Highlights, Challenges, & What's Next?

Researching the island of Puerto Rico has been interesting, exciting, and frustrating all at the same time. Not only have I found facts about this island easily but I've also struggled with finding the deeper, more in-depth topics for my paper. Although it was difficult sometimes, those facts that I was forced to dig deeper for, helped me in the long run (and even made me a little distracted from my paper at times).

Some highlights of my research have been finding interesting facts about the history of Puerto Rico that you probably wouldn't find by just typing "Puerto Rico" into the Google search bar...

- When the African slaves replaced the indigenous people, the Tainos, they benefitted the Spanish more than expected. The slaves actually made an effort to learn the ways of the Spaniard. Many slave owners would teach their slaves Spanish so they could teach their children and their owner's children in return.

- Unlike the United States, slavery in Puerto Rico resulted in a slave code that stated that a slave was a human being and had certain rights just like everyone else.

- The Africans also contributed to religious beliefs on the island. The practice of black magic, communications with the dead, and other supernatural forces were prominent in the Bantu culture of Puerto Rico.

- The United States was attracted to this island in particular because it's perfectly located between North and South American where the U.S. military could station navy boats without worrying about running out of coal to get there. 

- Today, people born on the island are automatically born as U.S. citizens and have all of the rights of natural born U.S. citizens.

- Puerto Rico uses the U.S. dollar as their currency

- Puerto Rico carries more debt per capita than any state in the United States

Next in my research process is processing Puerto Rico's identity crisis and relating it to how the United States came to be.