In 1970, 70% of Hispanics in New York City were Puerto Rican. At present, less than 50% of Hispanics in New York City are.

According to an article by Mireya Navarro in the New York Times, February 28, 2000, entitled Puerto Rican Presence Wanes in New York, "the number of Puerto Ricans in the United States has grown over the last decade or more, up from 2.7 million in 1990 to 3.1 million, according to the Census Bureau's latest count in 1997. But in new York City, the Puerto Rican population fell by more than 96,000 residents in roughly the same period, to 800,000 in 1998."

There are two processes which have led to the relative decline of the Puerto Rican population in New York City. The first is the dispersion of Puerto Ricans to other states. Puerto Ricans were basically concentrated in New York at one point, whereas now they are scattered over many cities and states. In 1940, for example, 88 percent of the Puerto Ricans living in the continental United States lived in New York. In 1990, by contrast, less than a third of the Puerto Ricans living in the Untied States lived in New York City.

The second process which has led to the relative decline of the Puerto Rican population is what one may call the "Hispanization" or "Latinization" of New York City. Over the past 30 years, the Latino population of New York City has grown more diverse and it continues to become much more so. When the figures for the Census 2000 are released, one may expect large increases in the number of Dominicans, Mexicans, and South Americans in New York City. The Puerto Rican population, by contrast, has probably experienced an absolute decline in the last decade. While this process has helped transform New York into a mosaic of Latin American cultures, it has reduced the percentage of Latinos which are of Puerto Rican origin. In an article entitled "De Atrás P'Alante," Angelo Falcón of the Institute for Puerto Rican Policy has criticized the so called "waning" of the Puerto Rican population in New York, and particularly the coverage of that process by New York Times journalist Mireya Navarro.

The continued expansion of the Latino populations in America's largest cities has been described recently by Mike Davis in a book on the latinization of U.S. cities. In Magical Urbanism: Latinos Reinvent the U.S. City, Davis argued that in the principal world-cities of the Untied States, namely Los Angeles and New York, the significance of the Latino populations has increased as the Latino population becomes both more numerous and more diverse.

In this light, the Puerto Rican population can be considered the pioneering community that spearheaded in New York a larger process now termed the "latinization" of U.S. cities. Puerto Rican immigration is merely the initial chapter of a much larger, much broader process which will continue to transform New York City.

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