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Puerto Ricans (Latino Studies)

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Jun 21st, 2018
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  1. Introduction
  2. This article focuses on the study of Puerto Ricans living in the continental United States and Hawaii, providing an overview of history and contemporary issues as well as of the emergence and current vibrancy of the field of Puerto Rican studies. During the 1800s, many Puerto Ricans arrived as political exiles struggling for Puerto Rico’s independence from Spain and as cigar makers, contributing to the formation of pan-Latino communities. As an outcome of the Spanish-American War in 1898, the United States acquired Puerto Rico as a colony and has retained political sovereignty since that time. These political ties facilitated the recruitment of Puerto Ricans to work on sugar plantations in Hawaii in 1900 as well as the transformation of Puerto Rico’s economy, which displaced many workers. In 1917, the US Congress unilaterally declared all Puerto Ricans to be US citizens. With US citizenship in hand, with workers displaced from Puerto Rico’s economy, and with US employers recruiting low-wage workers, migration increased after World War I and again after World War II. Although migration has ebbed and flowed, it has continued. More Puerto Ricans now live in the United States than in Puerto Rico, with communities throughout the continental United States and Hawaii. Despite this long history of migration, scholarship on Puerto Ricans began fairly recently, in the post–World War II era. At that time, social scientists turned their attention to Puerto Ricans, who were arriving in dramatically increasing numbers. Their writings reflected many of the dominant perceptions of their time. This scholarship was then challenged by the “new” fields of study that emerged in tandem with the political and social movements of the late 1960s and 1970s. The interdisciplinary field of Puerto Rican Studies emerged as scholars, activists, and artists worked to recover earlier writings of fiction and autobiographical accounts, studied the causes and consequences of migration, explored the emergence of working-class and transnational communities, and produced and studied the full range of creative writings and production. Increasingly, scholars explored the nuances created within Puerto Rican communities based on differences, including gender, sexuality, race, class, religion, politics, and region. More recently, the field has evolved with analysis of interethnic and interracial relations, and a start has been made on comparative analysis of what Puerto Ricans do and do not share with other Latina/o groups as well as with other racial/ethnic groups.
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  4. Resources and Overviews
  5. Two key peer-reviewed journals are dedicated to the study of Latina and Latino populations, issues, and concerns, and each includes research on the structural and social conditions and daily lives of Puerto Ricans. In response to scholarly and popular representations of Puerto Ricans as a problem, the Centro: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies appeared in 1987, and it is considered the premier journal in the field of Puerto Rican Studies. Latino Studies, published since 2003, builds on the foundations of Puerto Rican studies and Chicana/o studies to examine the local, national, transnational, and hemispheric contexts that affect Latinas and Latinos in the United States. It features studies that focus on distinct Latina/o national-origin groups as well as comparative and relational studies of Latinas and Latinos. Research concerning Puerto Ricans and Puerto Rican issues is often found within its pages. Several books provide broad overviews of Puerto Ricans, often framed within traditional disciplinary bounds: Rodríguez 1991 represents a social science approach; contributions in Acosta-Belén and Santiago 2006 and Santiago-Valles and Jiménez-Muñoz 2004 are more historical; and Sánchez González 2001 offers a literary studies perspective. An edited collection, Rúa 2010 includes work of a foundational scholar, Elena Padilla, and contributions from contemporary scholars that reflect on her contributions to urban ethnography. Contributors to Whalen and Vásquez-Hernández 2005 explore the historical origins and contemporary issues confronting various communities of the Puerto Rican diaspora, challenging the predominance of New York–centered studies as representative of all diasporic Puerto Rican experiences. Defining themes within these works include migration, labor, community and identity formations, racial formations, and cultural productions.
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  7. Acosta-Belén, Edna, and Carlos E. Santiago. Puerto Ricans in the United States: A Contemporary Portrait. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2006.
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  11. A co-authored historical and contemporary analysis of the Puerto Rican diaspora as a commuter nation. In highlighting transnational connections, in relation to identity formation and cultural practices and expressions, it offers a wide-ranging account of migration patterns and the socioeconomic conditions and struggles of communities in the United States.
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  16. Centro: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies. 1987–.
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  19.  
  20. A multidisciplinary, bilingual peer-reviewed journal published semiannually by the Center for Puerto Rican Studies. The journal publishes a range of works in a variety of formats— scholarly articles in the humanities and the social sciences as well as interpretive essays, interviews, fiction, reviews, and art.
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  25. Latino Studies. 2003–.
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  28.  
  29. A quarterly peer-reviewed publication that promotes and advances interdisciplinary scholarship on Latinas and Latinos. Encompasses the local, national, transnational, and hemispheric realities that continue to influence the presence of Latinas and Latinos in the United States. Research on Puerto Ricans is often published in this journal.
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  34. Rodríguez, Clara E. Puerto Ricans: Born in the U.S.A. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1991.
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  38. This sociological monograph offers a multi-method (historical, qualitative, quantitative, and textual analysis) approach to the study of Puerto Rican community formation from the post—World War II era to the 1980s. Despite its USA title, it focuses on distinct aspects of community life in New York City—housing, labor, education, racial formations, and popular culture.
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  43. Rúa, Mérida M., ed. Latino Urban Ethnography and the Work of Elena Padilla. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2010.
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  47. The volume includes an annotated edition of Elena Padilla’s master’s thesis, written in 1947, on Puerto Ricans in Chicago and original essays that reflect on the groundbreaking contributions of her study to US urban ethnographic traditions and to the development of Puerto Rican studies and Latina/o studies.
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  52. Sánchez González, Lisa. Boricua Literature: A Literature History of the Puerto Rican Diaspora. New York: New York University Press, 2001.
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  56. This provocative literary history of 20th-century diasporic intellectual and cultural production argues that “Boricua literature” should be read as independent from a Puerto Rican, island-centered literary history and as created under a unique set of colonial circumstances in the United States.
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  61. Santiago-Valles, Kelvin, and Gladys Jiménez-Muñoz. “Social Polarization and Colonized Labor: Puerto Ricans in the United States, 1945–2000.” In The Columbia History of Latinos in the United States since 1960. Edited by David G. Gutiérrez, 87–145. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.
