Top 225 Rico Quotes & Sayings

Commonwealth is the only alternative for Puerto Rico. It is the only alternative that harmonizes the aspirations and goals of the modern world by protecting Puerto Rico's identity and simultaneously guaranteeing its relationship with the United States, complete with a common market, common citizenship, common defense, and common currency.

After four centuries of Spanish rule, Puerto Rico was ceded to the United States in 1898. Residents were granted U.S. citizenship in 1917, and the federal government has allowed Puerto Rico to exercise authority over its local affairs in a manner similar to the 50 states.

They [ the government of Puerto Rico] are asking to be given the right to declare bankruptcy, which I think should be an option, as a last resort, if there is no other resource. But there also need to be measures, changes within the government of Puerto Rico, in the ways that the island's funds are administered, not just to deal with this budget issue, but also to have, to attract the economic growth that is necessary for Puerto Rico to begin to grow economically. They are losing population, and they are losing economically.

Immediately after hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, I was extremely concerned about my family, friends and all the people in Puerto Rico. I felt helpless and could not concentrate not knowing if my family and loved ones were safe. I wanted to help my people as fast as I could.

I got a message from one of my friends in Puerto Rico, who said, 'Sonia, there's nobody working in Puerto Rico - they're all glued to the television'. And I got a similar message from a friend in Spain.

My parents always talk about Puerto Rico. My dad's whole family lives in Puerto Rico. My great grandma lives in Puerto Rico and I got to meet her a couple years ago.

People born in Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens - except for the teeny, tiny, mind-boggling fact that if you live in Puerto Rico, you are not allowed to cast a vote in the election for president. That tiny fact starts to get bigger when you realize that electing our own leaders is the whole reason that we have a country in the first place.

It's an exciting feeling going to Puerto Rico. To go back where my dad was born, my bloodline, it means a lot to me to reach out to my fans in Puerto Rico.

I have a home in Puerto Rico, and I see what is happening on the islands there.

I think that Puerto Rico just has this calm and peace.

I am surprised at the number of Puerto Ricans that are moving out of Puerto Rico still. I thought that, by now, the immigration of Puerto Ricans had decreased a little bit. But, no, with a hurricane, it has increased even more. So, I see the financial institutions, especially the hedge funds, moving into Puerto Rico with all the - with all the force, knowing that their investments towards the future are going to be multiplied or probably elevated to quantities beyond any notion of how capital works.

There are 3.5 million Americans in Puerto Rico. So, just like we're quick to go everywhere else and help, we expect that same of America for Puerto Rico. These are U.S. citizens!

Puerto Rico lacks resources, but that's not the fault of the U.S.

I'd want Puerto Rico to become the 51st state of America.

The majority of the people of Puerto Rico support commonwealth.

I said I deserved a home fight, either Philly or Puerto Rico, since I'm always going to someone else's place to fight. Everyone thought it was a great idea to go back to Puerto Rico.

As U.S. citizens, Puerto Rico has paid their part.

I represent the streets of Puerto Rico around the world.

There is no price tag on an American life - whether it's in Florida, Texas, or Puerto Rico.

[Puerto Rico] losing not just taxpayers, but professionals, people who are vital to their communities. I don't think that is good. So undoubtedly, if what we are facing in Puerto Rico in terms of budget and debt goes on, if it continues, it would be a disaster for the island.

Puerto Rico is an island separated by an ocean, a language, a culture. All of that put it in a position where it's like, "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas," but what happened in Puerto Rico never happened at all. It's not like there was a decades-long conspiracy. It's just the aggregation of all these historical forces made it difficult for this information to exist in one place.

Puerto Rico had a number of problems before Maria even hit.

You're not from Puerto Rico, so you should say Puerto Rico like all the other people from the place that you come from.

I believe that the overwhelming majority of Puerto Rico wants to be Puerto Ricans. I have been in five different states in the United States, and I have found young Puerto Ricans in the states who really love Puerto Rico, who really want to do something for Puerto Rico. And for me, Puerto Rico has to be the promised land of all Puerto Ricans, whether we are in the United States or wherever we are at. But this has to be the promised land. Annexation will never be the answer.

I think Puerto Rico becoming a state would fulfill the destiny of 3.5 million American citizens that live in Puerto Rico.

I live in Puerto Rico, my family lives in Puerto Rico, my friends. What happens in Puerto Rico matters to me.

Without question, so many people, throughout my life, never think of Puerto Rico as part of the United States. Many people have no idea what the relationship is between Puerto Rico and the United States. And certainly, I have been asked if we are citizens.

The citizens of Puerto Rico pay taxes with no representation every day, because Puerto Rico is not a state. And the rules only became more confusing the more I looked into them during my time there.

