SOCIOLOGY 338: LATINOS IN THE US

PUERTO RICANS IN NEW YORK

HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL CONTEXT


Much as in the case of the Cubans and the Mexicans, it is impossible to
understand the position of Puerto Ricans in American society without placing
them in some sort of historical context.

Puerto Rico (despite its name) has always been fairly poor.

Rich soil but a great deal of inequality

During colonial rule served as a relatively minor post.

Became part of the United States after the Spanish-American War of 1898

Largely out of strategic reasons: the Caribbean as an American Lake.

Effect on Puerto Ricans of US takeover:

improvement in Public Health

improvement in education-- more English oriented

shift towards monoculture dominated b US companies

beginning of a double dependence-- political and economic.

from the beginning a political argument between independence and
statehood--- autonomy or closer relations to the US?

 The solution was the Estado Libre Asociado and Operation Bootstrap.

PR retains autonomy in internal issues

Economic program consists of two policies:

promote investment through low taxes

promote migration to the US as a safety valve

gets rid of "excess" labor

money sent back

The Puerto Rican community in the mainland had been here a long time

in 19th century, independetistas worked din US

but it is a roughly 30 year period of 1945 to 1965 that we get the creation
of the PR community in the US

beginning in 1970, confusing pattern of in and out migration-- some
continued flow, but no both ways.

Who migrated:

different patterns at different times

in the 1940s--- "superior" immigrant with more educational skill

in the 1950s and 1960s, more rural and less skilled

in general, higher skills than the island population.

 Why migrated?

Many similar debates as in the case of the Mex-American community

population pressure on the island

pull of higher wages

US companies recruiting

PR government encouraging migration

One puzzle:

Great migration same time as "boom" in Puerto Rico


Beginning in the mid-1970s a parallel crisis

the island economy declines and becomes increasingly dependent on various
forms of government assistance

mainland PR population remains on the bottom of a lot of socio-economic
indices.

a 1976 Civil Rights report stated that "incidence of poverty and
unemployment in the PR community is more severe than that of virtually any
ethnic group in the US" including African Americans

This "double tragedy" is at the heart of the Puerto Rican experience in the
United States

I certainly don’t have an answer, but I hope the information I give you over
the next few weeks will help you begin to understand.

 
The pattern of PR socio-economic problems continue into 1990.

Even when compared to other Latino population, PR numbers are below the
average for 

income

higher poverty rate

education performance is better than Mexican Am but considering that you
don’t have the migrant flow, should be much better

low work force participation and high unemployment rate.

 
 
There are 2.6 million PR’s in the mainland in 1990.

While Puerto Ricans are found in many parts of the country, we will only be
looking at the New York area.

but PRs in New York fairly similar to other areas.

Remember that this includes non-PR-- is the situation this bad throughout
the New York area?


We have seen a great deal of variation within the Latino community

The new York area serves as a microcosm of these differences.

 


Note that difference sin income from Hispanics to Non-His remains throughout
the region, but in some areas the gulf is much smaller.

Manhattan is an extreme case of inequality

Note also educational performance very difference

Finally, even within the same metropolitan region, a great deal of
difference in racial identification.

Some patterns appear to be PR specific across various geographical areas

most worrisome is large percentage of female headed households.

Lets look at some of these issues in more detailed way.

Economy

We need to place the PR socio-economic predicament in some sort of context.

these include 

racial discrimination

economic decline

continued inflow of migrants

changing social support structures.

Today mostly deal with change sin economy.

New York area as a whole has lost a great deal

Proportion of national GNP has gone down about 1/5th

similar losses in share of jobs and national income

The use of New York as a gateway into the economic middle class may be
limited.

Employment patterns for Puerto Ricans do no indicate a clear avenue out of
poverty:

Huge undercounted informal economy

pattern indicate that on top of underrepresentation in management etc. PR
tend to be on the bottom of any job category

continuing high employment in precisely those sectors that have lost impetus
in the NYC economy--cheap manufacturing.

