German Immigration To Puerto Rico - 20th Century

20th Century

On December 10, 1898, Puerto Rico was ceded by Spain to the United States under the terms of the 1898 Treaty of Paris, which ended the Spanish–American War. The former Spanish military bases were transferred to the United States and many of the soldiers of German-American descent stationed in the island intermarried with the locals and established their homes there. With the passage of the Jones Act of 1917 Puerto Ricans were required to service in the Armed Forces of the United States. Puerto Ricans fought in Germany during World War II as members of Puerto Rico's 65th Infantry Regiment and continued to serve in said country as members of the regular Army after the war. Many of these soldiers married German girls who, as in the case of Dr. Ursula Acosta, eventually moved to the island with their Puerto Rican husbands. Dr. Ursula Acosta, who was born in Germany, is a psychologist and retired professor of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. As member of the Puerto Rican Genealogy Society, she has studied and written many works on genealogy and the German influence in Puerto Rico. Among her works are the following:

• Familias de Cabo Rojo, 1983 (with David Enrique Cuesta Camacho)
• Cabo Rojo: Notas para su historia (with Antonio "Mao" Ramos Ramírez de Arellano)
• Cofresí y Ducoudray: Dos hombres al margen de la historia, Editorial Edil, Río Piedras, PR, 1991
• New Voices of Old: Five Centuries of Puerto Rican Cultural History, 1987

By the beginning of the 20th century, many of the descendants of the first German settlers had become successful businessmen, educators, and scientists and were among the pioneers of Puerto Rico's television industry. In recent years, two commercial establishments in Puerto Rico became gathering places for Puerto Rico's German community, the more than half-century-old Zipperle's Restaurant in San Juan, and the Casa Bavaria restaurant located in the central mountain range (Cordillera Central) in Morovis, visited in 2008 by President Bill Clinton.