ARTICLE: Puerto Ricans in Central Florida’s Tourism Hub Are Driving Hispanic Growth

Roberto Torres-Aguiar moved to central Florida to practice cardiology after payments for his patients in Puerto Rico, where unemployment hovers around 16 percent, became increasingly delinquent.

“It was becoming a nightmare to practice medicine in Puerto Rico,” said Torres-Aguiar, 56, who now lives in Orlando, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) north of Miami.

Puerto Ricans like Torres-Aguiar, free to move because they’re U.S. citizens, have displaced Cubans driving Florida’s Hispanic growth, especially in the state’s center. They make up almost half the Hispanic population of three counties surrounding Orlando: Orange, Polk and Osceola, according to the 2009 American Community Survey of the U.S. Census Bureau.

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