While, Black or Puerto Rican? Racial self-identification among mainland and island Puerto Ricans

Recentstudies haveexaminedthe implications ofexposure to u.s. race relations for the racial and ethnic identities of migrants to the u.s. Most investigations are based exclusively on U.S. data. There arefew, ifany, comparisons of the identities of migrants and theiroffspring to those of nonmigrants in theircountryoforigin. Using datafrom a survey ofPuerto Ricanmothers in the u.s. and Puerto Rico, thisstudyprovides such a comparison. Responses toan open-ended race question showthatmainlandand island Puerto Ricans mostoften designate their "race " asPuerto Rican, but responses ofwomen who do not self-identifyas Puerto Rican diverge between the u.s. and Puerto Rico. Island womenprimarily identify themselves aswhite, black, or triguena, whilemainland women identify themselves as Hispanic/Latina, Hispanic American, or American. Mainland-island differences cannot be explained by parental ethnicity, skin tone, demographic factors, and socioeconomic status. The findings suggest that mainland Puerto Ricansmorestrongly reject the conventional u.s. notion ofrace than do their islandcounterparts. During the last several years, both the meaning and the measurement of race have resurfaced as important academic and policy concerns. The growing diversity of the U.S.population and an increase in the number of mixed-race individuals have stimulated a reconsideration of the complexities of racial self-identification an