Cultural : Puerto Rico - Case Study Example

During the parade this year, people lined up on both sides of the Fifth Avenue, starting from the 44th street and extended till the 79th street. The parade featured number of floats representing as well as celebrating Puerto Rican culture, as well as marching bands with the dancing of children. The prominent feature of this event is the continuous playing of Puerto Rican music, with the Puerto Rican artists performing live and also audio systems playing their compositions. Puerto Ricans lined up the streets with small as well as large Puerto Rican flags in their hands, and also waving them to the sounds of the music.

Many of them also danced to the music in an energetic manner. Not only Puerto Ricans, Americans of other racial backgrounds were also seen in the crowd enjoying the parade. Writing up the Results Introduction Background Puerto Rico, officially known as the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, holds a special status within the geographical as well as the administrative ambit of United States. It holds the status of an unincorporated territory of the United States, because of which the territory is not regarded as a state of United States, but still its people have US citizenship.

Due to its geographical position, historical background and current administrative status, the culture of Puerto Rico is like collage as well as fusion of various cultures. The original inhabitants of Puerto Rico are Native Indian groups namely Taino and Carib Indian-tribes. However, the Spanish colonization of Puerto Rico for over 400 years led to the entry as well as proliferation of the White or Caucasian people, “a blend of various white sub-races with the predominant Mediterranean characteristics of dark-hair and dark eyes”, who suppressed as well as coexisted with the Indian groups.

(Christoforo-Mitchell, 2013). The third group of inhabitants are the Africans, who were brought there by the Spaniards as part of slavery, and so to work as slave employees in the sugarcane plantations and also for the purpose of gold mining. All these three groups of people have been existing or coexisting for number of centuries, exhibiting their unique cultural traditions, which in course of time evolved into Puerto Rican culture. “The Indian, Spanish and African races came together on the island of Puerto Rico, contributing their blood and traditions to the formation of the Puerto Rican culture.

” (Christoforo-Mitchell, 2013). This Puerto Rican culture has certain key and even unique traits, including traits like Perception of Time, Space, Institutional influences, Educational systems, Gender Relations, Rites, rituals, , Work & Leisure systems, Health & Medicine, etc., and so the focus of this case study is to discuss those traits particularly in relation to the perspective of learning and education. Research Report Perception of Time As far as perception of time is concerned, it provides key insights into the practice of punctuality and courtesies related to time.

In the Puerto Rican culture, this perception of time borders on casualness. That is, in contrast to the mainland Americans, Puerto Ricans have a relaxed attitude towards time and so tardiness and/or a last minute change of plans are a common practice.