ISLAND SPLENDOR

[Music] [Music] at San Juan's International Airport you can get a flight to most anywhere in the world but most of the traffic is strictly an American Affair Stateside Americans arriving for vacation or business and Puerto Rico Americans off to see what it's like up on the continent this very delightful old part of the new world was discovered by Columbus in 1493 and with him was a Spanish nobleman hon Deon who founded the first settlement 3 and a half hours by jet from New York and you are in America's newest and plushest Resort [Music] sugar cane once dominated the landscape as the sugar industry dominated the Island's economy it's still an important crop but for a variety of reasons no longer the key to its business life tropical fruits too once large in agriculture have taken a less prominent part in the economic scheme of things [Music] since Castro's rise in Cuba and other recent disorders in adjoining areas querto Rico has emerged as the largest tourist attraction in the Caribbean Cuba no Puerto Rico CA visitors of unloaded to the tune of over $50 million a year which makes tourism a major source of [Music] income to the vacationer in this bommy climate the name of the game is Lush lavish and [Music] luxurious it's a real swinging Paradise [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] one of the old Customs was to drink your wine from a goat skin today they use glass containers but the problem is the same purely a matter of coordination aim dexterity and perseverance or a fresh supply of clean shirt [Music] in 1952 Puerto Rico became a free self-governing Associated Commonwealth and is in a unique position it deres most of the benefits of the United States government but without obligation to pay federal income taxes the island has a nonvoting representative in the United States Congress therefore the citizens cannot be taxed by the federal government in keeping with the principle no representation no taxation Puerto Rico May someday become the 51st state an idea that is guaranteed to ignite political fireworks however its immediate concern is economic expansion a development program started over 20 years ago known as operation bootstrap has fostered progress and under the plan substantial incentives are offered to attract outside industry the main incentive being tax exemption for a period of 10 to 13 years all this has brought startling changes to the people the message of modern living is reaching out everywhere the dreary old shack communities are going replaced by lowcost [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] developments like all developing areas the demand for space has cities reaching up and out at a furious Pace construction has reached an all-time high hotels apartment houses [Music] [Music] homes Puerto Rico meaning Rich Port ironically was once called the Poor House of the Caribbean and from that lowly state it has become an example of economic and social development for other less developed areas of the world with all the advances in the Island's way of life however there is an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with modernizing and a desire to preserve its Hispanic [Music] culture one of the most significant reminders of the Hispanic past is El moral a fortress built by the Spaniards 370 years ago and considered a Marvel of early military engineering strangely enough it was from one of these gun positions that the only shot on American soil was fired at the enemy during World War I an in turn German ship tried to escape from San Juan Harbor and one of the old Spanish guns was loaded and fired at the fleeing ship the gun explod fled and disappeared from the ramparts the German ship turned back believing that a new type disappearing gun was being used today the Old Fort is headquarters for the United States Army and til's command and part of a golf course also lies within its walls a most formidable bunker for any Fairway [Music] one of the Commonwealth's development projects is the loio experimental Forest commonly called el Yun this is the famous rainforest where sunshine and storm alternate with each other over and over and over again in elun it rains four or five times each day and as many as 1,600 times a year the annual record in this amazingly wet place is 235 in that would fill a lot of watering cans the downpour stops as quickly as it starts the Sun comes out and the forest begins to dry itself [Music] Puerto Ricans have their own way of feeling about what they call Patria the Homeland the Patria has been described as the colors of the landscape the smell of the earth wet withh fresh rain the voice of the stream the habits of work and Leisure the flowers The Valleys but even more the Patria means the people their way of life [Music]