Much as the Mex-Am population in Los Angeles, the Puerto Rican community
came at the "wrong time"-- a change in the economic structure of the US

PR suffered from the same forces that adversely affected Mex-Am in LA:

automation and deskilling

suburbanization of manufacturing

globailization

credentialism-- precisely where we saw problems for the PR population.

made worse by race as an intervening factor with both employers and unions

some have explained this as part of a move to flexible production

other emphasize creation of privileged work sectors often defended by racial
boundaries

others say that in New York (and LA) we are merely seeing a close up of
forces changing the entire world.

what do all these mean in New York

In 1960, for example, manufacturing accounted for 60% of PR employment

but since the 1950s, the relative importance of manufacturing for the New
York economy has declined by half.

in the decade that followed manufacturing jobs in NYC declined by 173,000

next decade (1970-1980), NYC lost 268,000 jobs

in the 1980s even faster-- New York lost manufacturing jobs at three times
national average.

despite these declines, PR still over-represented in manufacturing --- 40%
of PR jobs were blue collar (not the same thing, but correlated)

actual decline in PR employment in 1970-1980

moreover,  the jobs staying (less well paid, less union protection) are
being held by PR.

light manufacturing does not represent a secure channel for mobility

here we also see the negative side of the "enclave" as well

entrepreneurs often PR and while this provides some support also tends to
frustrate efforts to get better working conditions.

by the way, lets us not forget that despite being seen as a "problem
minority", PR have made an important contribution to NYC economy by
providing a base of cheap labor.

these changes hit the PR community precisely when it was beginning to create
a stable economic base in NY.

also happened at a point when class based politics has been partly replaced
by ethnic divisions making PR suffer from various directions.

in part the PR community has created new niches by employment in low paying
service economy fro new migrants

at the same time, however, some indication that new migrants may be
displacing Puerto Ricans.
 
even a previously possible road to middle class-- government employment has
been largely cut by recent changes in government financing and policy

declines in absolute amounts of these

also indications of possible discrimination

Declines in Public Assistance

Possibly important development is drastic decline in public social support

Things like housing cut by almost 3/4ths.

absence of government creating the avenues through which a new generation
can be socially mobile.


evidence of outright discrimination much more visible in other sectors

in construction-- anecdotal but consistent evidence of discrimination
against PR and African-Americans

in financial sector (a growth industry for New York)--- low relative
employment of PR and A-A and most] of these concentrated in lowest rungs of
the ladder.

even after getting the job, discrimination

studies documenting discrimination accounted for 1/2 to 1/3 income
differentials when all else is controlled.
 
Dominican Comparison.

Second biggest group after PR

similar experience with job concentration in 1980 similar to that of PR in
1960s

have experienced very similar declines in "aristocratic" manufacturing
employment 

and lower absolute jobs due to decline in garment industry.

interesting is that where PR neighborhoods had many small entrepreneurial
locations in 1950s and 1960s (bodegas, etc) these apparently have suffered a
decline.

Dominican entrepreneurship is up and they seem to filling that niche

(In Sunset Park, some retention of small stores)

(This should make you doubt simplistic cultural arguments and consider how
timing and process produce particular outcomes).

the link to the DR through "transnational business" is also worth analyzing.


How do all these eplay out 

You read the story in ElBarrio

Another center of PR community is Sunset Park in Brooklyn

2 sq. miles and 100000 people

Includes heterogeneous ethnic and class groups.

but inside the neighborhood the same kind of socio-ecological placement we
found in other cities.

worst part I right by the expressway built by Robert Moses

PR first arrive din the 1920s and then big push in 1950s and 1960s.

concentration from two towns-- making it more of a "pueblito" inside NY

biggest employer is a Medical Center-- with typical wage structure of 90s
with few jobs paying a lot and many paying little

a lot of informal and illegal employment

Segregation

The economic structure which has limited PR success in the United States has
a parallel in housing.

First, a great deal of segregation.

