All Rights Reserved. On the blocks around ''El Barrio,'' Puerto Rican music still wafts out of certain storefronts. These days, though, it is hard to resist the sense that Ms. Martinez is hanging her flags with as much a feeling of nostalgia as pride. Being Hispanic in New York City used to mean being Puerto Rican. With the growing presence of Dominicans and Mexicans, Puerto Ricans now account for 37 percent of the city's Hispanic population.
Experts say the decline is destined to continue.
But unlike most traditional immigrant groups who came to New York during the early part of the 1900's, more than a third of Puerto Ricans leaving the city have moved to Puerto Rico, including significant numbers of people born in the States. For many Puerto Ricans , their diminishing presence has provided them with a moment to look back on, and assess, the Puerto Rican experience in New York . In the 1990's, the percentage of Puerto Rican households in the city living at or below the poverty line increased despite a strong local economy, to a rate greater than that of any other group. According to the most recent data, about 40 percent of New York 's Puerto Ricans qualified as poor, a figure considerably higher than that of African-Americans and worse than the average rate for all Hispanics. Many researchers say there is not enough scholarship to lay out a definitive explanation of why so many Puerto Ricans in the city continue to struggle.