Editing Puerto Ricans (section)

===Ethnogenesis===
The native Taino population began to dwindle, with the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, through disease and intermarriage.<ref name="kacike.org">[http://www.kacike.org/GuitarEnglish.html ''Documenting the Myth of Taino Extinction.'' Dr. Lynne Guitar. KACIKE: Journal of Caribbean Amerindian History and Anthropology.] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090627042932/http://www.kacike.org/GuitarEnglish.html |date=June 27, 2009 }} Retrieved May 23, 2010.</ref> Many Spaniard men took Taino and West African wives and in the first centuries of the Spanish colonial period the island was overwhelmingly racially mixed. "By 1530 there were 14 native women married to Spaniards, not to mention Spaniards with concubines."<ref name="El Jibaro">{{cite book|jstor=j.ctvbcd2vs.13|title=Mirada al Caribe|first=Luis A.|last=Santullano|chapter=El jíbaro|date=March 10, 2019|publisher=Colegio de Mexico|volume=54|pages=79–82 |language=es|doi=10.2307/j.ctvbcd2vs.13}}</ref> Under Spanish rule, mass immigration shifted the ethnic make-up of the island, as a result of the Royal Decree of Graces of 1815. Puerto Rico went from being two-thirds black and mulatto in the beginning of the 19th century, to being nearly 80% white by the middle of the 20th century. This was compounded by more flexible attitudes to race under Spanish rule, as epitomized by the ''Regla del Sacar''.<ref name="Puerto Rico's History on race">{{cite web|url=http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/cde/demsem/loveman-muniz.pdf|title=Puerto Rico's History on race|access-date=2018-11-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207224431/http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/cde/demsem/loveman-muniz.pdf|archive-date=2012-02-07|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="mona.uwi.edu">{{cite web|url=http://myspot.mona.uwi.edu/liteng/|archive-url=https://archive.today/20121212130544/http://myspot.mona.uwi.edu/liteng/|url-status=dead|title=Representation of racial identity among Puerto Ricans and in the u.s. mainland|archive-date=December 12, 2012}}</ref><ref>[https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/puerto-rico/ CIA World Factbook]  Retrieved June 8, 2009.</ref><ref>[http://2010.census.gov/2010census/data/ 2010.census.gov] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110705043714/http://2010.census.gov/2010census/data/ |date=July 5, 2011 }}</ref><ref>[http://stewartsynopsis.com/racial_amnesia.htm Puerto Rico's Historical Demographics] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303171842/http://stewartsynopsis.com/racial_amnesia.htm |date=2016-03-03 }} Retrieved November 10, 2011.</ref> Under Spanish rule, Puerto Rico had laws such as ''Regla del Sacar'' or ''[[Gracias al Sacar]]'', which allowed persons of mixed ancestry to pay a fee to be classified as white,<ref>{{Cite news|last=Alford|first=Natasha S.|date=2020-02-09|title=Why Some Black Puerto Ricans Choose 'White' on the Census|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/09/us/puerto-rico-census-black-race.html|access-date=2021-07-23|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> which was the opposite of the [[one-drop rule]] in US society after the American Civil War.<ref name="ReferenceA">Falcón in Falcón, Haslip-Viera and Matos-Rodríguez 2004: Ch. 6</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qLSU-SiojsYC&q=Jay+Kinsbruner,+Not+of+Pure+Blood,|title=Not of Pure Blood: The Free People of Color and Racial Prejudice in Nineteenth-century Puerto Rico|first=Jay|last=Kinsbruner|date=February 22, 1996|publisher=Duke University Press|via=Google Books|isbn=978-0822318422}}</ref>
[[File:Waiting by the side of the road in Puerto Rico.jpg|thumb|left|Two men sit by the side of a road with the ocean behind them in Puerto Rico.]]
Studies have shown that the racial ancestry mixture of the average Puerto Rican (regardless of racial self-identity) is about 64% European, 21% African, and 15% Native Taino, with European ancestry strongest on the west side of the island and West African ancestry strongest on the east side, and the levels of Taino ancestry (which, according to some research, ranges from about 5%-35%) generally highest in the southwest of the island.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://m.livescience.com/37624-mapping-puerto-rican-heritage.html|title=Mapping Puerto Rican Heritage with Spit and Genomics|website=[[Live Science]]|access-date=October 26, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304000922/http://m.livescience.com/37624-mapping-puerto-rican-heritage.html|archive-date=March 4, 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.eldiario.es/canariasahora/sociedad/cerca-puertorriquenos-europeos-descienden-canarias_1_3275441.html|title = Cerca del 40% de los puertorriqueños con genes europeos descienden de Canarias|date = July 19, 2017}}</ref><ref name="Via">{{cite journal|last1=Via|first1=Marc|last2=Gignoux|first2=Christopher R.|last3=Roth|first3=Lindsay A.|display-authors=etal|date=Jan 2011|title=History Shaped the Geographic Distribution of Genomic Admixture on the Island of Puerto Rico|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=6|issue=1|pages=e16513|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0016513|pmid=21304981|pmc=3031579|bibcode=2011PLoSO...616513V|doi-access=free}}</ref>

