Título en español.

Abstract

In the year 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that almost half of all persons of Puerto Rican origin lived outside the Island. No other Caribbean country–and perhaps in the world–has such a high share of its population residing abroad. The social, cultural, economic, and political implications of this demographic fact have not yet been examined systematically in Puerto Rico. This essay assesses the circulation of people, money, material goods, and cultural practices between the Island and the United States. In particular, the author proposes that the massive displacements of the Puerto Rican population over the last six decades have undermined the ideological premises of traditional discourses of the nation, based on the equation between territory, place of birth, residence, citizenship, language, and identity. The article seeks to demonstrate that Puerto Rico has become a transnational nation, that is, a community split between two territories, two languages, and two cultures, beyond the physical and symbolic borders of political sovereignty.