Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands

Summary

The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is the smallest island of the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean Sea and is located about 50 miles (80 km) east of the Dominican Republic, and about 40 miles (65 km) west of the Virgin Islands. Puerto Rico is administratively constituted from several islands, of which the Big Island and two smaller island municipalities, Vieques and Culebra, are inhabited year-round. It has a great variety of small islands or uninhabited islets, among which are Isla de Mona and Monito. The modern life of Puerto Rico is still shaped by its political, cultural and religious narratives, largely defined by its historical relationships with first Spain and then the USA.

History

The island of Puerto Rico was under the rule of the Spanish crown for more than 400 years following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1493. The evangelisation of Puerto Rico by the Catholic Church was supported by the 1493 papal bull Inter Caetera of Alexander VI, which grants the powers of evangelisation to the Spanish crown in its colonies. For four centuries, the Catholic Church dominated the evangelisation of the island's inhabitants through the founding of churches, missions, monasteries and convents. From the beginning, both clergy and laity had the responsibility to evangelise the natives as well as slaves from Africa. Resistance by natives and Africans to receiving the gospel from Europeans had an impact on the development of religious practices on the island. Both groups made their own contributions to the ritual practices of Christianity, creating a religious intermingling that is still part of the cultural and spiritual folklore of the inhabitants.

In 1898, Puerto Rico came under the rule of the USA as the result of the Cuban–Spanish–American War. This event triggered a political, cultural and religious transformation in Puerto Rican society. The religious landscape was transformed, with the arrival of Protestant missionaries on the island ushering in freedom of worship after 400 years of the Spanish Catholic establishment. The American Protestant churches divided the island into regions, which were assigned to denominations for missionary and evangelistic work.