Over the past five centuries the converging cultures of the Caribbean Indians, Spain, Africa, and North America have blended to create a uniquely Puerto Rican heritage.

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Human habitation of Puerto Rico has been traced back to the 1st century AD. It is speculated that the island’s first settlers belonged to the same racial group of Indians that populated the North American continent and who reached Puerto Rico on rafts from present-day Florida. Two hundred years later the first Arawak Indians came to the island after traveling up from the Lesser Antilles followed in 600 AD. by a second group of Indian nomads called the Tainos. Eventually the Tainos centered their civilization on the islands of Hispaniola (today the Dominican Republic and Haiti) and Puerto Rico, which they named Borinquen.

On November 19, 1493, during his second journey to the New World, Christopher Columbus, discovered the island still inhabited by the Tainos and gave it its first European name – San Juan Bautista – in honor of St. John the Baptist. In 1508 a group of Spanish conquistadors under the leadership of Juan Ponce de Leon, who had accompanied Columbus on his discovery journey, arrived on the island and began colonization. The name of the island and its capital city, which was originally called Porto Rico (Rich Port), were later switched by Ponce de Leon, who became the island’s first governor. The second oldest city in the New World would become known as San Juan, and the island, Puerto Rico.

Early in the Spaniards occupation of the island, the presence of gold in riverbeds set off several decades of feverish mining. After the supply was exhausted, the Spaniards turned to cultivate the land with primary cash crops being sugar and ginger. By the middle of the 16th century, just about one hundred and fifty years into their coexistence, most of the Tainos had vanished from the island, either as victims of Spanish brutality or they had perished from diseases brought by European migrants.

Because of its strategic position, Puerto Rico became known as the key to the Indies, and “the strongest foothold of Spain in America.” It was the point of departure for expeditions to colonize and explore the Americas, as well as a depot for the transshipment of gold from the islands to Spain. Concerned about the safety of this treasured defensive bastion, the Spanish built a walled city, and fortified El Morro fortress, San Cristobal and San Geronimo forts.

The coveted island was attacked in 1595 by Sir Francis Drake, occupied for several months by English forces under the Earl of Cumberland in 1598, and burned and plundered by the Dutch in 1625. It became a haven for pirates and smugglers for the next one hundred years and was the target of other sieges until a last futile attempt by the British in 1797.

During the 18th century Puerto Rico’s cultural personality became more clearly defined. The island sent its first representatives to the Spanish Parliament and revolutionary efforts throughout Spain’s American colony flourished. In 1873 slavery was abolished and Spain chartered Puerto Rico as an autonomous state. Finally as a result of the Spanish American War, Puerto Rico was ceded to the United States in 1898.

In 1917 The Jones Act granted Puerto Ricans U.S. citizenship and twenty years later the Puerto Rican Reconstruction Administration provided for agricultural development and vast infrastructure improvement. By 1951 the island acquired the right to establish a government with its own constitution, and in 1952 the Commonwealth Status was adopted. The Constitution, somewhat modeled after the US Constitution, provided for three branches of Government--the Executive, the Legislative that consists of a Senate and a House of Representatives and the Judicial branch. Puerto Rico is represented in the U.S. House of Representatives by a resident commissioner, who has a voice, but no vote. Today, island residents, despite their citizenship, still cannot vote for the President of the U.S.

El Grito de Lares (The Cry of Lares) was a glorious yet ill-fated cry for freedom and independence from Spain. In 1868, a group of Puerto Ricans who were tired of poverty, slavery, and taxation under Spanish rule decided to revolt. On September 23rd, hundreds of revolutionaries seized the town of Lares and formed a provisional government, declaring an independent Puerto Rico with freedom of the press, political liberties and the abolition of slavery. The following day they marched on to the nearby town of San Sebastián, where the Spanish militia put an end to the brief insurrection. Some revolutionaries escaped, some died in action, and many were sent to jail. Nevertheless, the uprising proved to be fruitful. It resulted in the provision of several reforms by the Spanish government, including recognition of political parties on the island and the eventual abolition of slavery. The spirit of that day lives on in the hearts and minds of many locals, and the town of Lares has come to be known as the birthplace of Puerto Rican Nationalism.