Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Puerto Rican identity in the United States has long been influenced by pressure to Americanize and by pressure to maintain a common Puerto Rican nationalist identity (Davila 1997). Puerto Ricans in response have created a culture that is strongly influenced by Americanization policies, but still uniquely Puerto Rican (Davila 1997; Morris 1995). The Puerto Rican government has deliberately endeavored to direct the philosophy of Puerto Rican identity on the island and abroad (Davila 1997; Duany 2002a). This struggle for the maintenance of Puerto Rican culture against the affront of the Americanization influences has created a rift between Puerto Ricans who wish to maintain their Puerto Ricaness on the island versus the perceived threat of Nuyorican influences from the Diasporas. The Diaspora community in turn has fought for the maintenance of their own Puerto Rican culture in the face of a hostile environment in the metropolis (Flores 2000; Padilla 1986).In keeping with the question of adaptability for Puerto Ricans in the United States, my study will analyze the significance of the traditional assimilation paradigm as well as the segmented assimilation model on Puerto Ricans in the United States. Furthermore, using the 1989 Latino National Political Survey (LNPS) I will use structural level variables, such as the proportional size of each specific group in my study to Puerto Rican women in order to challenge the traditional assimilation and the segmented assimilation paradigms to the adaptability perspective. Initial findings have indicated that identity is strongly maintained even when Puerto Ricans out-group marry. However, the strength of their identity vary by the ethnic group they marry into.

Publication Type: Proceeding

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Exogamy has long been used as a measure for determining the level of acceptability between ethnic and racial groups. This study will focus on exogamy between Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico and the largest national groups on the Island, specifically, Americans, Europeans, Cubans, Dominicans, Other Latin Americans, and Others. The data for Puerto Rico the analysis comes from the 1990 5 percent Public Use Micro Data Sample. A multinominal logistic regression was conducted to determine the odds a Puerto Rican will have to form or will form an exogamous relationship with either a European American, an African American, other racial non-Hispanic groups, Mexicans, Cubans, Dominicans, other Hispanics, and those with a generic Hispanic or Latino identity. Intermarriage that occurs in the island of Puerto Rico, the likelihood of exogamy is closely linked to the person’s birthplace and to the parent’s birthplace. Puerto Ricans are therefore much more likely to marry or cohabitate with another Puerto Rican born on the island versus all other possible group combination. In some cases particularly with Cubans, and Dominicans being a Puerto Rican born outside of Puerto Rico increases the likelihood of exogamy considerably.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The Effects of Immigration on Religion
Among Three Generations of Dominican and Puerto Rican Women


This paper discusses several years of ongoing research of Dominican and Puerto Rican women and their relative commitment to religion over three generations. The first generation of our respondents were born and largely grew up in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico while second and third generations grew up in New York and surrounding areas.
Women usually inculcated religious beliefs in their children and which did not change much over the three generations. We found a decline over three generations in religious commitment as defined by attending church. However, we also speculate that this decline in religious commitment may be a change in the way religion is practiced with more religious observance taking place in the home and less at church.
The decline in Catholicism saw an increased participation in Protestant religious groups often of the fundamentalist variety. Two possible explanations for this are: the Catholic church rarely had priests in the continental United States at least in the beginning of both immigrations who spoke Spanish while fundamentalist religious groups were quick to use Spanish speaking religious figures; and secondly, the fundamentalist religions may have seemed more appropriate for the new environment. We also suspect that non-Christian practices such as Santeria and Voodou are more wide-spread among our respondents than they admitted to. The denial of such non-Christian practices may have to do with the negative stigma attached to non-Christian practices

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This article analyzes the case of Puerto Rican contentious action and Puerto Rico’s political opportunity structures (POS) by focusing on three contentious categories (i.e., university, U.S.-based, armed, and labor) during the mobilization period, 1960s-1980s. By situating the historical structures of the quasi-colonial state within the mobilization phase, we better understand Puerto Rico’s POS. My main argument is that Puerto Rico’s quasi-colonized structures have altered Puerto Rico’s POS in a number of ways (e.g., heightened external/international influences and strengthened repression/facilitation/ pacification structures). In turn, the POS resulting from the quasi-colonial context has affected contention in the following ways: contentious has primarily rooted in nationalist/anti-colonial’s frames and has been targeted at external actors.