[Suki]

Miranda, people act so 'surprised' at the religious diversity on the island. When I went to high school and to the University I met Seiks from the Golden Temple from Yogi Bhajan, I also met people who were Zen Buddhists and Buddhists have a temple in Isla Verde I think. I met Muslims, in fact one of them came to my husband's 'caserio' and tried to convert him. Lol. To no avail of course. I saw pentecostals, baptists, methodists, seventh day adventists, etc. etc. Puerto Rico is enormously diverse religiously speaking.

When I was living there I met people from Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Japan, China, Korea, Jordan, Peru, Colombia, Panama, Bolivia, Ecuador, England, Scotland, France, Germany, Italy and even people from Malta and Greece. Many permanent residents. I even met some Australians who lived in El Viejo San Juan for years. Those who don't think Puerto Rico is diverse are fooling themselves.

Yes, Puerto Ricans consume. But they can't afford the really 'ritzy' places to shop in. In fact I remember two relatively expensive department stores that are no longer in business in Puerto Rico. One is de Velasco, and the other is Gonzalez Padin. Now people buy mostly in the really 'affordable' places such as PITUSA, and Grande, and so on. Even Pueblo supermarkets are considered a little pricey for the average boricua consumer. People are in debt and strapped and are paying 20% and above interest on island credit cards from BBV and other credit lenders. IT is very worrisome. Puerto Rico lives in an artificial high consumeristic society with low or no savings and high debt ratios and where most workers make a lot less than mainland equivalents in salaries.

Basics such as water, electricity, food, and transportation costs are going up and are spotty and unreliable. Yet people consume luxury goods such as expensive fashions and so on like if there is no tomorrow. It doesn't make sense in many ways.