Nuyorican

Puerto Rico Day Parade in NYC photo credit: "PR_Day_Parade_2019-227" by Ruben Diaz Jr. (CC BY-ND 2.0)

Definition: (noun) a New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent

Example: Every June, thousands of Nuyoricans line 5th Avenue for the Puerto Rican Day Parade.

Quote:

“He embraced and identified what it was to be a Nuyorican, a Puerto Rican growing up in New York. He empowered an entire movement... He was one of a kind.”
- Latin culture historian Aurora Flores, talking about poet Pedro Pietri in the New York Daily News

Spanish is hot! According to the 2002 census, more than 1 in 8 Americans is Hispanic and this increase in the Latino population is reflected in pop culture and commerce. For example, a recent series of television advertisements for Verizon phone services features scenes of "The Elliots," a suburban family with a Hispanic mother and uncool Anglo dad. And this year, the Target department store chain has gone bilingual with a holiday commercial sung in both English and Spanish.

In New York, home to most Puerto Rican immigrants in the US, the highest concentration is in the Bronx and Brooklyn. In fact, some of the biggest hip hop acts of the last decade, including Fat Joe, Big Pun and N.O.R.E. are Nuyoricans from the Bronx. Jennifer Lopez, also from the Bronx, even named her company Nuyorican Productions. N.O.R.E., who raps in both Spanish and English (often at the same time) has brought Puerto Rico into the mainstream this year with the Spanish/English reggaeton song Oye Mi Canto.

A. C. Kemp | December 9, 2004


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