“MY HERITAGE-DISCOVERY AND CELEBRATION”

1. “MY HERITAGE-DISCOVERY AND CELEBRATION” Keila Guzman Period:2

2. Table of contents - Economics -Politics -Environment -Society & Culture - Family Tree

4. ECONOMICS

5. ECONOMICS • A two-year-long economic downturn and a persistent income gap with the U.S. mainland contribute to an uncertain outlook for Puerto Rico. Still, the commonwealth possesses a skilled and educated workforce, a favorable business climate, and the benefits of U.S. legal and financial structures—advantages that could encourage the development of new industries and create the potential for sustained growth. • Recently the economy has suffered budget cuts from U.S. The Puerto Rican economy has depended heavily on the tax incentives given to U.S. • Since Puerto Rico is part of the United States, the island's currency is the U.S. dollar.

6. POLITICS Puerto Rico's governor is elected directly for a four-year term. Under the Commonwealth formula, residents of Puerto Rico lack voting representation in Congress and do not participate in presidential elections. As U.S. citizens, Puerto Ricans are subject to military service and most federal laws. Puerto Rican government income-tax rates are set at a level that closely parallels federal-plus-state levies on the mainland. Puerto Rico is a major hub of Caribbean commerce, finance, tourism, and communications. San Juan is one of the world's busiest cruise-ship ports, and Puerto Rico's standard of living continues to be among the highest in the Western Hemisphere.

7. ENVIRONMENT • Roughly half the size of New Jersey, this U.S. • Puerto Rico is the most easterly and the smallest of the four major islands that form the Greater Antilles. The other three are Cuba, Jamaica, and Hispaniola (which is home to two nations, Haiti and the Dominican Republic). • Most of Puerto Rico's geology, especially its mountain peaks, resulted from volcanic activity that deposited lava and igneous rock in consecutive layers. To a lesser degree, the island is also composed of quartz, dynamite, and, along some of its edges, coral limestone

8. SOCIETY & CULTURE • A Spanish speaking Society. • One of Puerto Rico's notable exports is its music, which is probably the predominant Caribbean music heard in the United States. • The musical traditions of the Spanish and Africans can also be heard in Puerto Rico's music. • From kitchens throughout Puerto Rico comes from adobo and sofrito -blends of herbs and spices that give many of the native foods their distinctive taste and color. Adobo, made by crushing together peppercorns, oregano, garlic, salt, olive oil, and lime juice or vinegar, is rubbed into meats before they are roasted. Sofrito, a potpourri of onions, garlic, coriander, and peppers browned in either olive oil or land and colored with achiote (annatto seeds), imparts the bright-yellow color to the island's rice, soups, and stews. • Population : 3,958,128

9. Noelia Angel Rita Henry Noelia Jason Keila

10. Hispanics During civil war The Civil War was the first war in which Hispanics were represented in relatively significant numbers,” Gilberto Villahermosa wrote in the Army, an Association of the U.S. Army magazine. He was an active duty colonel at the time the article was published.“At the outbreak of the war there were some 27,500 Mexican-Americans living in the U.S. Some 2,550 joined the Confederate cause and 1,000 joined the Union Army. The New Mexico Volunteers, the oldest militia organization in the New Mexico territory, was incorporated into the Union Army shortly after the beginning of the war. Consisting of five regiments, it had 4,000 officers and Soldiers.

11. Luis Munoz Rivera He became a leader of the Autonomist Party and in 1890 founded its newspaper La Democracies. Munoz Rivera founded the newspaper El Territorio, the voice of landowners hurt by a U.S.-imposed blockade. Just as he had done in Spain, Munoz Rivera travelled to the United States to argue for the establishment of free trade between the island and the mainland. He then resettled in New York where he founded the bilingual newspaper Puerto Rican Herald in 1901.