What is generally viewed as limited assimilation, I hypothesize Is a conscious attempt by Puerto Ricans to preserve their cultural heritage and maintain a Puerto Rican identity. Insularity will be defined for this article as the condition of a group of women seeking to limit their family size in a manner possible given the limited choices within their culture. Insular behavior Is one of the strongest cultural Influences present in the Puerto Rican subculture. Puerto Rican males and females are entrenched in insular behavior patterns and coupled with the Influence of machismo both help to preserve their gender specific and traditional sex roles. By emphasizing insularity and machismo, Puerto Ricans choose to retain their culture and reject assimilation.
Insularity is crucial to understanding the pattern of fertility behavior for Puerto Rican women.
Sterilization is preferred method of fertility control After four decades of residence in the United States, Puerto Rican women are still facing the same dilemma of controlling their fertility. A number of social, historical, cultural and individual factors influence and constrain Puerto Rican women's sterilization decisions. Some of the historical conditions include public policy practices and economic circumstances, while others stem from the individual need of Puerto Rican women to attempt to control their own fertility. The issue with sterilization in many instances was not the operation itself, but the question of whether the operation was used to address the economic circumstances of individual Puerto Rican families or even the Puerto Rican community as a whole. Historically, the belief that poverty, in Puerto Rico or in Puerto Rican neighborhoods on the mainland, was created by overpopulation led to an either passive or active liberal encouragement of sterilization to control Puerto Rican fertility.