Studies indicate that in 1980 61% of PR would have had to move in order to
spatially integrate with Anglos

also a great deal of segregation with blacks

Causes?

social distance

racial solidarity

SES differences

evidence indicates that SES might be most important

Biggest problem of this is that this segregation then leads to further
deterioration of SES
 

the same factors we saw in LA

low networks

distance from jobs


On a daily basis, this also has costs.

The two boroughs where PR live ---Brooklyn and Bronx have seen their housing
stock deteriorate in the last 20 years

These two counties, for example accounted for 80% of the housing units lost
in the whole country.

Not surprising that PR disproportionally accounted for those living in
sub-standard housing.


remember that PR often moving into housing stock that others have decided to
abandon or leave-- not the best places

also in neighborhoods where investment in housing is poor

even government sometimes works against it

in Sunset Park, part of an attempt to re-industrialize actually frustrated
improving the housing stock.

 This is most obvious in the South Bronx

1970-1980, Bronx lost 28,000 housing units

whole neighborhoods decimated by this

the effect of this

stores disappear

friends and families can no longer live next door

schools disappear

opening for drugs

In Sunset Park some help in that middle class has not left.

this provided some base to resist onslaught of crime and gangs in the 1970s
and 1980s

Next, we will discuss the creation of PR identity in exile and the political
shifts in the PR community.

 Education


As we have seen in other areas, a major problem in education.

In Hispanic districts in New York in the mid 1980s, barely half were reading
or doing math at their grade level.

important to realize that while bilingual education exists "on the books",
often not enforced and children don’t receive it.

standardized tests

obviously a lot of problems with these tests

but distressing that PR score even lower than Mex when they should have
higher English proficiency

huge drop out rate 

in 1983-84, the Hispanic proportion of students goes from close to 40$ in
1-2 grade to less than 25% by 12th.

National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights: "if we start with a hypothetical
population of 100 PRs, the best case scenario is 55% graduating from HS, 25%
entering college, and 7 graduating from college"

in New York state colleges, Hispanics have the lowest retention rate.


Why?

No money?  Not quite, NYC is quite rich

Blaming the victim

No payoff?

one possible problem is that education seems to make much less difference in
PR economic success

self-fulfilling prophecies

tracking

teacher expectations and performance correlated with ethnicity of student

assimilation debate

because of racial stigma, even as PR’s are Americanized, they are
re-ethnicized and maintained marginal

a great deal of struggle in the community trying to address these problems
by changing the curriculum and also fight for control in the School Board

problem here is endemic corruption

One problem with PR education (based on ethnographic work in Sunset Park) is
that students drop out to assume "adult" roles---- as mothers or providers








  POLITICS

New York City famously ethnic based politics

divisions between European ethnic groups

black white tensions inside the city

where do the Puerto Ricans fit in?

To understand this, recall that the shift from majority white to minority
white occurred in New York in the 1980s-- future of nation

remember also that 13% of city is PR and maybe 20-25% is Latino

visibility of PR as such (as opposed to as Hispanics) declined in 1980s

but because of citizenship, 80% of Latino voters are Puerto Ricans

despite this centrality in 1989 relatively weak position in politics

one congressman, one borough president, and some council and state
legislature members

Latino vote was usually around 6% of total in the state

because split across several counties and electoral districts concentration
is diluted as is influence.

made even worse by low

citizenship levels (again does not apply to PR)

and low participation-- 33% of citizens.

Traditionally democratic (70-80%)

 but can be relatively conservative as support for Ed Koch desmonstrates

this is especially interesting in the absence of a black-Latino alliance.

elite relations a big part of this

Herman Badillo--- helped Koch to get PR vote, but never became central

a lot of the PR leadership was initially critical of Koch and then became
part of his group.

in the process, they seemed to have undermined a specifically PR
constituency for future candidates

(also many of them very corrupt--- maybe dirtiest "Latino" machine of big
cities?)

one sign of this is collapse of automatic support or even name recognition
for a lot of Latino candidates.