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  64.  
  65. A useful overview of Puerto Rican migration and communities that proposes an alternative, relational, and historical framework to consider social and structural inequalities. Puerto Ricans are examined within the context of the vast changes in the global economy, as part of a world-historical process of colonized labor formation, and as racialized subjects.
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  70. Whalen, Carmen Teresa, and Víctor Vásquez-Hernández, eds. The Puerto Rican Diaspora: Historical Perspectives. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2005.
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  73.  
  74. An edited volume of original essays that offers a comprehensive, comparative macro-history of Puerto Rican migration, as well as micro-histories of distinct Puerto Rican communities in the United States, covering locations in the Northeast, Midwest, and Hawaii. This anthology departs from New York City–centered studies of community building and political and cultural practices.
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  79. Early Writings on Puerto Ricans
  80. Few scholars took note of the growing Puerto Rican population in New York City between the world wars, making Chenault 1938 a rare glimpse. As Puerto Rican migration increased dramatically in the post–World War II era, however, scholars, primarily social scientists, turned their attention to what they referred to as the “newest arrivals,” placing Puerto Rican migrants in the context of earlier waves of immigration to the city. Yet, many scholars deemed Puerto Ricans as deficient when compared to earlier European immigrants, often without accounting for their recent arrival, the colonial relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico, racial heterogeneity, or the changed historical and economic context in which they arrived. Mills, et al. 1950 focuses on what became couched as the “Puerto Rican problem,” an approach that came to dominate the popular media and the scholarship. Handlin 1959 emphasizes the shortcomings of Puerto Ricans even as the author argues that they did not constitute a radically new problem, while Glazer and Moynihan 1963 and Fitzpatrick 1987 (originally published 1971) continue a deficit model that emphasizes “Puerto Ricans’ problems.” Writing in 1966, anthropologist Oscar Lewis both academically elevated and popularized the deficit model, declaring that Puerto Ricans had a “culture of poverty,” which was the root cause of their poverty and was passed down through the generations (Lewis 1966). Although the “culture of poverty” approach came to dominate the academic and popular discourse on Puerto Ricans, alternatives emerged in Padilla 1958, an ethnographic study, and in Wakefield 1959, a journalist’s account, both of which addressed the challenges encountered by Puerto Ricans without casting aspersion on an entire people and their culture.
  81.  
  82. Chenault, Lawrence R. The Puerto Rican Migrant in New York City. New York: Columbia University Press, 1938.
  83.  
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  85.  
  86. Example of scholarship defining overpopulation as the cause of Puerto Rico’s economic problems. Emphasis on the “problems” that Puerto Ricans cause New York City is tempered by attention to discrimination and economic exploitation, and to the “many” social organizations and political engagements of Puerto Ricans. Provides a rare glimpse of Puerto Ricans in the 1930s.
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  90.  
  91. Fitzpatrick, Joseph P. Puerto Rican Americans: The Meaning of Migration to the Mainland. 2d ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1987.
  92.  
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  94.  
  95. Topical survey of Puerto Ricans, primarily in New York City. Approach is suggestive of deficit model’s emphasis on the problems of Puerto Ricans. Originally published in 1971.
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  97. Find this resource:
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  99.  
  100. Glazer, Nathan, and Daniel P. Moynihan. Beyond the Melting Pot: The Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians and Irish of New York City. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1963.
  101.  
  102. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  103.  
  104. Challenges the “melting pot” ideal by pointing to the persistence of ethnicity and compares Puerto Ricans and southern African Americans with earlier European immigrants. Describes Puerto Rico as “sadly defective” in culture and family and emphasizes the “relative weakness of community organization and community leadership among them” in New York City.
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  106. Find this resource:
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  108.  
  109. Handlin, Oscar. The Newcomers: Negroes and Puerto Ricans in a Changing Metropolis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1959.
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  111. DOI: 10.4159/harvard.9780674866027Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  112.  
  113. Historian places Puerto Rican and southern African American migrants in the context of earlier European immigrants, arguing they are not “the radically new problem they seem to pose,” but merely the most recent arrivals. Yet, emphasizes the comparative shortcomings of Puerto Ricans, especially in terms of their “communal life.”
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  117.  
  118. Lewis, Oscar. La Vida: A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty: San Juan and New York. New York: Random House, 1966.
  119.  
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  121.  
  122. Controversial ethnographic study of a family in a poor, urban area. Criticized for extrapolating experiences of one family to posit a “culture of poverty” as equivalent to Puerto Rican culture and as the main cause of poverty in Puerto Rico and New York City. “Culture of poverty” paradigm influenced scholarship and public policy.
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  126.  
  127. Mills, C. Wright, Clarence Senior, and Rose Kohn Goldsen. The Puerto Rican Journey: New York’s Newest Migrants. New York: Harper & Row, 1950.
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  130.  
  131. A representative example of post–World War II social science scholarship seeking to address the “Puerto Rican problem.” The study documented the prospects and possibilities for the social adjustment and assimilation of migrants in New York City. Although statistical findings reveal that women predominated as labor migrants, the portrait of the migrant as male was assumed.
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  136. Padilla, Elena. Up from Puerto Rico. New York: Columbia University Press, 1958.
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  139.  
  140. The first major study about Puerto Ricans in the United States carried out under the direction of a Puerto Rican. Working for two and a half years with a team of anthropologists, Padilla investigated the health beliefs, routines and habits, and medical care among diasporic Puerto Ricans in East Harlem.
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  144.  
  145. Wakefield, Dan. Island in the City: The World of Spanish Harlem. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1959.
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  148.  
  149. Journalist’s vibrant, detailed description of Puerto Rican East Harlem in the 1950s, including vignette’s of individual’s experiences and their own accounts. From religion and work in garment sweatshops through gangs and drug addiction, descriptions remain nuanced and anecdotal rather than judgmental.
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  153.  
