PUERTO RICO

AVERDANT INTRODUCTION awaits the visitor to the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, which boasts 600 miles (965 km) of palm-fringed coastline and a luxuriant interior of montane thicket, palm, dwarf and a rain forest. The 100-mile-long (160-km), 35-mile-wide (56-km) island is a progressive blend of old and new. Nowhere is this more evident than in San Juan, with its centuries-old Spanish fortresses and glamorous resort hotels. Out on the is-land, as the Puerto Ricans refer to the remainder of the island, the changes are less dramatic but no less important.

Puerto Rico has made great strides economically and today enjoys one of the highest standards of living in the Caribbean. The island is a major banking and business center, and San Juan is the Caribbean's primary air and cruise hub. Complementing this progress, the Commonwealth, with the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, has fostered an atmosphere in which writers, painters, sculptors, musicians and actors flourish, and has taken steps to preserve the island's crafts, folklore, dances, music and architecture.

Originally named Borinquen (Island of the Brave Lord) by the Taino Indians, Puerto Rico was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1493 during his second voyage to the New World. He landed on the northwestern part of the island and named the island San Juan Bautista. The island derived its present name, however, from the exclamation “Qué puerto rico! “ (What a rich port!), said to have been made by conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon upon entering the bay. He established the first settlement at Caparra in 1508 and in 1510 he was appointed the island's first governor by Spain's King Ferdinand. The capital was transferred to its present site and named San Juan Bautista de Puerto Rico in 1521, the year of de Leon's death.

The Spanish used San Juan Bay to protect their ships from pirates and attacks by other countries. This strategic area of land was attacked unsuccessfully by Sir Francis Drake, occupied by English forces in 1598, burned and plundered by the Dutch in 1625 and subjected to other sieges until a last attempt by the British in 1797.

Puerto Rico remained a loyal Spanish colony until 1897, when Luis Mufloz Rivera obtained the Charter of Autonomy, which gave the island dominion status. However, before the charter could go into effect, Spain became engaged in the Spanish-American War. In 1898 Puerto Rico became part of the United States by the terms of the Treaty of Paris. The Foraker Act of 1900 en-abled the island to establish a civil government under the direction of a U.S-appointed governor; in 1917 the Jones Act made the Puerto Rican people citizens of the United States and provided for the creation of a local senate.

The first native-born governor was Jesus T. Piñero, appointed by President Harry S. Truman in 1946. The following year Truman signed an act giving Puerto Rico the authority to choose its chief executive by popular vote. Luis Muñoz Marin, the first elected governor, held the office until 1965, when he was succeeded by Roberto Sanchez Vilella. A Congressional resolution signed by President Truman in 1952 elevated Puerto Rico to the status of a commonwealth associated with the United States.