The African heritage hypothesis posits that the substantial African ancestry of Puerto Ricans explains why this group is less segregated from African-Americans than non-Hispanic whites. This pattern is unlike that of other Hispanic groups, who have been found to be highly segregated from African-Americans but modestly segregated from whites. The research presented here shows that Dominicans, another Hispanic group with substantial African ancestry, are also less segregated from African-Americans than whites. Dominicans, therefore, also appear to be conforming to the African heritage thesis by residing in neighborhoods with greater proximity to African-Americans than whites.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
176 p, "Based on examination of housing patterns in San Juan and demographic data from four of its 19th-century barrios, work provides a much-needed exploration of racial prejudice in Puerto Rico. Challenges commonplace denial of racial discrimination up to the present by showing that free people of color had limited economic, social, and political opportunities to advance their status"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.