  154. Emergence of Puerto Rican Studies
  155. The first scholarly publications in the new field of Puerto Rican studies appeared in 1979 and 1980. Challenging many of the earlier writings on Puerto Ricans, these works established and defined this interdisciplinary field. Puerto Rican studies emerged during the social and political movements of the late 1960s and 1970s, discussed in Protest Movements and Expressive Cultures. The Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños (Center for Puerto Rican Studies), founded as a research center in New York City in 1973, played a prominent role, fostering collaborative research and publications. The Centro’s History Task Force, which included political economist Frank Bonilla, published Labor Migration under Capitalism (Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños 1979). This book provides an important theoretical approach and historical overview of Puerto Rican migration. Acosta-Belén 1986 (originally published 1979) posits women as important scholars and historical subjects early in the field’s foundations. López 1980 continues the attention to both Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans in the United States, examining the role of US colonialism and arguing that Puerto Rico had become “a nation divided.” Originally published in the same year, 1980, Rodríguez and Sánchez Korrol 1996 asserts a rich, complex Puerto Rican culture, determined to survive despite colonialism, harsh economic circumstances, and negative stereotypes. These early works were attentive to theoretical approaches and structural economic conditions. Puerto Rican studies also recovered the lived experiences of daily life, as revealed in Flores 2005, an anthology of autobiographical writings (originally published in 1987). Sánchez and Stevens-Arroyo 1987 indicates that Puerto Rican studies remained self-reflective, as the field of study and its institutional homes in the academy faced new challenges in the very changed environment of the 1980s. What had emerged was a body of scholarship that devoted attention to Puerto Rico and to Puerto Ricans in the United States, analyzing the roles of US colonialism and the expanding global economy in shaping the migration and the socioeconomic conditions that Puerto Ricans confronted in the United States. Later referred to as “globalization,” these dynamics had their parallels in the ongoing connections between the island and the mainland, later referred to as “transnationalism” (see Crossings and Connections).
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  157. Acosta-Belén, Edna, ed. The Puerto Rican Woman: Perspectives on Culture, History, and Society. 2d ed. New York: Praeger, 1986.
  158.  
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  160.  
  161. Collection provides an early focus on women that bridges Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans in the continental United States. Including literature, history, and the social sciences, the collection provides the foundation for interdisciplinary scholarship. Attention to race and socioeconomic class, as they intersect with ethnicity and gender. Originally published in 1979.
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  165.  
  166. Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños. Labor Migration under Capitalism: The Puerto Rican Experience. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1979.
  167.  
  168. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  169.  
  170. Foundational book provides both an alternative theoretical framework and the first historical overview of Puerto Rican migration. Instead of pointing to overpopulation, this work places Puerto Rican migration within the contexts of US colonialism and expanding global capitalism. Attention to the role of the Puerto Rico and the US governments in fostering migration through the recruitment of low-wage workers and contract labor programs.
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  174.  
  175. Flores, Juan, ed. Puerto Rican Arrival in New York: Narratives of the Migration, 1920–1950. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener, 2005.
  176.  
  177. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  178.  
  179. Excerpts from autobiographies and autobiographical fiction highlight the emphasis on telling migration histories through “first-hand testimony . . . by the Puerto Rican people who lived through that process” (p. 7). Published in a bilingual format. (Originally published as Divided Arrival: Narratives of the Migration, 1920–1950 [New York: Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños, 1987]).
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  183.  
  184. López, Adalberto, ed. The Puerto Ricans: Their History, Culture, and Society. Cambridge, MA: Shenkman, 1980.
  185.  
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  187.  
  188. Early collection of essays exemplifies attention to both Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans in the United States. Highlights the centrality of US colonialism in Puerto Rico’s history and in causing migration. Critique of capitalism and economic exploitation as well as positive assertion of Puerto Rican culture and of a Puerto Rican nation “divided.”
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  193. Rodríguez, Clara E., and Virginia Sánchez Korrol, eds. Historical Perspectives on Puerto Rican Survival in the U.S. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener, 1996.
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  195. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  196.  
  197. Essays bring together various disciplines to understand “the survival of Puerto Rican culture.” Provides an early consideration of women as scholars and historical subjects. Defined broadly, culture includes racial identity, family dynamics, music, the Puerto Rican Day parade, organized religion, and spiritualism; politics embraces electoral and grassroots activism. Captures key issues of the 1970s. Originally published in 1980.
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  202. Sánchez, María E., and Antonio M. Stevens-Arroyo, eds. Toward a Renaissance of Puerto Rican Studies: Ethnic and Area Studies in University Education. Boulder, CO: Atlantic Research and Publications, 1987.
  203.  
  204. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  205.  
  206. Essays explore how Puerto Rican studies challenges institutions of higher education and academic disciplines as well as how institutional responses seek to reduce the interdisciplinary field’s impact. Calls for a renewed commitment and practices that bridge the academy and the surrounding communities, despite the changed environment of the 1980s and the absence of social and political movements.
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  211. Colonial Contexts
  212. The scholarship in Puerto Rican studies has emphasized the continuing political sovereignty of the United States over Puerto Rico as critical in understanding political and economic conditions in Puerto Rico, as well as continuing migration, the status of migrants, and the conditions Puerto Ricans confront in the United States. Cabán 1999 provides a comprehensive overview of how the United Stated imposed its colonialism in Puerto Rico, despite resistance. Dietz 1986 provides a useful focus on the economic changes in Puerto Rico under US sovereignty that laid the foundations for the massive economic displacement of Puerto Ricans and their resultant massive migrations. Increasingly, scholars have delved deeper into the nuances and complexities of various dimensions of US sovereignty over Puerto Rico. Burnett and Marshall 2001 fully explores the contradictions embedded in the constitutional and legal underpinnings of US sovereignty. The book title, Foreign in a Domestic Sense, comes from a 1901 Supreme Court case that ruled Puerto Rico was “foreign to the United States in a domestic sense,” and the phrase has now become an analytical framework. Lugo Lugo 2006 uses 1998 US congressional hearings to explore how the US Congress renders coloniality invisible and thereby continues not to act to resolve Puerto Rico’s political status—a resolution firmly lodged in the hands of the US Congress. Briggs 2002 develops a gendered analysis of US imperialism, making central the ways in which gender shaped the perspectives and actions of policymakers, as well as the centrality of reproduction and notions of “overpopulation.” Also attentive to gender, Erman 2008 explores the intersectionality of gender, race, ethnicity, and colonial status in the Supreme Court’s 1904 ruling that declared Puerto Ricans were not aliens but did not declare Puerto Ricans to be US citizens either, reinforcing an ambiguous “rights-poor citizenship” that echoed Puerto Rico’s ambiguous political status. Taking a comparative approach, Grosfoguel 2003 places Puerto Rico’s lack of sovereignty in a broader Caribbean context to highlight the importance of geopolitics in understanding the US role in the region. Similarly, Ayala and Bernabe 2007 uses the history of Puerto Rico since 1898 as a lens to US imperial efforts during what has been termed “the American century.”
