Immigration from the Spanish-speaking World
Millions of immigrants from around the world arrived in the city in the early decades of the twentieth century. Tens of thousands of them came from Spain and the Spanish-speaking Americas, propelled by economic, political, and military upheavals, as well as by individual circumstance.
The biggest contingent came from Puerto Rico—or “Porto Rico,” as the U.S. renamed it (a change that lasted until 1932). The newcomers joined fellow islanders who had settled here in previous decades. The passage of the Jones Act in 1917 extended American citizenship to Puerto Ricans and facilitated their migration to mainland communities.By 1920 there were 7,364 Puerto Ricans in New York, a number that would grow substantially over the next decade.