Social Practices of Ethnic Identity: A Puerto Rican Psycho-Cultural Event

Abstract

This is an emic approach to the social practices of ethniic idenitity among Puerto Rican Migrants'Descendants (PRMD), and Puerto Rican Islanders (PRI) experienced in their face-to-face interactions in Puerto Rico. The sample consisted of 60 college students born and/or reared in the United States mainland, honom at the time of the study had lived in Puerto Rico for at least twoyears. The ethnographic interview was used to collect data, and eight key informants co-jointly analyzed it with the researcher. The descriptions have evidenced that PRMD locus ethnic identity in "their minds and hearts " (motivational criteria), while PRI locus it in "the eye of the beholder" (behavioral criteria). These two modes of classifying ethnic experience haoe revealed two major social practices: ethtnic differentiation by contrast, and ethnlic differentiation in a context of resentment.

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