Many people think that Puerto Rico would be a Democratic state just by virtue of the inclination of the Latino population in the United States, but the reality is that I see Puerto Rico as a battleground state.

Culturally, the arts of Puerto Rico is really unmatched by any other island.

I'm not an immigrant - I was born and raised in New York. My parents are Puerto Rican, and Puerto Rico is a part of the U.S., for the people that don't know. So my whole life, I've identified as an American. There are times when I've gone to Puerto Rico, and there, I'm seen as the American cousin.

In the '90s, I think that Bill Clinton would have won in Puerto Rico. I think in the 2000s, George Bush would have won in Puerto Rico.

The name Rico Nasty came from Instagram.

Four years ago, I was fighting for the world championship title in Puerto Rico. The spectators bad-mouthed me; they called me a faggot. They told my opponent to pluck my feathers. In Puerto Rico, when you talk disparagingly about a gay man, you call him a duck. That's when I realized that something had to change.

Actually, I am asking for this: for something to be done. I think that if it had been one of the 50 states, something would have already been done. Unfortunately, you know, Puerto Rico is a territory. Very often they forget about Puerto Rico.

Yet, individuals and corporations in Puerto Rico pay no federal income tax.

We're trying our best to develop sort of strategies. We have already turned into law a labor reform law that will allow for more opportunities to ensue. We have also established a permits law that will facilitate permits in Puerto Rico. We are about to roll out a comprehensive tax reform that will enhance the base and will reduce the rates in Puerto Rico.

I think that there are times when Puertoricans think, "Oh, we are blessed with the relationship with the U.S." But the end result will not be that. If Puerto Rico becomes similar to Hawaii - well, the Hawaiian Native population is about 9 percent. And if we go to the prisons, the overwhelming majority of the prisoners are the Natives. So I can anticipate that Puerto Ricans will not be better off by the annexation of the U.S. of Puerto Rico. I also know for a fact that once any nation or any people lose their identity, their language, their lifestyles, that they are a little dehumanized.

I'm not going to impose my vision on the people of Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico is a powerful island.

I was very surprised to see people who recognize me in Puerto Rico.

I had such a great upbringing in Puerto Rico, and it was just a very normal life.

We're going to Puerto Rico, where we're gonna close. And we're so excited, we can't see straight.

The truth of the matter is that we are being very aggressive, so that we can lay the foundations for investors to come to Puerto Rico, for jobs to be created, and for opportunities to ensue. And our objective, again, is for Puerto Rico, for the people of Puerto Rico who want to stay here, for them to have the opportunity to stay here.

Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, but by their own choice, Puerto Rico is not a state. The relationship has worked well for Puerto Rico - which has strengthened its culture, language and economy - and for the United States, which has helped create in Puerto Rico a showcase of democracy and prosperity for all of Latin America.

The overwhelming majority of Puerto Rico is completely, completely alienated from the political structure. Colonialism is really, really strong and alive in Puerto Rico. And the politicians have taken full advantage of that. We have a debt of $74 billion, caused primarily by the system and the political structure that exists in Puerto Rico.

I was actually born and raised in Puerto Rico. I moved to the States when I was 19. I was very impressed early on by being around people who spoke my language and ate the same food and listened to the same music, dressed the same. But then you look around and, you know, you're not in Puerto Rico.

I've been Rico since 10th grade.

Puerto Rico still has the wherewithal to be a tourist destination.

Now that the there is a path for the people of Puerto Rico to express their self-determination on Puerto Rico's political status, there are some who seek to block that path.

We must all work together to bring the best to Puerto Rico.

In Puerto Rico we dance to everything.

I often say to my friends that I felt too Puerto Rican to live in the States; then I felt too American to live in Puerto Rico. So when I settled back in Puerto Rico in 1992, I had to come to terms with all of that.

Puerto Rico is complicated. The people are complicated. The history is complicated. The story of the United States' relationship to Puerto Rico is complicated.

I was dancing for my grandpa from the time I was 4 or 5 years old in Puerto Rico.

The government of Puerto Rico has every right to hold a plebiscite, to consult the people of Puerto Rico regarding their wishes. But the truth is that for a change in the status of Puerto Rico to happen, you need both Congress and Puerto Rico agreeing to it.

I am a senior Democratic Member of Congress whose parents were born in Puerto Rico and for whom Puerto Rico self-determination has been - and remains - a central issue of my congressional career.

I am second-generation American, and my grandparents are from Puerto Rico.

I never thought anything was strange in Puerto Rico other than the big mosquitos; because I was born there, nothing was really foreign to me. I think what I saw strange coming to L.A. was that a lot of people are a little bit two-faced. In Puerto Rico, you don't get that.

I'll live in Puerto Rico until the day I die.