September 2019 Abstract Indigenous peoples have occupied the island of Puerto Rico since at least 3000 B.C. Due to the demographic shifts that occurred after European contact, the origin(s) of these ancient populations, and their genetic relationship to present-day islanders, are unclear. We use ancient DNA to characterize the population history and genetic legacies of […]
By Maria Alejandra Nieves Colon, University of Minnesota Twin Cities Abstract As the last American region settled by humans, yet the first to experience European colonization, the Caribbean islands have a complex history characterized by continuous migration, admixture, and demographic change. In the last 20 years, genetics research has transformed our understanding of Caribbean population […]
BY ALEXANDER C. KAUFMAN, MARCH 6, 2019 The island of Vieques is still struggling after the hurricanes of 2017, but its most famous tree offers hope. It’s been a year and a half since hurricanes Irma and Maria pummeled Vieques, a tiny island of off Puerto Rico’s eastern coast, and still many homes lay in rubble, electric […]
Robert M. Poole October 2011 The Indians who greeted Columbus were long believed to have died out. But a journalist’s search for their descendants turned up surprising results If you have ever paddled a canoe, napped in a hammock, savored a barbecue, smoked tobacco or tracked a hurricane across Cuba, you have paid tribute to the Taíno, the Indians who invented those words […]
MILAGROS DENIS AND RACHEL POOLEY In December 1898, at the close of the Spanish-American War, Spain surrendered control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Guam to the United States. Though Cuba achieved nominal independence in 1902, in 1917 Puerto Rico assumed the status of an American territory, which afforded Puerto Ricans U.S. citizenship and the right […]
Eleanor Roosevelt, “Puerto Rican Labor Movement: Magazine,” 1934, Children and Youth in History
In 1990 I interviewed Puerto Rican women–feminist critics, sociologists, and writers–for a project on Caribbean women’s discourse.
Between the 1930s and the 1970s, approximately one-third of the female population of Puerto Rico was sterilized, making it highest rate of sterilization in the world.
The year 1917 marked a critical moment in the relationship between the United States and its Puerto Rican colony.
During World War II the U.S. Federal Government took over approximately 26,000 acres out of a total of 33,000 in the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, to build military installations.
