10/19/2023
Proud to be Puertorican!! 🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷
Did you know that these are facts that many people may not know about Puerto Rico🇵🇷:
• Puerto Rico is the largest per capita "godfather" of the World Vision organization.
• Puerto Rican guayacán wood is so hard that it is used to make airplane propellers worldwide.
• Puerto Rico has the most roads per square mile in the world.
• The Cristo Street in Old San Juan was the first paved street in the New World.
• Puerto Rico is the largest rum producer in the world: 86% of the rum sold in the United States comes from the island.
• Puerto Rico has the highest average wage in all of Latin America, at $15.54 per hour, or $32,332 per year, according to the Federal Department of Labor data from 2022. The Latin American average is $4.02 per hour, or $8,361 per year.
• Puerto Rico is home to 10 of the world's 20 largest pharmaceutical companies, producing top-selling brands like Humalog, Humira, Eliquis, Opdivo, Enbrel, Neulasta, Remicade, and Xarelto. In 2019, the sector's exports totaled more than $44 billion.
• According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Puerto Rico is one of the lands in the Americas with the richest history, where Hispanic tradition is best preserved.
• With over 1,300 rivers, streams, and springs, this island is known as "The Enchanted Island."
• Puerto Rico ranks third worldwide in the proportion of professionals (doctors, engineers, and lawyers) per its population, despite many living outside the island.
• Puerto Rico is home to the world's largest sea turtle: the leatherback or lúd turtle. The World Wildlife Fund classifies it as vulnerable in Puerto Rico, but it's critically endangered elsewhere. The conservation project "Proyecto Tinglado" is based on the island of Culebra in Puerto Rico, one of the few places where the leatherback population is increasing.
• The Puerto Rico Trench is the deepest point in the Atlantic Ocean and one of the world's deepest marine trenches. Located just north of Puerto Rico, it separates the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. At its deepest point, the trench is 8.4 km (5.2 miles) deep. The site is geologically complex and associated with the most negative gravitational anomaly on Earth.
• The Coquí frog's song: Of the 17 species of Coquí frogs, only two say "coquí": the common coquí (Eleutherodactylus coqui) and the mountain coquí (Eleutherodactylus portoricensis). However, these two frogs emit different frequencies.
• Boricua is a great thinker: The prestigious English publisher Routledge published the book "Fifty Mayor Thinkers on Education: From Confucius to Dewey" in 2001. It highlighted the most important thinkers in the world in the field of education, including the Puerto Rican Eugenio María de Hostos.
• A real Avatar forest: El Yunque is known for its ecological richness. Among the various species of fungi and ferns, some are bioluminescent, making the forest glow in the dark, turning El Yunque into a natural Avatar-like forest at night.
• Not Columbus's landing spot: According to recent research, Christopher Columbus did not arrive on the shores of Puerto Rico with the caravel Santa María. He also did not land with the other two vessels he used on his first voyage to the New World in 1492: the Pinta or the Niña. In reality, Columbus discovered Puerto Rico on his second voyage aboard the flagship La Mari Galante.
• Wow! We're higher than Everest!: Puerto Rico is an eroded summit of a grand submerged mountain. The measurements from the highest point in the country, Cerro Punta, to the base of the underwater island exceed the height of the world's tallest mountain, Mount Everest, by about 28 feet.
• Rich and varied soils: Puerto Rico has all three major rock types in the world: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. These, in turn, give rise to an incredible variety of soils, so much so that Puerto Rico has almost all the major soil groups in the world.
• Home to nearly all species of insects: The island's great soil diversity, among other factors, has given rise to more than 5,000 species of insects, as reported. The insects inhabiting the island have been grouped into 27 orders, out of the 31 total orders of insect species worldwide, and Puerto Rico hosts 27 groups of all the insect species on the planet.
• Important relics: In the Cristo Chapel in Old San Juan, you'll find bones inside a reliquary belonging to Saint John the Baptist. Likewise, this chapel houses relics of the sacred mantle of Saint Joseph. In the San Francisco church, also located in San Juan, you'll find relics of the Holy Cross of Jesus.
• Abundance of talent: Puerto Rico is represented in the Louvre Museum by the Puerto Rican Francisco Oller, originally from the town of Bayamón. His works adorn the walls of this museum alongside other great Impressionist painters.
• The traditional coffee break we take at 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. was not inherited from the Americans. It was an idea of the Puerto Rican Manuel de la Rosa, former president of the employees of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
• Puerto Ricans are resourceful: The worldwide technique of mounting electricity poles in the mountains with the help of helicopters is an idea from Puerto Rican engineers.
• The most effectively managed bubonic plague in the world was in Puerto Rico. Health authorities controlled it in 92 days, setting a world record. This happened in 1912.
• In 1983, UNESCO declared La Fortaleza a World Heritage Site.
• When the Korean War broke out in 1950, the 65th Infantry Regiment, composed of Puerto Rican soldiers, was sent to the Korean Peninsula. They were tasked with exterminating enemy units left behind the lines to wage guerrilla warfare. However, the climax of their glorious military career was possibly when the United Nations forces were cornered near the port of Pusan in the face of a overwhelming Chinese offensive. They managed to withstand this massive offensive, despite the numerical disadvantage, and helped the United Nations, including the U.S. Marine Corps, establish new beachheads to finally push the communists back to the 38th parallel.
• Another brilliant campaign was fought in the so-called Iron Triangle, where they had to hold a perimeter that was crucial for the anti-communists at all costs. They did their job, enduring everything the Chinese and Korean infantry could throw at them. In these campaigns, the 65th Infantry Regiment suffered about 258 deaths and over a thousand wounded.
• Hundreds of its members received awards, including the Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver Star, and the Gold Medal from President Barack Obama. During part of their campaign in Korea, they were led by Puerto Rican Colonel César Cordero Dávila, William Harris, and Chester B. Garve, who was their last commander.
• For years, the legacy of the Puerto Rican members of the 65th Infantry Regiment and the so-called Borinqueneers has been a reason to celebrate. As of April 13