The New Puerto Rico?: Identity, Hybridity and Transnationalism within the Puerto Rican Diaspora in Orlando, Florida

Historically, the Puerto Rican diaspora has concentrated in New York. Outside of Puerto Rico, Florida now has the second largest concentration of Puerto Ricans in the U.S. However, the formation of a Puerto Rican diaspora in Florida is not similar to the Puerto Rican diaspora elsewhere in the U.S. Puerto Ricans have lived and experienced different spatial contexts, resulting in different notions of Puerto Ricanness that are sensitive to such spatial variations. As a greater number of Puerto Ricans are making Central Florida their home, terms like ¿island-born¿ and ¿mainland-born¿ are been highly contested and used as the main means to define affiliation. Puerto Ricans in Metro-Orlando are constructing a ¿new¿ Puerto Rico. They do not see themselves as equal or as part of the larger Puerto Rican diaspora in the United States. Nor do they hold onto the myth of return that other Puerto Rican communities on the mainland have retained. At the same time, they are themselves developing some cultural distinctions with Puerto Rico. These differences are tied to the new spatial experiences of Metro-Orlando, and are creating new notions of Puerto Ricanness.