There is a parallel to this in terms of community organization

dispersal of middle class and relatively high poverty rate means that
community groups are resource poor

dependent on government support

this has been declining

and in any case provides a weak base for autonomous politics

this may be changing with government of PR attempting to expand voter
registration and to support PR political power in NY


 
In more detail:

In Sunset Park despite the great plurality, PR had a great deal of trouble
getting to dominate even local politics

recent years have seen some changes due to redistricting

a lot more successful have been grassroots community groups

much like COPS in San Antonio

some work also through Pentecostal churches which have been growing in the
area.
 Cultural/Racial Identity

Culture

Of all the Latino cultures, the Puerto Rican is made the closest contact
with African-American culture

It is in some ways the most "urban" or "inner city"

 reflecting a common experience with African-Americans-- especially in New
York

also have to take into account the historical "racial" link between large
parts of the PR population and black America (more on that in a moment)

also experience of racial prejudice

According to Juan Flores what has been created in New York --- the Nuorican
culture--- is much more than simple assimilation-- a new product

according to him, it consists of four moments:

here and now--- tenements and garbage

PR Background-- romance of island

re-entry--- Making New York, Puerto Rican

branching out--- links to other minorities-- especially black

What is perhaps most interesting is the way PR are picking up English, but
not giving up Spanish---

the result is a particular form of Spanglish--- expressed in a poem by  Tato
Laviera -- "La carreta made a U-Turn"

This new language has become a central part of the new PR identity

obviously this discussion comes loaded with assumptions regarding what might
be appropriate and what language patterns are going to best assure
educational success.

that is, should we label PR bilingual or "alingual"--- a lot comes down to
emphasis one places on use of standard language forms

here is also important to appreciate linguistic differences in language use
and class barriers

so the English a PR might learn to deal with colleagues on the job may be
very different from the standard use that is expected in a classroom or in a
higher status job.

one study indicates that ‘code-switching" often remains grammatical in both
languages

that playing with he codes and structures of the two languages often reveals
not ignorance of one or the other but a great deal of ease of use.

grammatical forms retain their coherence and where they don’t or where some
pronunciations appear to suffer, in-context comprehension is still assured.

use of the code-switching is way of maintaining that separate identity and
also used as a form of protest.

let me read you some excerpts...

the point here is the creation of a new culture (recall Perez-Firmat) that
cannot be understood through the frameworks of the two "standard" cultures,
but should be appreciated on its own terms.
 

Racial

Puerto Ricans have always represented a frustration for US policy makers and
academics on this issue

Neither white nor black-- they don’t fit into the neat categories created by
the bureaucracy and the academy

This goes back to a very different sense of race in PR

in the same family can have a dark-skinned and light skinned brothers and
sisters.

several aspects of this are important:

culture and class over race as the key

a great many variations

blanco
moreno
truigeño
negro

a person could become "white" by moving up socio-economic ladder or through
status shift

very strong cultural trait as fairly close pattern between those on the
island and those in the mainland in terms of racial classification

the one factor that tends to drive PR toward racial views similar to that of
US is English language use in he home.


two way integration-- sense of hierarchy in mixing less prominent


many Puerto Rican migrants confused by this in initial contact with the US

Jesus Colon’s stories.

Piri Thomas--- had to deal with being both PR and seen as "black" by US
culture

studies which compare self-identification with external view

consistently, PR see themselves as different from how interviewers see them

PR see themselves as "tan" when North Americans keep classifying themselves
as white or black.

moreover, PR aware o this and tend to assume that others will perceive them
as "darker" than they "are".

This process of labeling may have important effects.

analyses of the class position of PR by race noted that those who classified
themselves as white or black tended to do better than those who classified
themselves as "other"

 Family

PR have highest rate of female headed households

one big cultural difference is much lower incidence of abortion among PR

also appears that greater propensity to marriage among pregnant teens than
in AA population

also important to remember than non-official marriage unions very common and
may be hidden in the data.