Puerto Rican identities : construction of the Puerto Rican middle class through place, education and nationalism

The subject of this thesis is the construction of the Puerto Rican identity. During my fielwork in 2009 I followed the movement done by individuals in city of San Juan. Movement is a natural aspect of the Puerto Rican way of life as they have a long history of circular migration to and from the island through their natural rights to U.S. citizenship. By emphasising movement through the city I noticed that the city landscape steered individuals in certain ways, but also how social groups made their impact on this space. Movement in, and the shaping of, space is a way of producing group identification which I connected to social class. In this process space became contested and enclaved, i.e. physical and social boundaries were produced. Inspired by theorist such as Anderson, Bourdieu and Ortner I look at class consciousness through history, education and the construction of middle class consciousness. These processes have come to produce diverse notions of the Puerto Rican ‘imagined community’. Furthermore, I expand the discussion of the Puerto Rican identity to incorporate it into a wider discussion of identity