 5 years old in Puerto Rico.
I was very skinny and very lanky and kind of awkward. In Puerto Rico, everybody is a little more voluptuous, with these beautiful bodies, and there I was, the skinny, lanky girl.
My style has a lot to do with where I’ve been brought up. I’ve lived half my life in Puerto Rico and the other half in Florida, so I listen to music in English as well as Spanish.
Puerto Ricans are United States citizens, and I think that the issue of statehood or independence needs to be addressed and needs to be resolved.
I know Spanish pretty well. I’m half-Puerto Rican – my mom is from Puerto Rico – so I have a lot of family there, and my mom’s first language is Spanish. But growing up in the States, and with my dad being from the States, I’m kind of just like this white kid.
I love it here in Puerto Rico. I love the weather and the beautiful people. Everything about the culture is like where I grew up in Philadelphia.
The first Latin music that blew my mind was bumba, which was a Puerto Rican beat.
I was in Puerto Rico going to school, and it was very jarring for me. ‘Traumatic’ is the only way that I can say it. Kids were making fun of me: ‘Oh, you’re a Yankee.’ And I acted out a lot. A lot. But looking back, and through a little bit of therapy, everything I am has to do with that time.
Puerto Rico still has the wherewithal to be a tourist destination.
We must all work together to bring the best to Puerto Rico.
I love Calle 13 – they are Puerto Rican; some songs sound like Reggaeton, but it’s not Reggaeton; it’s good urban music.
Apparently tired of waiting for clear direction from Congress, the people of Puerto Rico have used the tools provided by their own local constitution to schedule a vote for Dec. 13 on the status of the island.
American imperialism is often traced to the takeover of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii in 1898.
I don’t want to be named myself as one of the elite boxers of Puerto Rico. That’s for the fans and for the people that know about boxing. I just want to do my job the best I can, and I am going to do that the rest of my career.
