~ photo by DanAllison

Being a white guy from the States I don’t think I have ever really understood prejudice and racism like a Hispanic or Black guy has.  So it has been a little strange for me to live in Puerto Rico where there is some prejudice going on.  I don’t know if it is because I am white or maybe because I am from the States.  Maybe it’s a little of both.

Puerto Ricans do feel oppressed from the States.  I really do believe they feel like second class citizens.  An in ways the USA does look down on them.  So I can understand some of the dirty looks and weird stares.  They might just be taking a defensive stance because they probably think I might consider them second class as well (not the case at all).

To give some examples; I have had a cop yell at me because I didn’t understand her.  I know cops like to yell but she became enraged once I told her I didn’t understand Spanish.  I have had a Postal employee call me a “stupid gringo”.  Etc…  I will write more about these incidents in separate posts on a later date.  I have never felt threatened like someone wanted to fight because of prejudice.

On the flip side I would say 70% of Puerto Ricans don’t have a problem with Americans, maybe more.  When I first moved here, I would have put that number much lower around 40-50% maybe.  Now that I look back, it was probably misunderstandings of the culture.  I do tend to get better customer service (not always sometimes worse) and a few other weird quirks for being a White Gringo.

The one good thing about driving in Puerto Rico is there is no road rage. You can literally drive like a maniac and not have to worry about people driving more recklessly to try to prove a point. You of course will get horns honking at you, but the horn is expected (I have never heard their Puerto Rico national anthem, but the main instrument has to be the car horn). Puerto Ricans do get irritated with certain things. The irritation usually starts when someone is kind enough to let you in and then a long line of cars follows. Now the car that was kind is stuck. They still won’t have road rage though. They just grin and bare it, realizing that they shouldn’t have let you go.

In Puerto Rico you can legally run red lights from midnight to 5am. What does this mean? Well you can’t just see a red light and gun it, but you can treat the light like a stop sign. Pull up to the light, if no one is coming, then you can gun it. When I first moved here, I didn’t believe it. I thought it was some form of Puerto Rican snipe hunting, that they were just F-ing with me. I used to see people running the lights all of the time (while not legal, people start running the lights about 11pm - 6am). I actually heard it from a cop. So I guess it is the real deal.

My understanding is Puerto Rico used to have a huge problem with car jacking. Being able to run lights when there is no traffic is supposed to be a cure for the problem. Maybe it works. I dunno. It is a sight to see if you aren’t used to it. People pull up to the light and then haul ass…

So you are driving along in San Juan and decide that you want to goto the beaches in Condado. Suddenly a cop gets behind you with his lights on. Your initial reaction I am sure is “Damn!”. Don’t worry though… You are in Puerto Rico! The police always drive around with their lights on. Just like you will be, I was so nervous when I drove because all of the cops and the flashing lights, it takes a while to get used to. My understanding is that the lights are supposed to help prevent crime. The thought behind this; if you are about to rob someone, and you see some flashing lights, you will think twice. I agree, but if I were going to rob someone, I would wait until the lights past me by. If you want to get a chuckle out of them, it’s always fun to ask a Puerto Rican about the police and their lights. Everyone thinks it is pretty silly.

To me, it does make it seem like there are more cops on the road. I remember telling people how I thought that Puerto Rico has cops everywhere. I think this is the impression the government wants to give.

In Puerto Rico, you better hope your house isn’t on fire or that you are about to die in the back of an ambulance, because cars will not get out of the way of emergency vehicles. It is truly an odd site to see. I guess because in the States we go out of our way to get out of theirs.

I think people just don’t believe that there is an emergency. I don’t know how many times I have seen an emergency vehicle turn on his lights and sirens so they could run a red light. So I do think the mentality is that if I have to wait so do you.

People don’t believe the cops either. They are always breaking the driving laws. The motorcycle cops do exactly the same as all other motorcyclist that I wrote about earlier.

One of the problems with the police is that there is little enforcement. If they started writing tickets for parking illegally, or catching the crazy motorcycles, etc. Traffic would flow smoother.

The car horn is used a little differently in Puerto Rico than in the States. We would most likely use the horn if someone where to pull out in front of us, cut us off, or almost hit us. Makes sense right? Not to a Puerto Rican. This type of driving is fine and acceptable. No joke. Puerto Ricans use the horn at exactly the same time the light turns green just to make sure that you are aware that it changed. They will also use it when they get tired of waiting. At a long light, truck drivers love to hold down the horn just to show you that they are bored and impatient.

Their driving mannerisms are also different. Since the traffic is so bad here, bad driving is acceptable because you would never be able to get anywhere if you drove politely. To give you some examples:

If you have to cross an intersection with heavy traffic and no light, you just keep inching your way out until you stop traffic. All of the cars behind you will follow. This whole cycle repeats for the traffic that you stopped. So they can get going again, they will have to keep inching out until the intersecting traffic can not budge.

If some one has a chance to pull out in front of you, they will. Again, their driving might not be courteous driving to you or I, but they have to do drive like that and don’t think their actions are inconsiderate.

At an intersection with a traffic light, when the light turns green Puerto Ricans will go through the intersection extremely slow. I haven’t figured out why yet. I think it is possibly to watch for people running a red light. The best way I can describe their speed that they go through the lights so you might understand is to compare with people ages in the States. When the light changes and a person in their teens through thirties is in the lead, he will haul ass through the light. A person in their forties to sixties will go along at an average speed, and usually an older person in their seventies to nineties will go through the intersection at a crawl. It seems the average Puerto Rican goes through like an old timer. Of course there are exceptions. And that Puerto Rican who is an exception knows how slow everyone is and loves to take advantage of everyones tardiness. They will get in the wrong lane. When the light changes, they zoom off to beat everyone.