Emily's Universe

Puerto Rico FAQ

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I used to have here a long description about Puerto Rico that I found somewhere online. However, a while back I had thought of writing up a PR-FAQ, with answers to many of the usual questions that I've gotten about Puerto Rico over the years I've spent in the US. And so, a FAQ is born :-)

Please note that these questions are in no particular order. I've tried to answer them to the best of my knowledge, and I include references in some of them. If you have any additional questions about Puerto Rico, email it to me and I'll try my best to answer it promptly! And if you see any incorrect information here, then let me know too so that I can correct it fast.

Where is Puerto Rico?

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Puerto Rico is the smallest and easternmost of the Greater Antilles, a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. It's located east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands, and on a larger scale, north of Venezuela and south of Bermuda. The geographical coordinates of the approximate center of the island are 18.2°N, 66.5°W.

How big is the island?

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The usual comment is that Puerto Rico is "100 by 35", which is a shorthand estimate of the main island's dimensions: about 100 miles east-to-west and about 35 miles north-to-south. It's just slightly smaller than three times the size of Rhode Island.

Does it ever snow there?

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Nope! Why do you think my first Pennsylvanian winter was so incredibly shocking to me? :-P Puerto Rico is a tropical island, which means that the temperatures are more or less the same all year-round, with an average of around 80°F. It's obviously cooler during winter and hotter during summer, but the temperature variations are not too drastic. The lows during winter are usually in the mid to upper 60s°F in the coastal areas and upper 50s°F in the mountains. And since the mountains are not too tall, it doesn't get cold enough there to snow. Puerto Rico's all-time record low temperature ever was around 40°F, in the mountains.

There are mountains in Puerto Rico?!?!?!?

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Yes! Puerto Rico is a mostly mountainous island. The mountain ranges run mostly east-west along the center of the island and cover around 60% of the main island's area. The tallest mountain is called Cerro de Punta, and it is around 4400 feet in height.

You get hurricanes every year, right?

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Hurricane season is from June to November every year, but the island is not hit by hurricanes every year. Tropical waves, depressions and storms are more frequent, obviously. Though there have been various devastating hurricanes in the past. The most recent one was Hurricane Georges, in 1998 (which by the way left my hometown without electricity for three weeks... the only good thing about that was that I got to use my telescope every night and see the Milky Way for the first time ever).

What about earthquakes?

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Puerto Rico lies very close to the boundary between the North American Plate and the Caribbean Plate. The deepest point in the Atlantic Ocean (around 28,000 feet) is in this plate intersection, and it is called "The Puerto Rico Trench", and it is about 500 miles in total length. The island of Puerto Rico is less than 100 miles away from the deepest point in the trench. So yeah, Puerto Rico is quite seismologically active. There have been a total of four severe earthquakes recorded since the island's discovery by the Spaniards, at almost a rate of one per century (almost). Lots of smaller quakes ("temblores") are felt throughout the year, but these are usually minor and most are only detectable with instruments (not actualy felt by people).

How many people live there?

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There are almost four million people living in Puerto Rico (3,913,054 according to the 2000 census). The island is very densely populated, by the way. If Puerto Rico was a state, it would be ranked 27th in the list of US states by population and 2nd by population density.

So is Puerto Rico a state or not?

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No, Puerto Rico is not a US state. It is a Commonwealth (or "Estado Libre Asociado", not to be confused with "Free Associate State", which though literal translations of each other, they mean different things politically) of the United States. It's been this way since 1952, when the Puerto Rican Constitution was created. Puerto Rico has never been a sovereign state, having gone from being a colony of Spain for centuries, to a somewhat autonomous entity for a few months, to a colony of the United States for about half a century, and then it went to the current status. Puerto Rico is basically in political limbo -- not quite a 'country', but not quite a 'state'. Interestingly enough, Puerto Rico has its own Olympic Teams, separate from the United States, and also its own contestant in the Miss Universe pageant (which is kind of a Big Deal in the island).

Are you a US Citizen?

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Yes. Puerto Ricans were granted US citizenship through the Jones Act of 1917.

What's the currency in Puerto Rico?

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The US dollar.

Do you vote in the presidential elections?

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Puerto Ricans living in the island do not vote in the presidential elections (it seems, however, that they *can* vote in presidential primaries, for some bizarre reason); they only vote in local elections (governor, mayors, etc). Puerto Rico also has one representative in the US Congress, but this person cannot vote in Congress ("voice but no vote"). However, if a Puerto Rican moves permanently to the US (like me), they can vote in presidential/congressional elections in the state they moved to (like I did in 2004 in Pennsylvania, and 2006 (and soon 2008) in Maryland). Do note however that politics is practically the national sport of Puerto Rico, but this refers to local politics and the neverending question of the political status of the island in relation to the United States.

Does everyone there speak English? Spanish? Spanglish?

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The official languages of Puerto Rico are Spanish and English. The vast majority of the people speak Spanish, very many have at least some knowledge of English, and some are fully bilingual. Puerto Rican Spanish is a rather distinct dialect. Some people say that the 'Puerto Rican accent' is very easily identifiable. I say that Puerto Ricans have no accent but everybody else does and that's why we can be easily identified :-D Puerto Rican slang involves a lot of very peculiar Spanglish, as well as Taíno- and African-influenced words.

Puerto Rican food is like tamales and quesadillas and stuff like that, right?

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Um... no. That's Mexican food you're thinking about. Puerto Rican food, though at times similar to Mexican or Spanish food, is quite different from them too. Cuban and Dominican food are very similar to Puerto Rican food, by the way. Arroz con habichuelas exists in a thousand different varieties, and plantains can be cooked in a billion gillion different ways (the best of them being the tostones, of course).

But you're SOOOOO white. Are you sure you're Puerto Rican?

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Puerto Rican skin colors vary from the whitest of the white (yes, even whiter than me!) to the darkest of the dark, going through many many many different shades of beige, tan, and brown. This great diversity comes from Puerto Rican's three main ethnic origins: Spaniard, Taíno, and African. Everyone has a little bit of each of them, some more than others. So really, it's not that strange that I'm very white and very Puerto Rican.

There's more than one university in Puerto Rico?

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Yes! There are many many many universities in Puerto Rico. The University of Puerto Rico system alone has 11 campuses (the best one being the Mayagüez Campus, of course).

What is that high-pitched whistle-like noise at night? Crickets?

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That's the sound of the song of the coquí, a cute little tree frog native to Puerto Rico.

Are there interstates in Puerto Rico?

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Oddly enough, yes :-P

So what's the deal with the traffic signs in kilometers and the speed limits in miles per hour?

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Ahh, that's one of our precious little idiosyncrasies that make us so special. In Puerto Rico, distances on road signs are always measured in meters or kilometers, but all speed limits are in miles per hour. It makes perfect sense to us, really, since we grew up with it. But that's not all! Milk is sold by the gallon and gasoline is sold by the liter. And ambient temperature is measured in Fahrenheit while body temperature is measured in Celsius. This is why I've always said that 40 degrees are always bad for Puerto Ricans. If it's in your body, you're dying of a fever, but if it's in the air, you're freezing to death.

Last Updated: 14 March 2008