Puerto Rican-American??

[James A. Landau]

The April 2003 issue of Redbook, in the cover article on My Big Fat Greek
Wedding's Nia Vardalos, describes Jennifer Lopez as "Puerto Rican-American".
Has anyone ever heard this phrase before?

It cannot be illiteracy on the part of the writer, who elsewhere correctly
describes Ms. Vardalos as "Greek-Canadian".  Nor is it required by the
context, since the only point to the adjectival phrase is to note that Ms.
(Srta.?) Lopez is neither Greek nor WASP.

Since all Puerto Ricans, regardless of their individual politics, are US
citizens, one can only infer that Ms. Lopez's ancestors emigrated from Puerto
Rico to the US sometime before 1898.

      - Jim Landau (who is a "generic Eastern European-American")