Send your comments or questions to Puerto Rican 101 at email us    and include   "Puerto Rican 101" in the subject line.
El Boricua reserves the right to choose which questions and answers will be published.

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.
El Boricua reserves the right to choose which questions and answers will be published.