Race Patterns and Prejudice in Puerto Rico

Abstract

LYNCHI~NGS, race riots, and race beatings do not occur in Puerto Rico; cases ..L.Jof rape ascribed to race are unknown. This has led to a widespread belief that race prejudice is absent on the island. Contrasts between Puerto Rico and other regions of marked race friction might lend credence to this belief were it not for the island's growing concern over race problems. Although this concern has sharpened in recent times, evidence is easily obtained to demonstrate a more than contemporary interest in the topic. Early as well as recent Puerto Rican writers have claimed that race prejudice in Puerto Rico does not exist-except in social or class areas. Jose Celso Barbosa makes this point in his Problema de Razas.1 More recently, Tomas Blanco2 and Pablo Morales Otero3 support the same view. In I945, the Insular Board of Vocational Education published a pamphlet in which the same claim is made.4 The view that race prejudice does not exist in Puerto Rico is shared by some American writers:5 Racial discrimination becomes virtually impossible, since a majority of the people are of mixed Indian, white, and Negro blood.6 Our purpose in this article is to examine some of the historical and cultural factors contributing

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