About English in Puerto Rico and its Background

     What its now known as Puerto Rico was an island inhabited by "Taino"Indians which they called boriquen, When the Spain fleets arrived about five hundred years ago they established them selves and enslaved the local plus they also brought Africans as additional slaves for a bigger work force. This planted the seed for a new culture and a new country that was soon to be born.It took about twelve generations to establish a sense of uniqueness a sense of not being part of Spain but being a country in it of itself. During all this time a culture was being developed and a language with it, Later the local revolutionary's were cultivating this national pride and demanding Spain liberty but then came the war between the United States and Spain and as a result Puerto Rico was passed from the Spanish government to the United States government. And thus we went from being owned by a Spanish speaking nation to a English speaking nation. Immediately the work of unculturization began and the US government was imposing English as a first language but it was not working out well. It is at this point that the history of the English of Puerto Rico began.

"Newyorricans" at the Puertorrican parade in New York 

     The US started out pretty much the same way we did they were colonies of a super power. Their mother nation was England and ours was Spain. The two had a language of their own and both had African slave men influences. The difference was that the people that went from England to the united states were not just bad people as it was in the case of the people that went from Spain to Puerto Rico. You see the immigration from England to US was mostly religious and political thus the people that migrated were educated and with "good" morals. In contrast with the people that went from Spain to Puerto Rico were mostly criminals and people with no education. So this created two very different cultures.

Puertorricans at the Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastian in Puerto Rico

     So when English was imposed in the schools of Puerto Rico it was not well assimilated the teachers did not knew how to speak English let alone teach it. The student were barley abel to learn Spanish and now they had to start learning a new language. So the government decided that they would keep Spanish as our first language. The people that spoke English those days were the rich ones the ones with access to a better education and more opportunities or people that went to the army had to learn English also.This does not differ that much from today because even though  English is thought in public schools it is the people that comes from private school the ones with a better uderstandind and a better management of the language. So the English in Puerto Rico is spoke by the middle and upper class and this have some major implications in the type of vocabulary used and in which fields it is being used for example; people using English in the island will most likely be professionals in their work area or companies but it is not used in the daily activities. Overall English in Puerto Rico is very well spoken but very different from the one spoken in the mainland. In contrast the English spoken by a considerable amount of Puertoricans in the US is very different from the one spoken in the island this is because most of they people that migrated from the island to the mainland back in the 60s were of a lower class. Here is a clip of a good imitation of the Englis spoken by Puertorrican immigrants in the US.  This is all I have for you today, see you on the next one.