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The "We Feeling" among Puerto Ricans From the standpoint of American society, Puerto Ricans form a group. This is defined either as a racial group, an ethnic group, or a cultural group. From the point of view of official statistical sources, Puerto Ricans are individuals born in Puerto Rico and children of Puerto Rican-born women. But this criterion for identifying Puerto Ricans is not consistent: miscellaneous Spanish-speaking individuals, and odd assortments of dark-skinned individuals are frequently assumed to be Puerto Ricans. In general, Puerto Ricans are assumed to have a common and uniform culture and to share in individual and social behavior. There is a tendency to ignore individuality and to obliterate social and cultural differences among Puerto Ricans. From the standpoint of Puerto Ricans, there is a Hispano group in New York, but this is defined differently from the usually prevailing definitions of Puerto Ricns expressed by non-Puerto Ricans. The Hispano group includes Puerto Ricans, their descendants who may or may not be Spanish-speaking individuals, and also Spanish-speaking persons from Latin America and Spain. In this sense the Hispano group includes peoples who share elements of a common Hispanic historical heritage. The Hispano group is a communal form of adaptation of peoples of such heritage in the context of American life. Basically, the Hispano group, nonetheless, is formed by the Puerto Rican migrants and their descendants, and in some contexts "Puerto Rican" and "Hispano" are equivalent terms, to the point that "Hispano" is a preferred term to "Puerto Rican" when referring to Puerto Ricans. The group owes its existence both to its own internal structure and esprit de corps and to the external social and cultural pressures of the larger society upon Hispanos. Sources of solidarity and bonds of understandings among Hispanos are partly derived from the historical common general cultural traditions of the peoples who are considered Hispanos. But partly, too, they are a reaction against the position of the group as an ethnic minority in New York. In this sense the group exists as a social body that protects its members from the hazards, strains, and psychological dislocations that can be effected by lack of social acceptance and by the handicaps to life fulfillments that act upon members of minority groups, who are targets for prejudice and bigotry. The bonds of solidarity among Hispanos, nonetheless, are not so effective as to offer foolproof protection to the members of the group, for being incorporated within the larger society, the Hispano group also shares and incorporates within itself values, standards, and orientations of the larger society. The culture of Puerto Ricans in Eastville is a slum adaptation of the Hispano subculture of New York. In a cultural sense, cleavages within the Hispano group of New York mark sharp differences in ways of life, values, and cultural orientations among the group members. In a social sense, however, members of the Hispano group can be spoken of as sharing many common sentiments of solidarity, as well as feelings of belonging and being part of a social group. There are ideals of behavior, standards of values, and rules for living that are considered appropriate to Hispanos, rather than to others, and there are forms of social control--sanctions and standards of approval and disapproval--that emerge from the body of ideals of behavior expected from Hispanos. In fact, many cultural diversities and behavioral expectations cluster within subgroups of the larger Hispano group, and each subgroup is geared to the others as if they were all parts of a system, a system we can call the Hispano social group. This, in turn, is part of the larger system and the sets of subsystems that make up American society. Because of the fluidity of interaction between the Hispano group and the rest of the society, many an irreconcilable duality characterizes the Hispano group. On one hand, bonds of solidarity and loyalty among Hispanos as a minority group are reinforced by "being in the same boat" with each other. They share a common position and common life-chances in American life. On the other, there is a tendency toward fostering separation and fragmentation within the Hispano group which calls for rejection, dislike, intolerance, and critical devaluation of Hispanos simply on grounds of being so. Many Eastville Puerto Ricans are pushed and pulled between these tendencies, though the conflict is more distinctly represented among those born and brought up in New York and by those who came to N ew York as young children. In other words, the social dissensions within the Hispano group are reflections of the cultural cleavages within the group. It is not possible to speak of a Puerto Rican culture in New York, nor even pretend to understand the culture of Puerto Ricans in New York in the light of the culture of Puerto Rico. To speak of the culture of Puerto Ricans in New York as if it were a uniform and homogeneous body of cultural standards to which all Puerto Ricans respond or adhere only leads to oversimplifying the cultural picture and to distorting and ignoring significant facts. Puerto Ricans participate within different subcultures of the city and within different subcultures of the Hispano group itself. The culture of Puerto Rican migrants in New York City will vary with reference to the socioeconomic class of the individual, which is largely a function of his degree of acculturation, and with reference to his position within the Hispano group, which is also a function of his class and extent of acculturation. It is possible to speak of the Hispano group as an ingroup when viewed from the standpoint of the larger society and its influences on Hispano social life and, in the same sense, of the larger society as an outgroup. The two groups, nevertheless, must be seen as interrelated with each other, neither existing in isolation from the other. This book, however, is concerned only with one of the subcultures of Hispanos in New York, namely, slum dwellers and underemployed or unemployed Puerto Ricans who live at the bottom of the ladder. In Eastville there are no well-to-do or professionals among the Puerto Ricans. A few have become skilled or white-collar workers. Their backgrounds in Puerto Rico were also characterized by poverty and deprivation. Individuals who at one time or another have achieved higher income and economic welfare have generally been moving out of the neighborhood. Old-timers in Eastville speak about former neighbors who improved their economic position and left. Moving out of Eastville is regarded as a step ahead, even if this does not actually accompany any material improvement. Only individuals with real or imagined social disabilities have stayed in Eastville after having improved their economic position substantially. Fear of encountering intolerable prejudice and rejection are given as explanations for not leaving the neighborhood. Yet one of the areas in which Hispanos, as well as other Eastvillers, seemed to show agreement was in judging the neighborhood a bad place in which to live. There was a stated preference to live elsewhere in the city rather than there. Even within Eastville where all Puerto Ricans share being members of a lower-class slum subculture, significant differences are found among them with reference to the length of time they have resided in the city and the degree of Americanization achieved. These two factors are of basic importance in shaping the culture of Eastville Puerto Ricans and are essential to the formulation of any generalization concerning their cultural behavior. From the standpoint of length of residence in the city, Hispanos range from those who have lived here all their lives to those who only yesterday, or perhaps only a few hours before coming to Eastville, were in Puerto Rico. In between are those who come and go to Puerto Rico several times a year, and there are also those like Maria Reto's father, who only came to paint her apartment in Eastville. From the standpoint of degree of Americanization Hispanos range from those who are thoroughly oriented toward American society and its values and who are native speakers of English to those who are thoroughly oriented toward Puerto Rican society and its values. While these extremes lie within the boundaries of the Hispano group, the central tendencies in the group represent intermediate kinds of cultural adaptations, or accommodations, to New York society. From the standpoint of acculturation, the Hispano group can be described as the main channel through which this process takes place. It provides a framework and model for adaptations: it has norms and provides social techniques through which Hispanos can channel their relationships with the larger society; at the same time it holds norms that emphasize resistance to change in conformity to demands of the larger society. 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