Quote Originally Posted by lorrie View Post
I just wanted to try to clarify one of the major problems Puerto Ricans struggle with.

First off, Puerto Rican's are white (Caucasian). Like myself.... Blond, Light hazel eyes & olive skin.
Put me in the sun for an hour and I look like a very ripe, red tomato.

They DO NOT consider themselves Hispanic.
They will NEVER, NEVER check-mark 'HISPANIC' on a government form.

Puerto Rico has a major illegal immigration problem with people coming from Haiti and the
Dominican Republic forming enclaves of Dominican/Haitian ghettos.

The tensions and animosity between the Puerto Ricans and the illegal immigrant communities
have been building for decades.

The lower class or poorer Puerto Rican's live among the illegal immigrants which grew into
a mixed race community. The mixed race children are primarily born with black or very dark skin.

Puerto Rican's look down on them and call them 'Malano's'. They feel much like how we do about
the people here from Mexico and South America.

The typical Puerto Rican stereotype on the mainland (United States), I feel stems from the Puerto Ricans (Malano's)
that migrate into the U.S.

Myself included. Growing up in New York, I thought all Puerto Rican's were dark skin/black,
uneducated people that worked in factories and stood on the corners screaming sexual obscenities when
you walked past them.

I remember my first trip to the island to visit family. I did not want to go, afraid my family was all going to look
like the people in the factory of the dress company I worked for.

To my surprise, I was totally stunned when I arrived in Puerto Rico and everyone looked like me.

Light hair, light eyes and olive skin.
I must have visited a different Puerto Rico than you.
Most of them told me that they were tri-racial: European, Taino and African.

I and my wife were embraced and felt nothing either way.

But Slowly but surely they are shaking off the mind-screw that was placed on them.