Puerto Rico is a Caribbean island of approximately 3,515 square miles, roughly the size of Connecticut, located about 1,000 miles southeast of Miami where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Caribbean Sea. With a population of approximately 3.2 million, it is the largest and most populous of the five inhabited U.S. territories and has more people than 21 of the 50 states. It is also the most economically significant, the most politically complex, and the one whose relationship with the United States has generated the most sustained debate about democracy, citizenship, and colonial history.

Puerto Ricans have been U.S. citizens since 1917, a status granted by Congress without being requested by Puerto Ricans and timed, critics note, to make them eligible for the World War I draft. Despite more than a century of citizenship, they cannot vote for President, have no voting representation in Congress, and in 2016 had an unelected federal oversight board, La Junta, imposed over their elected government to restructure $74 billion in public debt, the largest municipal debt crisis in American history.

The island is also la isla del encanto, the island of enchantment, a place of genuine and extraordinary beauty, cultural richness, and resilience. Old San Juan's 500-year-old fortresses and cobblestone streets, El Yunque's ancient rainforest, the bioluminescent bays of Vieques, the coffee mountains of the Cordillera Central, and the sounds of salsa, bomba, and plena that define Puerto Rican musical culture are as much Puerto Rico as any of its political challenges. The island's people have survived colonialism, hurricanes, debt crises, and federal neglect with a cultural confidence and humor that is distinctly, irreducibly Puerto Rican.