Jibaro

Jíbaro
Monumento al Jíbaro Puertorriqueño dedicated to the Jíbaro, in Salinas, Puerto Rico.
Nationality	Puerto Rican
Occupation	Agricultural land tenants, sharecroppers, fieldworkers

Jíbaro is a term commonly used in Puerto Rico, as well as other Latin American countries, to refer to mountain-dwelling peasants, but in modern times it has gained a broader and, specifically, a nobler, cultural meaning.

In Puerto Rico, the Jíbaro culture has its origins primarily in Canarian and Andalusian culture, with minor influences from the native Taíno culture. The term jíbaro usually refers to "La Gente de la Montaña" (the people of the interior mountainous regions of Puerto Rico) and emerged in the 16th century with the blending of the Pre-Columbian Taíno and Spanish European cultures in the central mountains of the island. Royal Spanish Academy of Language or "Real Academia Española" says that the word originates from mountain people of central castile. Many of these early Spanish settlers preferred to settle in mountainous terrain that they were accustomed to back on the Spanish mainland and later from the Canary Islands. Some elements of the jíbaro culture are still visible today. For example, when Luis Muñoz Marín founded the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) in 1938, the party adopted the jíbaro hat, the pava, as its symbol. The PDP seal shows the pava with the words Pan, Tierra, y Libertad ("Bread, Land, and Freedom"). Also, every Christmas, Puerto Ricans use the Jíbaro instruments, music, and cuisine to celebrate these festivities.

The first known use of the word "jíbaro" occurred in 1814 in Diario Económico de Puerto Rico. In that paper there is a letter to the editor dated 17 June 1814 signed by “El Gíbaro Paciente” (The Patient Jíbaro). It is used in the context of an Puerto Rican character.

Since at least the 1920s the term "jíbaro" has a more positive connotation in Puerto Rican culture, proudly associated with a cultural ideology as tough pioneers of Puerto Rico.

However, the term occasionally also has a negative connotation. A jíbaro can mean someone who is considered ignorant or impressionable due to a lack of a more European style of education as is many country or "hillbilly" people of many other cultures. Despite this negative connotation, the image of the jíbaro represents an ideology of a traditional Puerto Rican: hard-working, simple, independent, and prudently wise.