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  214. Ayala, César, and Rafael Bernabe. Puerto Rico in the American Century: A History since 1898. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007.
  215.  
  216. DOI: 10.5149/9780807895535_ayalaSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  217.  
  218. Co-authored historical survey of Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans, with some attention to the diaspora, that has become foundational to the study of US imperial efforts. It reexamines how US rule has impacted the economic, political, social, and cultural life of an island and its people.
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  223. Briggs, Laura. Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and the U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
  224.  
  225. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  226.  
  227. Makes gender central to the analysis of US imperialism in Puerto Rico, with attention to how gender shaped US perspectives and policies, as well as the impact of those perspectives and policies on women. Attention to prostitution, reproduction, and US notions of overpopulation and of the causes of poverty.
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  231.  
  232. Burnett, Christina Duffy, and Burke Marshall. Foreign in a Domestic Sense: Puerto Rico, American Expansion, and the Constitution. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2001.
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  234. DOI: 10.1215/9780822381167Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  235.  
  236. Essays by legal scholars analyzing the constitutional foundations of Puerto Rico’s colonial status and of the status of Puerto Ricans as US citizens and colonial subjects. Particular attention to the Insular Cases of 1901, when the Supreme Court ruled Puerto Rico and other islands were “foreign to the United States in a domestic sense” (p. 1).
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  239.  
  240.  
  241. Cabán, Pedro A. Constructing a Colonial People: Puerto Rico and the United States, 1898–1932. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1999.
  242.  
  243. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  244.  
  245. Analyzes how the United States constructed a colonial state and economy in Puerto Rico during the formative years, as well as the adaptation and resistance of Puerto Ricans to those transformations.
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  247. Find this resource:
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  249.  
  250. Dietz, James L. Economic History of Puerto Rico: Institutional Change and Capitalist Development. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986.
  251.  
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  253.  
  254. Overview of Puerto Rico’s economic development from Spanish colonialism to the 1980s. Gives attention to the impact of US rule and to the factors underlying migration to the United States, characterizing industrialization in the 1950s as “growth and misdevelopment.”
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  257.  
  258.  
  259. Erman, Sam. “Meanings of Citizenship in the U.S. Empire: Puerto Rico, Isabel Gonzalez, and the Supreme Court, 1898 to 1905.” Journal of American Ethnic History 27.4 (2008): 5–33.
  260.  
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  262.  
  263. Uses the 1903 detention of Isabel Gonzalez at Ellis Island and the resultant 1904 Supreme Court case to explore parameters of “rights-poor citizenship.” The Supreme Court ruled that Gonzalez was not an alien and should be admitted but declined to rule on whether Puerto Ricans were US citizens.
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  267.  
  268. Grosfoguel, Ramón. Colonial Subjects: Puerto Ricans in a Global Perspective. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
  269.  
  270. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  271.  
  272. Explores the importance of geopolitics in shaping US policy in Puerto Rico, Puerto Rican migration, and perception of Puerto Ricans in the United States. Broadly comparative approach places Puerto Rico within the Greater Antilles, considers Puerto Rican migrants among Latinos from the Caribbean in New York City, and includes Caribbean colonial migrants to western Europe.
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  276.  
  277. Lugo Lugo, Carmen R. “U.S. Congress and the Invisibility of Coloniality: The Case of Puerto Rico’s Political Status Revisited.” Centro: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies 18.2 (2006): 125–145.
  278.  
  279. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  280.  
  281. Focusing on 1998 congressional hearings, argues that although the US Congress determines Puerto Rico’s political status, members of Congress render Puerto Rico’s colonial status invisible and racialize Puerto Ricans with either a Puerto Rican or an American binary, resulting in continued inaction to resolve Puerto Rico’s status as a US colony.
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  285.  
  286. Crossings and Connections
  287. Rethinking key concepts, such as nation, migration, and transnationalism, these studies foreground the colonial context under which an array of multidirectional crossings and connections to and from Puerto Rico and the United States have transpired. Taking a comparative approach, social scientists enrich and show the complexity of histories of US racism and imperialism, along with histories of struggles against US empire-building. Torre, et al. 1994; Duany 2002; and Negrón-Muntaner 2007 are studies of Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans as a nation. The Torre collection of island- and diaspora-based scholars contest the “divided nation” thesis, emphasizing the strengthening of ties between islanders and those in the continental United States. Duany 2002 investigates Puerto Ricans’ collective sense of nationhood through an examination of cultural nationalism and back-and-forth migration, countering a definition and defense of nation restricted to political nationalism. Taking its title, and creating a conceptual framework, from the result of the 1998 nonbinding referendum on the political status of Puerto Rico, Negrón-Muntaner 2007 meditates on the meaning of “Puerto Rican-ness,” beyond questions of national sovereignty or islander versus diaspora, through examinations of juridical questions, mass media, and cultural production, among other sites of inquiry. Pérez 2004 and Duany 2011 weigh in on the debate whether or not Puerto Ricans can be considered “transnational migrants” because they hold US citizenship rather than “immigrant” status. The authors of both works point to the status of Puerto Ricans as racialized colonial subjects, and how this status compromises their US citizenship. Attending to the distinct power hierarchies in which transnational subjects and their practices are ensconced, Pérez underscores the significance of gendered power relations and how they inform Puerto Rican movement and renewed place-making. Duany, observing the distinct political and economic relationships of communities of origin to the United States, focuses on the comparison of the varying intensities and variety of ties to the homeland of Hispanic Caribbean migrants. Nieto-Phillips 1999, Cabán 2001, and Alamo 2012 also use a comparative approach to study Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans in relation to turn-of-the-19th century Hispanos, Progressive era European immigrants, and post–World War II African Americans, respectively. In the context of a US empire, they each suggest that the island and its population are a useful prism from which to tease out the contested meanings of US citizenship, national belonging, rights, and struggle.
