Dispersion and Momentum Since 1980

By the 1980s, as the Puerto Rican population in the U.S. reached over two million—with vibrant communities across the Northeast, Midwest, Florida, and California—efforts for empowerment, recognition, and representation became more diverse and decentered. New migrants continued to arrive from the island during the 1980s, settling further from the core population centers of New York and New Jersey and creating communities in many smaller cities and towns in farther-flung states. Puerto Ricans fleeing the disastrous post-industrial centers of New York City, Newark, and a few other declining industrial cities contributed to the dispersion. ¹ By 2010, ten states would have Puerto Rican populations of 100,000 or more; ten cities had over 30,000 Puerto Ricans, with expanding communities in Tampa, Orlando, Allentown, and Springfield growing closer in size to the still-growing populations of Philadelphia, Miami, Bridgeport, and Boston. More important perhaps were the new clusters of higher income residents in varied counties in Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, southern California, and Nevada. ² A growing middle class of second generation Puerto Ricans, or those of more distant Puerto Rican descent, became more stable and integrated into heterogeneous middle class urban enclaves and suburbs.