An journalist for El Nuevo Día (the most known newspaper here)went to Washington recently, and asked common Americans question about Puerto Rico. After reading the full article, I was AMAZED at how stupid most of these people were about Puerto Rico. I feel offended that we must take two years of American history in school, that we MUST learn English, that our little troops must go to a pathetic war, that we must swallow all and every single one of your President's screw-ups, that we are your medicine testers, and (like my grandfather says) you throw a fart and we smell it.

Now, in hopes that the future generation isnt as ignorant, I'm asking you all, what do you know about Puerto Rico (besides that it's an island in this world)?

any questions about Puerto Rico i will gladly answer.

-arianhorn

and we may be smaller (not smallest) than other hispanic/caribbean countries but were the ones with the best economy.

-arianhorn

food stamps for everything???? we dont do that.
hating americans? let me exaplain politics:
there are 3 major parties here:
one loves americans (the ones that want us to be a state, eww)
one hates them (the ones that want us to be independant)
and the ones who want the commonwealth.

im leaving this country for the mere reason of the commonwealth. i despise it.

-arianhorn

I don't know anything about Puerto Rico except that it was a Spanish colony. Why would we? We don't get any news abou it here, and it's small so I don't know anyone from there (except you) and we don't learn about it in school. I did hear one story about it, my grandparents went there once, they said the Puerto Ricans hated Americans and used food stamps for everything.

Other significant facts?

-we were the first ppl to make ice cream of weird flavors (such as bee, beef, rice, etc ice cream)
-the legend of the Chupacabra (also known as the Goatsucker)started here. I want to inform everyone who believes in it that it's just wild monkeys.
-the coquí (a small tree frog) lives here only.
-the coffee we make is drunk in the vatican by the pope
-we have a tradition to clap everytime we're in a plane and it lands safely
-there are a few haunted forts here
-in renaissance europe, the european kings were interested in Puerto Rico because from this island you can go any place in america easier and this is the first island you'll see if you look at the way the renaissance ships went.
-we were invaded by france once in the south, which still today affects us considering that teh southern people here pronounce the 'r' like the french do and the final 'n' nasal sound (that applies to all of us though).
-another custom here is in somenational festivities some people will wear costumes and masks and annoy people (heres a pic)

-we also have the Giant Masks festival, in which we make giant masks (duh) and walk with them around the Old San Juan
-the puerto rican parrot resides here only (duh)
-those huge lizards you see are a plague here

-arianhorn

I knew nothing about Puerto Rico. Now I do. I've done some research. Its an interesting place, and it sucks that its still held firmly by the U.S. If you have any other significant stories about Puerto Rico please do share. I'm interested. The bith control testing seems horrible though. I feel bad that anyone had to life through that.

Jookly, first of all I'm just asking. I'm not saying that if you dont know anything ill kill you. geez. its funny because you go to europe and the know more about puerto rico than you do, which is embarrassing. anyways...

about the medicine testers... when the birth control pill was first created, they were sent here to be tested. did they work? no, the women got pregnant... and many of their babies ended up without arms or without legs or just not normal because of it.

-arianhorn

I don't know much about Puerto Rico, but my uncle went and he loves it there. He says there are beautiful beaches. I plan on going there one day cause I love the Hispanic culture. Plus, I have a friend who is from there.

Honestly, I knew absolutely nothing about Puerto Rico until I looked it up a minute ago on Wikipedia. Your country has a pretty interesting history.

Could you elaborate on what you said about being "medicine testers" though? The article said that "The economic conditions in Puerto Rico have improved dramatically since the Great Depression due to external investment in capital-intensive industry such as petrochemicals pharmaceuticals and technology", but that's about it.

I know its a commonwealth and that this kid Ricky I used to know from there liked to please the ladies. And you have some sort of coastline fort I learned about in Spanish class.

Why do you care what the average person knows about your country? I dont care anymore about PuertoRico than I do about NorthDakota. The reason you learn America history is because you are American citizens. Duh!