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  289. Alamo, Carlos. “Dispatches from a Colonial Outpost: Puerto Rico as Schema in the Black Popular Press, 1942–1951.” Du Bois Review 9.1 (2012): 201–225.
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  291. DOI: 10.1017/S1742058X11000312Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  292.  
  293. Explores how African American intellectuals, journalists, and activists in the 1940s turned to Puerto Rico to explore ideas about race and colonialism in reformulations of US citizenship and black personhood within the bounds of a US empire.
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  296.  
  297.  
  298. Cabán, Pedro. “Subjects and Immigrants during the Progressive Era.” Discourse 23.3 (2001): 24–51.
  299.  
  300. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  301.  
  302. Traces the development of federal and state programs to “Americanize” immigrants in the United States and identifies parallels with the Americanization program in Puerto Rico. Whereas efforts targeting European immigrants centered on “individual assimilation,” the transformation of an entire people and the imposition of new institutions was attempted on the island.
  303.  
  304. Find this resource:
  305.  
  306.  
  307. Duany, Jorge. The Puerto Rican Nation on the Move: Identities on the Island and in the United States. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
  308.  
  309. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  310.  
  311. A challenge to the divided nation thesis, Duany’s historical and anthropological study explores the ways in which political nationalism and cultural nationalism converge and diverge. Examines the implications of the US gaze on Puerto Rico and for Puerto Ricans in the United States.
  312.  
  313. Find this resource:
  314.  
  315.  
  316. Duany, Jorge. Blurred Borders: Transnational Migration between the Hispanic Caribbean and the United States. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011.
  317.  
  318. DOI: 10.5149/9780807869376_duanySave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  319.  
  320. Challenges the view that Dominican migration is exemplary of transnationalism, whereas Puerto Rican and Cuban migration are exceptions. Instead, posits that Puerto Rico was the first state to organize migration transnationally and suggests that Puerto Ricans in Orlando are maintaining transnational connections. Useful comparative approach and overview of migration.
  321.  
  322. Find this resource:
  323.  
  324.  
  325. Negrón-Muntaner, Frances, ed. None of the Above: Puerto Ricans in the Global Era. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
  326.  
  327. DOI: 10.1057/9780230604360Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  328.  
  329. Multidisciplinary collection of essays considers how the performance of Puerto Rican identity formations, both on the island and in the diaspora, are transformed, conflated, or differ depending on distinct and varying contexts. Seeks to move beyond nationalist and colonialist ideologies to advance new ways of examining Puerto Rican cultural and political practices.
  330.  
  331. Find this resource:
  332.  
  333.  
  334. Nieto-Phillips, John. “Citizenship and Empire: Race, Language, and Self-Government in New Mexico and Puerto Rico, 1898–1917.” Centro Journal 1.1 (1999): 51–74.
  335.  
  336. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  337.  
  338. Takes a comparative historical approach to show how US legislators turned to racial and linguistic qualifications for citizenship and self-government to justify imperialism and the subjugation of certain populations. This focus on parallel circumstances and struggles also sheds light on why and how Puerto Ricans and New Mexicans arrived at distinct forms of subordination.
  339.  
  340. Find this resource:
  341.  
  342.  
  343. Pérez, Gina M. The Near Northwest Side Story: Migration Displacement and Puerto Rican Families. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.
  344.  
  345. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  346.  
  347. A richly detailed, multisited ethnographic study of transnational practices among poor and working-class Puerto Ricans. It underscores the significance of gender in understanding a wide swath of issues affecting their movement and displacement from the island, to and from Chicago, as well as within the city itself.
  348.  
  349. Find this resource:
  350.  
  351.  
  352. Torre, Carlos Antonio, Hugo Rodríguez, and William Burgos. The Commuter Nation: Perspectives on Puerto Rican Migration. Río Piedras: Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1994.
  353.  
  354. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  355.  
  356. Rethinking the proposition of a divided nation, the collection of essays turns to studies that examine deep-seated and newfound connections of Puerto Ricans on the island and the diaspora.
  357.  
  358. Find this resource:
  359.  
  360.  
  361. Puerto Rican Arrivals before World War I
  362. Several important works on Puerto Rican migration prior to World War I shed light on the varied racial contexts that awaited Puerto Rican migrants and their complex responses to this new environment. Wagenheim and Wagenheim 2013 reveals the racialized notions of manifest destiny in the United States that led to the US conquest of Puerto Rico in 1898 and that shaped US perceptions of Puerto Ricans. Sánchez Korrol 1988 focuses on New York City and the diverse Pan-Latino community that Puerto Ricans encountered as they arrived as activists struggling for Puerto Rico’s independence from Spain prior to 1898 and as cigar makers before and after 1898. The author’s approach to latinismo, as a shared sense of ethnic consciousness, suggests a complexity that belies the US system of racial classification based on a white-black racial binary. Also addressing this concern, Hoffnung-Garskof 2001 and Arroyo 2005 focus on Arturo Schomburg (b. 1874–d. 1938), a prominent Puerto Rican of West Indian and German descent, who came to New York City in 1891 and created a still influential, extensive archive of the African diaspora. Both seek explanations for why Schomburg, who initially participated in revolutionary activism for Cuba and Puerto Rico’s independence like other Puerto Ricans in the city, then took a path toward Pan-Africanism. Medina 2001 and López and Forbes 2001 address the recruitment of Puerto Ricans to work on Hawaii’s sugar plantations beginning in 1900. Medina 2001 anchors the origins of San Francisco’s Puerto Rican community in the resistance of Puerto Ricans who refused to board the ships to Hawaii, raising important questions about voluntary and involuntary contract labor recruitment and highlighting the role of contract labor programs in launching Puerto Rican communities. López and Forbes 2001 examines the multiethnic local culture of Hawaii and how Puerto Rican cultural identity took shape and persisted in this context, which stands in sharp contrast to the white-black racial binary that defines the US system of racial classification.
