Puerto Rican Colonial Population Estimates and Race

Table taken from "The Politics of Taino Revivalism" by Gabriel Haslip-Viera

The estimates of the colonial Puerto Rican population from 1530 to 1897 are quite revealing of the history of the island before US conquest. First, it reveals the overwhelmingly African and European heritage of Puerto Rico and the disappearance of most indigenous-descended people. Indeed, by 1530, the local Taino population was already dying out/absorbed into the rapidly expanding African and European population, though indigenous peoples from other parts of the Americas were brought to Puerto Rico and Hispaniola as slaves before the Spanish completely shifted their focus to the more wealthy and larger territorial conquests in Mexico, Peru, and the rest of the mainland. Moreover, the table indicates the rise, over time, of a free mulato/pardo and free black population that outnumbered slaves probably well before 1765, when slaves comprised 11.2% of the total population of 44,883. The low population of the colony and the very small slave minority indicates the main interests of the Spanish colonial empire in other regions of their vast empire.

Like the rest of the Hispanic Caribbean, Puerto Rico was a colonial backwater and largely ignored, although Cuba would become exceptional after the Haitian Revolution as an exporter of sugar (which also meant skyrocketing rates of African slave imports that turned late 18th century and 19th century Cuba into far more of a slave society than colonial Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo ever were. However, the increase of the Puerto Rican population from 44,883 in 1765 to 163,192 by 1802 is amazing growth, probably more attributable to natural increase in the population and immigration (from Europe, the Canary Islands, runaway slaves from other Caribbean islands, as well as Spanish Creoles from Santo Domingo and French and Saint Dominguan planters and their slaves fleeing Hispaniola, although there is no direct data I could find on the numbers of these groups coming to Puerto Rico). Interestingly, the reemergence of "Indians" in the second half of the 18th century could reflect the presence of indigenous laborers from Mexico or elsewhere brought by the colonial government, though their numbers are very small, never more than 2.5% of the population in the second half of the 18th century.

The real mystery is the process of whitening of Puerto Rico. Sure, Europeans, Levantines, and various 'whites' came to the island in the 19th century, but can one really be certain that in 1897, whites comprised 63.9% of the island's population. Much like racial demographics in Cuba and the Dominican Republic, the white figures seem to be inflated, probably because of the prevalence of 'whitening' in Puerto Rican families and for those of lighter complexions to self-identify as such. The enigma of Puerto Rican racial demographics lingers today, when US census data shows a white majority and increasingly white population in the 20th century. Now, anyone who goes to Puerto Rico or goes to a Puerto Rican neighborhood in New York, Chicago, or any US city, most Puerto Ricans one encounters are hardly 'white,' yet in the island, self-identifying as white is the trend. In the US mainland, I believe Puerto Ricans are more likely to self-identity as "Other" or simply "Boricua or Puerto Rican" instead of choosing black or white labels.

Now, clearly blackness is not highly valued in Puerto Rico (despite the overwhelmingly African character of so much of Puerto Rican music and culture), and there is a long legacy of slavery and stigmatization (as well as negative views toward dark-skinned Dominican immigrants and black West Indians who came to Puerto Rico to labor on US-owned or funded sugar plantations in the 20th century). Does that explain the valorization and attachment to a "Taino" identity? Much like the Dominican Republic, there was a time when many dark-skinned Puerto Ricans preferred to think of themselves as indio rather than black (read Down These Mean Streets for a Nuyorican example), and given the high proportion of 'pardos' or mixed-race people, many being lighter-skinned and able to pass for white or marry into white families, the 'white' population of Puerto Rico can increase as the black and brown proportions decrease. Now, one wonders what the impact of US racial dynamics and perceptions was and how it shapes census data, particularly since a plethora of 'racial types' exist in Puerto Rico.

And is it due to the black immigrant influences from the Caribbean that we have more of a black racial consciousness among some Puerto Ricans (similarly, the racial consciousness of Puerto Ricans in the US mainland would result from interaction with African-Americans and experiencing white racism in US cities)? For instance, Arturo Schomberg, legendary Afro-Puerto Rican scholar and archivist, was the son of Anglophone West Indian-descended Puerto Ricans and German Puerto Ricans, not a multigenerational Afro-Boriuca. Perhaps that is too much of an exaggeration, but it certainly complicates the history of Afro-Boricua alliances and interactions with other people of African descent. From talking with some light-skinned Puerto Ricans, clearly this obsession with whiteness and 'improving' themselves through marriage with white Anglo-Americans will live on for a long time. Of course, Puerto Ricans are not the only Latinos who pursue that approach to whiteness, and Puerto Rico is hardly unique in the 'whitening' of its population. Brazil, Cuba, Colombia, and various other Latin American nations pursued whitening through the misleading mestizaje concept under which Europeans and people of white descent could uplift the majority with 'good genes' and civilization.

Anywho, expect more posts on Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans in the US. That is part of my identity, and deserves more critical attention and emphasis in this blog, just as much as Haiti or African-American stuff gets.