Borinquen MadeA history magazine in Spanish
The history of Puerto Rico in one order of time
Puerto Rico is the easternmost island of the Greater Antilles, a Caribbean territory whose history reads as a single arc: the first Taíno peoples, the centuries of colony under Spain, the transfer of the island to the United States, the territory and the Free Associated State. Current events on that arc are dated on News. This magazine arranges that arc by the time of the events, with no sections breaking the reading. Choose the years you want to read and start there.
Freeze 2026-08-22. Not current events in these History essays; News is. Not original historical research.
LUMA takes the grid
Three years after María exposed an electric grid held together by deferred maintenance, Puerto Rico handed it to a private consortium.
Counting María: 64, 4,645, 2,975
Three layers, three windows, three methods. Not a blended headline.
After María, Florida
ACS and PRCS: moves to the mainland jumped, and a third of them went to Florida.
Housing and flood maps after María
Advisory Base Flood Elevations, then the National Flood Hazard Layer. A year of reconstruction, dated.
Telegramgate and "Ricky Renuncia"
A leaked chat between Governor Ricardo Rosselló and his inner circle set off the largest street protests in Puerto Rico's modern history.
Punta Ventana falls
An earthquake swarm in southwest Puerto Rico destroyed an iconic rock arch and left tens of thousands afraid to sleep under a roof.
COVID-19 reaches the island
Weeks before its first confirmed case, Puerto Rico's government moved faster and harder than most of the U.S. mainland.
A simple majority, a non-binding vote
For the first time, Puerto Rico's 2020 status referendum asked a single yes or no on statehood, and statehood won, narrowly.
The biggest album in the world was made in Puerto Rico
In 2022, Bad Bunny's Un Verano Sin Ti became the most successful album of the year on a global scale: a Spanish-language album crowning the world.
What the schoolbook leaves out
A short, cited list of absences.
2010-2020 Census, the emptying
Resident population 3,285,874, down 11.8 percent from 3,725,789. The Post-Enumeration Survey later found an overcount of 5.7 percent.
Taíno write-ins in the census
The DHC-A codes Taínos as a people. This diary prints no island-wide tally.
2020 racial recoding, 75.8 to 17.1
A questionnaire change, not a biological fact.
Status vote, November 3, 2020
A yes-or-no question on statehood; print both portions.
Fiona, September 18, 2022
Category One at Punta Tocón, 1920 UTC, 85 miles per hour, 986 millibars. The damage was the rain.
A ballot with no status quo option
Puerto Rico's seventh status referendum broke with all previous votes: for the first time, staying a U.S. territory was not even on the ballot.
Status vote, November 5, 2024
Three non-territorial options; print the certified portions as published.
"Debí tirar más fotos"
Bad Bunny's sixth album turned toward Puerto Rican tradition, and doubled as commentary on gentrification, ahead of a San Juan residency.
Bad Bunny takes Puerto Rico to the Super Bowl
In February 2026, a Puerto Rican artist headlined for the first time the biggest stage in American entertainment, singing almost entirely in Spanish.
Coral, NOAA Reef Watch, DHW
A dated Degree Heating Week snapshot at the Puerto Rico regional station, not a Keys board.