  363.  
  364. Arroyo, Jossianna. “Technologies: Transculturations of Race, Gender and Ethnicity in Arturo A. Schomburg’s Masonic Writings.” Centro: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies 17.1 (2005): 4–25.
  365.  
  366. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  367.  
  368. This essay proposes a theoretical reframing of black diasporic politics and identity. Uses the writing of Arturo Schomburg, penned under the name Guarionex (an Indian chief from Santo Domingo), to argue “for a transcultural politics of identity,” reflecting Caribbean, Puerto Rican, and black identities.
  369.  
  370. Find this resource:
  371.  
  372.  
  373. Hoffnung-Garskof, Jesse. “The Migrations of Arturo Schomburg: On Being Antillano, Negro, and Puerto Rican in New York, 1891–1938.” Journal of American Ethnic History 21.1 (2001): 3–49.
  374.  
  375. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  376.  
  377. Traces the emerging Pan-Africanism of Arturo Schomburg, a Puerto Rican of West Indian and German descent, through his 1891–1898 activism for Cuban and Puerto Rican independence and his ongoing Masonic activities. Centrality of class aspirations and West Indian ancestry, as well as multiracial Latina/o and multiethnic black communities prior to World War I.
  378.  
  379. Find this resource:
  380.  
  381.  
  382. López, Iris, and David Forbes. “Borinki Identity in Hawai’i: Present and Future.” Centro: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies 13.1 (2001): 82–93.
  383.  
  384. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  385.  
  386. Explores Puerto Rican cultural identity in Hawaii, with attention to the “local culture” of a multiethnic society, the persistence of specific ethnic cultural practices, and the impact of increasing globalization. Spans the earliest organizations founded in the 1930s through a 1985 pilgrimage to Puerto Rico.
  387.  
  388. Find this resource:
  389.  
  390.  
  391. Medina, Nitza C. “Rebellion in the Bay: California’s First Puerto Ricans.” Centro: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies 13.1 (2001): 82–93.
  392.  
  393. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  394.  
  395. Documents the origins of San Francisco’s Puerto Rican population in the labor recruitment of Puerto Ricans to Hawaiian sugar plantations beginning in 1900. Addresses the “escape” of Puerto Ricans during the journey as resistance and raises important questions concerning voluntary versus forced labor migrations.
  396.  
  397. Find this resource:
  398.  
  399.  
  400. Sánchez Korrol, Virginia. “Latinismo among Early Puerto Rican Migrants in New York City: A Sociohistoric Interpretation.” In The Hispanic Experience in the United States: Contemporary Issues and Perspectives. Edited by Edna Acosta-Belén and Barbara R. Sjostrom, 151–162. New York: Praeger, 1988.
  401.  
  402. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  403.  
  404. Examines Puerto Ricans’ sense of pan-ethnic consciousness in New York City’s diverse Latina/o community prior to World War II. Points to a common language, newspapers, and periodicals, attention to discrimination and other shared concerns, entertainment and the arts, and neighborhood organizations, as well as awareness of colonial past, as basis for latinismo.
  405.  
  406. Find this resource:
  407.  
  408.  
  409. Wagenheim, Kal, and Olga Jiménez de Wagenheim, eds. The Puerto Ricans: A Documentary History. 5th ed. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener, 2013.
  410.  
  411. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  412.  
  413. Collection of primary documents, spanning from 1527 to 1990, but particularly strong on before and after 1898. Here, newspaper articles and a variety of government documents depict US notions of manifest destiny, the impact of US imperialism, and the multiplicity of countervailing Puerto Rican perspectives. Originally published in 1973.
  414.  
  415. Find this resource:
  416.  
  417.  
  418. The Interwar Era
  419. Informed by the increased migration of Puerto Ricans in the post–World War I era and rich primary source materials, historical writings on Puerto Rican communities initially homed in on the interwar period and on New York City. Vega 1984 and Colón 1982 reveal the perspectives and experiences of two Puerto Ricans who came to the city as cigar makers and socialists, and who became prominent activists in New York City’s ethnically diverse working-class community. Matos Rodríguez and Hernández 2001 provides an easily accessible collection of photographs. Through historical research methodologies, Sánchez Korrol’s path-breaking community study (1983) documents a vibrant working-class community, building from social networks to community organizations and beyond to relations with the larger society. Glasser 1995 turns more explicitly to the racial contexts that Puerto Rican musicians encountered as they were enlisted into the US military’s African American regimental bands and then negotiated the white-black racial divide in the United States as they settled in New York City. Moving beyond simple binaries, Glasser explores a complex racial world, where Afro-Puerto Ricans were expected to be or to become African Americans, at times. Lighter-skinned Puerto Ricans, in contrast, faced a range of musical opportunities closed to their darker-skinned compatriots. Musical collaborations and social interactions simultaneously reified and challenged racial classifications. Nuñez 2009 also explores relations between Puerto Ricans and African Americans, focusing instead on Pura Belpré, the city’s first Puerto Rican librarian, contending that central Harlem’s library was an example of interracial cooperation. Anchoring the author’s important assessment of the political identity of Puerto Ricans in this time period, Thomas 2010 continues the analysis through the 1970s, arguing that Puerto Ricans initially based their claims to rights on their status as US citizens, a status conferred on all Puerto Ricans by an act of the US Congress in 1917. Increasingly, however, Puerto Ricans demanded “recognition,” moving beyond liberal notions of individual rights to claim a broader notion of group rights. Chapters in Whalen and Vásquez-Hernández 2005 (cited under Resources and Overviews), explore Puerto Rican settlement and community building in New York City and Philadelphia at this time.
  420.  
  421. Colón, Jesús. A Puerto Rican in New York and Other Sketches. Reprint. New York: International Publishers, 1982.
  422.  
  423. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  424.  
  425. Collection of vignettes by Puerto Rican activist and writer, Jesús Colón (b. 1901–d. 1974). A cigar maker and a socialist, he came to New York City in 1918, later founding organizations and working as a journalist. His writings are moving depictions and powerful critiques of economic exploitation and racism. Originally published in 1961.
