puerto rico: I keep hearing the derogatory term "Latino" and "Latina" thrown around all too often to refer to Hispanics. Today, someone mentioned at a conference, that calling people from Puerto Rico a Boricua is perfectly acceptable. Is this true or just another cultural insult brought on by ignorance and populated by the media?|||We call ourselves and each other "boricua", which comes from the word "Borik茅n" (also Borinquen) which is what the natives said the country was called when the Spanish arrived. It's alright to call a Puerto Rican "boricua" because it's not a derogatory term like...others are. And hey, if you happen to say it in Puerto Rico with that tourist accent we'll probably smile, it means you did a nice vocabulary research on us.|||Yo soy Boricua :D . Report Abuse |||yes, perfectly fine and not disrespectful actually puerto ricans, especially the one living in the island refer to themselves as boricuas help me?|||it is like the way cubans refer to themselves as cubanos or the way domincans refer to themselves as dominicanos|||It's perfectly fine. They call them selfs boricuas. Listen to their songs (wisin y Yandel) other latin artist use it to.|||I think that is what they call themselves. You might want to just stick to calling them Puerto Ricans.|||It's proper to call them Puerto Rican.|||That's what PRs refer to themselves... unless your latino I don't think they'd mind.