Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico is one of fourteen unincorporated U.S. territories and one of two self-governing free associated states of the United States. It is located in the Caribbean.

The Taínos who inhabited the island before the Spanish conquest called it Borikén, Boriquén, Borinquen: which means the land of our most noble and brave lord.

Its official language is Spanish, and English is taught as a second language. Its currency is the U.S. dollar. It has its own Olympic team.

The island has 270 miles of beaches. It has the largest radio telescope in the world, located in Arecibo. And part of its endemic fauna is a small frog, Coqui, which is only found on the island of Puerto Rico and is known for its melodious song.

Alcapurrias Recipe

Ingredients:

For the Dough

• 1/2 pound yautia or malanga
• 5 green bananas
• 1 large green plantain
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons achiote oil
• For the Filling
• 1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1/2 chopped green pepper
• 1/2 chopped onion
• 1 large fresh ripe tomato cut into brunoise (without seeds)
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• olives
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• oil for frying

Preparation:

1. Wash, peel and grate the green plantain, bananas and yautia. Add the salt, oil and achiote to the dough and stir with your hand until it is one color.
2. In a saucepan, add the oil and add the onion until it is transparent, add the chopped garlic, the pepper, the tomatoes and the vinegar. Add the ground beef and stir with a wooden spoon until the meat turns a light brown color. Add the tomato paste and the olives. Cover the pan for about 10 minutes and then drain or drain the excess liquid from the pan, add salt and ground pepper. Let it rest and cool a little before filling your Alcapurrias.
3. On a piece of aluminum foil or wax paper, place a little oil, then a spoonful of the dough (use a rice serving spoon). Place a little filling in the center and mold until the filling is covered.
4. Put oil in a saucepan or slightly high frying pan. Fry the Alcapurrias in the hot oil a couple of times for 3 or 4 minutes and drain them by placing them on a paper towel so that it absorbs the excess oil.
5. Serve and enjoy. You can also use chicken for the filling.

Eugenio María de Hostos

He was born on January 11, 1839 in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. He stood out as an intellectual, sociologist, writer, educator, philosopher and liberator. His parents were Eugenio De Hostos and Hilaria Bonilla. At the age of 12, his parents sent him to study in Spain. As an adult, he participated in the independence of the Antillean colonies and even promoted the federation that established the republic in these places.

He is known as the Citizen of America because he lived and taught in various countries such as Argentina, Santo Domingo, the United States, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil and Chile. He also wrote a speech at the first inauguration of students at the Salomé Ureña Institute for Young Ladies in Santo Domingo. His written work consists of twenty books and various essays that have been published in magazines in countries such as Spain and several in America. He founded two magazines in Santo Domingo, Las Tres Antillas in 1875 and Los Antillanos in 1875, contributing great pro-independence ideas, to such an extent that Spain pressured them to be banned.

America is presented to him as a symbol of the future, where “three mother races, the native, the conquering and the African,” are on the way to achieving “the fusion of races in a single civilization”; he thus speaks to us of an Antillean federation, of a federation of Latin American peoples, as a previous step to “the union of all nations.” For this reason, politically, he sees independence in the federation, and fights for the abolition of slavery as a previous step to the recovery of human dignity.