“[The words] Puerto Rico literally mean land of wealth and abundance, but we Puerto Ricans are the poorest,” reflected Ricky Pérez, a Puerto Rican man, leaning over the counter at his store, Boricua City, in Manhattan yesterday.

“We don’t have a voice or any power, just our large presence,” added Pérez, a former police officer and security guard. Pérez was brought by his parents from Lares, Puerto Rico to New York in 1966, at the age of one, with the hope of attaining a better future. Four decades later, circumstances haven’t changed very much for him, his wife and his two daughters.

The Puerto Rican population in the United States is statistically among the poorest within the Latino community, according to a report presented on May 19 by the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund [PRLDEF]. The report was published in the first issue of the new Latino Datanote, a series produced by the Latino Data Center of PRLDEF. The report based its statistics on the 2000 Census.

The report revealed that residents of the island of Puerto Rico are even poorer than those who ventured into the so-called “Great American Union.”

“Despite advancements, the socio-economic conditions and poverty in which Puerto Ricans in the United States live continue to be the largest problem that our community faces,” said Cesar A. Perales, president and general counsel to the PRLDEF. “What’s emerged here is a reality that’s much more complex than we previously realized.”

The study highlights that New York, at one point considered the Mecca of Boricuas in the United States with 80 percent of the nationwide population, today holds only 30 percent of those from Puerto Rico. The study also provides data that illustrates the great disparity between the conditions and benefits received by Puerto Ricans here and those of the non-Puerto-Rican white population.

Angelo Falcón, a senior policy executive of the PRLDEF, emphasized that Puerto Ricans

are the only Latinos who come to this country with American citizenship. “If we cannot triumph as a community with this advantage, what message are we sending to the rest of the Latino population who have been told to become citizens so that they can achieve the ‘American Dream’? We just might be their future,” said Falcón.

“[The report] is an important compilation of statistics,” declared Councilman Hiram Monserrate, who was among those present at the conference. “But for me, this report brings light to a crisis. We are standing before a crisis.”

Some findings:

Average income in a Puerto Rican home in the U.S.: $28,738

Average income in a non-Latino white home: $46,035

Average income in PR: $14,412

Unemployment among Puerto Ricans in the U.S.: 10%

Unemployment among white people: 5%

Number of Puerto Ricans living at or below the poverty level in the U.S.: 26%

Whites: 8%

Puerto Ricans who are heads of household: 38%, the highest among Latinos

35 % of Puerto Ricans in the U.S. are homeowners, versus 75% of whites

14% of Puerto Ricans in the United States are university graduates

(11% of the rest of the Latino population are university grads, and 27% of white Americans)