Lip-Syncing A Vast Terrain: Puerto Rico

Summertime means travel time. I'm lucky when it comes to travel. I've seen many of the world's landmarks up close and personal. Places like the Eiffel Tower, The Acropolis, Vatican City, Ayres Rock, Franz Josep Glacier, Norte Dame and Big Ben. For the next few postings I want to share some lesson plans I use for my students as I present some of America's outstanding landmarks and places of interest. So get your luggage packed and gas-up your mental car because we're off. Today, let's go to Puerto Rico:

Puerto Rico (officially called the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico) is a self-governing territory of the U. S. located in the northeastern Caribbean. The territory includes the main island of Puerto Rico and a number of smaller islands and keys, the largest of which are Vieques, Culebra, and Mona.

The history of Puerto Rico (which means "Rich Port" in Spanish) before Christopher Columbus arrived is not well known. What we do know comes from archaeological findings and early Spanish stories. We know that the first settlers were the Ortoiroid people, an Archaic Period culture of hunters and fishermen. An archaeological dig on Vieques in 1990 found the remains of an Archaic man from around 2000 BC. Between AD 120 and 400, the Igneri, a tribe from South America arrived. Between the 4th and 10th centuries, the Arcaicos and Igneri lived together on the island. Between the 7th and 11th centuries Arawak Indians known as Tainos inhibited the island and were there when Christopher Columbus arrived during his second voyage to the New World on November 19, 1493.

The Tainos called the island "Borikén". Columbus re-named the island San Juan Bautista, in honor of Saint John the Baptist. Later the island took the name of Puerto Rico and the capital was named San Juan. In 1508, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon became the island’s first governor.

The Spanish soon colonized the island. Taínos were forced into slavery and died off due to harsh conditions of work and diseases brought by the Spaniards. Others committed suicide and within a few decades most of the native population had vanished. African slaves were captured and then shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to work the sugar cane and tobacco fields. Puerto Rico soon became an important stronghold and port for the Spanish Empire. Walls and forts were built around San Juan to protect the city from Spain’s enemies like France, England and The Netherlands.

In the late 19th century, the people of Puerto Rico were very poor and began to rebel against Spain. On July 25, 1898, during the Spanish-American War, Puerto Rico was invaded by the United States. As an outcome of the war, Spain ceded Puerto Rico, along with Cuba, the Philippines, and Guam to the U.S. under the Treaty of Paris. The Foraker Act gave Puerto Rico a certain amount of self-government and the Jones-Shafroth Act of 1917 gave Puerto Ricans U.S. citizenship. In 1947, the U.S. granted Puerto Ricans the right to democratically elect their own governor. Many Puerto Ricans migrated to America in the 1950s. Today, Puerto Rico is a major tourist destination and a leading pharmaceutical and manufacturing center. Find out more about at: http://welcome.topuertorico.org/

Research gathered at: www.wikipedia.org

Now here's one of my poems with swaying palm trees:

Or Low-Life A Ceiling

A man jumps from the twentieth floor but floats down.

Escapism hanging on a coat rack. A banquet honoring

vinegar. Falling leaves. A crowd waiting for the

arrival. Or on a park bench with a grassy knoll to

fondle. Shopping at a best friend's house. A telephone

with two mouthpieces. A cookbook story of our lives.

Busy crosswalks. Phony street signs. To have a

pre-conceived notion of downtown Phoenix. "I see you've

learned to travel light", she says, noticing the