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Puerto Rican 101
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Send your comments or questions to Puerto Rican 101
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"Puerto Rican 101" in the subject line. Puerto Rican 101 Puerto Rico, Porto Rico, Borinquen, Borikén The names of Puerto Rico..... Much is being said on the internet about the names of Puerto Rico. Most of it is way wrong. No, the Portuguese did not name the island Porto Rico... No, Porto Rico is not the arcaic name.... The Taínos of Puerto Rico named their island paradise, Borikén. Later the Spaniards coined the word Borinquen. Christopher Columbus named the island San Juan Bautista and the rich port, Puerto Rico. Soon after, just before the governorship of Juan Ponce de León and purely by error, the names were switched and the island became Puerto Rico. For a period of time after 1898 the Americans took over
the island and changed the name from Puerto Rico to Porto Rico, because
they could not pronounce Puerto - and just mispelled it once and it 'took'.
Later, at the urging of Luis Muñoz Marín and many others,
the US finally agreed to correct their error and use the correct spelling.
Puerto Ricans NEVER used the term Porto Rico (except when forced to use
it in legal documents and did so bitterly). Send your comments or questions to Puerto Rican 101
at email
us and include
"Puerto Rican 101" in the subject line. |