  426.  
  427. Find this resource:
  428.  
  429.  
  430. Glasser, Ruth. My Music Is My Flag: Puerto Rican Musicians and Their New York Communities, 1917–1940. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.
  431.  
  432. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  433.  
  434. Through the music and experiences of Puerto Rican musicians Glasser uncovers the social history of the causes of migration and of migrants in New York City, from their US military service in African American regimental bands through negotiating the black-white racial binary and the hardships of the Great Depression.
  435.  
  436. Find this resource:
  437.  
  438.  
  439. Matos Rodríguez, Félix V., and Pedro Juan Hernández. Pioneros: Puerto Ricans in New York City, 1896–1948. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2001.
  440.  
  441. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  442.  
  443. A photographic history with bilingual captions, capturing family and communal life as well as community organizations and political activities. Includes photos of Jesús Colón, Pura Belpré, military personnel, and other well-known and lesser-known individuals.
  444.  
  445. Find this resource:
  446.  
  447.  
  448. Nuñez, Victoria. “Remembering Pura Belpré’s Early Career at the 135th Street New York Public Library: Interracial Cooperation and Puerto Rican Settlement during the Harlem Renaissance.” Centro: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies 21.1 (2009): 52–77.
  449.  
  450. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  451.  
  452. Arriving in 1920, Belpré became New York City’s first Puerto Rican librarian, a gifted storyteller, and a published writer. Focusing on her career between 1921 and 1927, Nuñez explores the experiences of black Puerto Ricans relations between Puerto Ricans and African Americans, arguing that central Harlem’s library was an example of interracial cooperation.
  453.  
  454. Find this resource:
  455.  
  456.  
  457. Sánchez Korrol, Virginia. From Colonia to Community: The History of Puerto Ricans in New York City. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
  458.  
  459. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  460.  
  461. Published in 1983, the first historical community study of Puerto Ricans in the United States. Focusing on the interwar period, it documents the existence of a vibrant community, rich with informal networks, community organizations, and political involvement with the larger society. Highlights the role of women in economic and communal life. Originally published in 1983.
  462.  
  463. Find this resource:
  464.  
  465.  
  466. Thomas, Lorrin. Puerto Rican Citizen: History and Political Identity in Twentieth Century New York City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010.
  467.  
  468. DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226796109.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  469.  
  470. Explores evolution in the political identity and activism of Puerto Ricans from World War I through the 1970s. Delineates shift from claiming rights based on US citizenship to claiming “recognition . . . encompassing a broader set of aspirations and demands than citizenship” (p. 5). Astute attention to dynamics internal to the Puerto Rican community and interactions with the broader society.
  471.  
  472. Find this resource:
  473.  
  474.  
  475. Vega, Bernardo. Memoirs of Bernardo Vega: A Contribution to the History of the Puerto Rican Community in New York. Edited by César Andreu Iglesias. Translated by Juan Flores. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1984.
  476.  
  477. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  478.  
  479. A cigar maker and socialist in Puerto Rico, Bernardo Vega (b. 1885–d. 1965) shares a detailed history of the political activism of an ethnically diverse, working-class community from his arrival in New York City in 1916 to the immediate aftermath of World War II. Originally published in 1977.
  480.  
  481. Find this resource:
  482.  
  483.  
  484. Post–World War II Era
  485. The scholarship on the post–World War II era captures the increased migration and the dispersion of the Puerto Rican population beyond New York City. Whalen 2001 explores the causes of migration and of the increasingly dispersed settlement of Puerto Ricans. Placing Puerto Rico in the context of the global economy and the colonial ties to the United States, the author examines how the regional and local economic changes in Puerto Rico that caused displacement, labor recruitment for low-wage jobs, social networks, and migrants’ decisions, shaped migration to Philadelphia, as well as the economic incorporation and subsequent displacement of Puerto Ricans in the city. Padilla 1987 and Fernández 2012 (cited under Puerto Rican and Latina/o Studies) turn to the rapid growth of the Puerto Rican population in Chicago. Padilla 1987 focuses on the racial/ethnic stereotypes and discrimination that Puerto Ricans encountered, as well as their organizational responses. Rúa 2012 (cited under Urban Life and Place) provides a rich historical narrative of the gendered dynamics of migration to Chicago, as well as of encounters of Puerto Ricans with neighbors and city policies. Glasser 1997, overview of Puerto Rican migration to several Connecticut cities, pays specific attention to labor migration and community building. Cruz 1998 focuses on Hartford, tracing the evolution of Puerto Rican politics from the early 1950s through the early 1990s. Chapters in Whalen and Vásquez-Hernández 2005 (cited under Resources and Overviews) explore community building in postwar Dover, New Jersey; Lorrain, Ohio; Chicago; and Boston as well as Connecticut. Two books provide important insights into New York City’s postwar community within longer chronologies. Thomas 2010 (cited under the Interwar Era) provides a comprehensive historical account of the continuing efforts of Puerto Ricans for “recognition.” Anchored in the postwar era, Lee 2014 explores Puerto Rican activism within the context of the long civil rights movement. The author’s comparative and interracial approach provides a valuable model. Haslip-Viera, et al. 2004 includes a paper by Virginia Sánchez Korrol and a comment by Ana Celia Zentella, which anchor the postwar era, before turning to more contemporary concerns. Autobiographical accounts (see Autobiographies and Autobiographical Fiction) enrich the historical attention to New York City’s Puerto Rican community; for example, Pantoja 2002 (cited under Autobiographies and Autobiographical Fiction) details the creation of community organizations. Turning to more recent migrations, Duany and Silver 2010 explores the dramatic increase in the numbers of Puerto Ricans living in Florida since the 1980s, offering a historical overview and an exploration of contemporary issues. Center for Puerto Rican Studies 2014 takes a demographic approach to examine migration and settlement patterns between 1990 and 2011.
  486.  
  487. Center for Puerto Rican Studies. Puerto Ricans at the Dawn of the New Millennium. New York: Center for Puerto Rican Studies, 2014.
  488.  
  489. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  490.  
