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Puerto Rico is a Caribbean country, formerly a Spanish colony, now a Free Associated State, but located on U.S. controlled territory. Despite formal independence, America's influence is still quite tangible here: people learn English, practice Catholicism, pay with dollars - in general, they do everything to please their stronger neighbor. Puerto Rico is an island nation, with most of its population living on the island of the same name. Less significant pieces of land that make up the country include the islands of Vieques, Desecheo, Caja de Muertos, Culebra and Mona.
The name "Puerto Rico" itself translates as "rich port". At first it was the administrative center of the colony, but gradually the sonorous phrase stuck with the whole island. In 1898, after a military armed conflict, Spain ceded this part of the Caribbean islands to the United States. Since then, Puerto Rico began an active process of emigration of the local population to the Land of Freedom, topped off with a very sluggish struggle for independence. In 1952 an assassination attempt on the U.S. president by Puerto Rican separatists gave Puerto Rico the opportunity to get its own constitution and the status of an associated territory with which it still exists today.
Puerto Rico is home to about 3,700,000 people. In the second half of the XIX century an influx of immigrants from Latin America, which added a unique South American flavor to the mosaic of Indian rituals, Spanish religiosity and African superstition. Today's islanders are a cheerful, open-minded people who never lose heart despite the poor conditions in which they live.