A study of a sample of 96 healthy self-identified White Puerto Ricans and self-identified Black Puerto Ricans in the U.S. showed that, although all carried a contribution from all 3 ancestral populations (European, African, and Amerindian), the proportions showed significant variation. Depending on individuals, although often correlating with their self-identified race, African ancestry ranged from less than 10% to over 50%, while European ancestry ranged from under 20% to over 80%. Amerindian ancestry showed less fluctuation, generally hovering between 5% and 20% irrespective of self-identified race.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ssc.wisc.edu/cde/demsem/loveman-muniz.pdf |title=How Puerto Rico Became White |date=February 7, 2006 |website=SSC WISC Edu |publisher=University of Wisconsin-Madison |access-date=February 22, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171123151459/https://www.ssc.wisc.edu/cde/demsem/loveman-muniz.pdf |archive-date=November 23, 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="genographic.nationalgeographic.com">{{cite web|url=https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/reference-populations/|title=Your Regional Ancestry: Reference Populations|access-date=October 26, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170227020449/https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/reference-populations/|archive-date=February 27, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Latino populations: a unique opport">{{cite journal | pmc= 1449501 | pmid=16257940 | doi=10.2105/AJPH.2005.068668 | volume=95 | issue=12 | title=Latino populations: a unique opportunity for the study of race, genetics, and social environment in epidemiological research | date=December 2005 | journal=Am J Public Health | pages=2161–8 | last1 = González Burchard | first1 = E | last2 = Borrell | first2 = LN | last3 = Choudhry | first3 = S |display-authors=etal }}</ref>

The majority of the European ancestry in Puerto Ricans comes from southern Spain, more specifically the [[Canary Islands]]; this is also true for many Dominicans and Cubans. Canarians are of partial [[Guanches|Guanche]] ancestry, a North African Berber ethnic group who were the original inhabitants before Spanish conquest. This means that by extension, many Puerto Ricans have minuscule amounts of North African blood through the indigenous Guanches of the Canary Islands.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.soitu.es/soitu/2008/10/09/info/1223573146_635959.html |title=Un estudio descubre la presencia de genes guanches en la República Dominicana |access-date=2018-12-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181216163707/http://www.soitu.es/soitu/2008/10/09/info/1223573146_635959.html |archive-date=2018-12-16 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://lacomunidad.elpais.com/amazonasfilm/2009/7/12/un-estudio-del-genoma-taino-y-guanche-adn-o-dna-primera-parte|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100206133647/http://lacomunidad.elpais.com/amazonasfilm/2009/7/12/un-estudio-del-genoma-taino-y-guanche-adn-o-dna-primera-parte|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 6, 2010|title=La Comunidad » DOCUMENTALES GRATIS » UN ESTUDIO DEL GENOMA TAINO Y GUANCHE. ADN o DNA. Primera parte|date=February 6, 2010}}</ref>