  491. In addition to providing a demographic analysis of migration and settlement patterns between 1990 and 2011, essays examine a range of social and economic conditions, including the impact of the economic recession, education, veterans’ well-being, youth, health, and political engagement.
  492.  
  493. Find this resource:
  494.  
  495.  
  496. Cruz, José E. Identity and Power: Puerto Rican Politics and the Challenge of Ethnicity. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998.
  497.  
  498. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  499.  
  500. Beginning with the labor recruitment of farm workers in the early 1950s, the author explores the evolution of Puerto Rican politics in Hartford, Connecticut. Focusing on the Puerto Rican Political Action Committee of Connecticut from 1983 to 1991, he argues that the increased political mobilization of Puerto Ricans was shaped, in positive ways, by ethnic identity.
  501.  
  502. Find this resource:
  503.  
  504.  
  505. Duany, Jorge, and Patricia Silver, eds. Special Issue: Puerto Rican Florida. Centro: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies 22.1 (Spring 2010).
  506.  
  507. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  508.  
  509. Introductory essay by Jorge Duany and Patricia Silver charts the “Puerto Ricanization” of Florida, with increased migration since the 1980s. Other essays explore topics including culture and identity, home ownership and housing segregation, youth and education, health, and political participation.
  510.  
  511. Find this resource:
  512.  
  513.  
  514. Glasser, Ruth. Aquí me quedo: Puerto Ricans in Connecticut/Puertorriqueños en Connecticut. Middletown: Connecticut Humanities Council, 1997.
  515.  
  516. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  517.  
  518. History of Puerto Rican migration to Connecticut in the postwar era told in bilingual format and accessible prose. Rich in oral history narratives, explores the labor recruitment of Puerto Ricans to work on the state’s tobacco farms and in the industries of several cities as well as early community-building efforts.
  519.  
  520. Find this resource:
  521.  
  522.  
  523. Haslip-Viera, Gabriel, Angelo Falcón, and Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, eds. Boricuas in Gotham: Puerto Ricans in the Making of Modern New York City. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener, 2004.
  524.  
  525. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  526.  
  527. Collection of essays and commentaries developed from a symposium held in 2000 to reflect on the history of Puerto Ricans in New York City from 1945 to their status in the 1990s. Topics include community and politics as well as changing socioeconomic conditions.
  528.  
  529. Find this resource:
  530.  
  531.  
  532. Lee, Sonia Song-Ha. Building a Latino Civil Rights Movement: Puerto Ricans, African Americans, and the Pursuit of Racial Justice in New York City. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014.
  533.  
  534. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  535.  
  536. Anchored in a critique of the postwar social science discourses of the “cult of ethnicity” and the “culture of poverty,” examines Puerto Rican civil rights activism through settlement houses, the War on Poverty, and increasing demands for community control. Explores comparative and, most important, interracial collaborations with African Americans.
  537.  
  538. Find this resource:
  539.  
  540.  
  541. Padilla, Felix M. Puerto Rican Chicago. South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1987.
  542.  
  543. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  544.  
  545. One of the first book-length accounts of Puerto Ricans in Chicago, documenting the rapid growth of the population after World War II. Emphasis on the racial/ethnic stereotypes and discrimination that Puerto Ricans encountered, as well as the organizational responses of Puerto Ricans and the emergence of “Puerto Rican ethnic consciousness” through the 1970s.
  546.  
  547. Find this resource:
  548.  
  549.  
  550. Whalen, Carmen Teresa. From Puerto Rico to Philadelphia: Puerto Rican Workers and Postwar Economies. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001.
  551.  
  552. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  553.  
  554. Comprehensive historical analysis of the causes of migration and of increasingly dispersed settlement in the postwar era. Focuses on global, regional, and local economic change, as well as labor recruitment, in shaping gendered labor migration to Philadelphia. Relies on oral histories, church records, and a variety of government documents.
  555.  
  556. Find this resource:
  557.  
  558.  
  559. Protest Movements and Expressive Cultures
  560. The late 1960s and 1970s have drawn scholarly attention as an important era of political activism, as well as the era that marked the beginnings of the field of Puerto Rican studies. Totti and Matos Rodríguez 2009 highlights the era’s educational activism in New York City and the creation of Puerto Rican studies (see also Emergence of Puerto Rican Studies). The collection of essays and reminiscences in Torres and Velázquez 1998 captures both the shared issues and the great variety of activism that constituted the Puerto Rican movement throughout the Puerto Rican diaspora. Despite the activism throughout the Puerto Rican diaspora, most of the scholarship has focused on New York City and the Young Lords, a group that had branches in several cities. Young Lords Party and Abramson 1971 and Enck-Wanzer 2010 are both collections of primary documents focused on the New York City Young Lords. Fernandez 2003 explores the emergence of the New York City Young Lords, whereas Nelson 2001 analyzes the merging of nationalism and feminism in the Young Lord’s demand for comprehensive reproductive rights. Pietri 1973, a collection of poems, especially “Puerto Rican Obituary,” is just one important example of the central role that expressive cultures played in the protest movements of the era (see also Anthologies, Plays, and Poetry). Indicative of the importance of placing the 1960s and the 1970s within the longer era of civil rights activism, Lee and Diaz 2007 looks at the anti-poverty and educational activism of Puerto Ricans in the early 1960s in New York City, as well as how it was informed by African American civil rights activism. Lee 2014 (cited under Post–World War II Era) explores Puerto Rican activism through the War on Poverty and the increasing demands for “community control,” particularly in the realm of education. Similarly, Padilla 1985 (cited under Puerto Rican and Latina/o Studies) continues the author’s assessment into the 1980s, interrogating political coalitions between Puerto Ricans and Mexican Americans and “Latino ethnic consciousness” in Chicago. Lee and Padilla also highlight the importance of interethnic relations in shaping Puerto Rican politics. Cruz 1998 (cited under Post–World War II Era) focuses on the development of Puerto Rican politics in Hartford from the early 1950s through the early 1990s, and the role played by the ethnic identity of Puerto Ricans.
  561.  
  562. Enck-Wanzer, Darrel, ed. The Young Lords: A Reader. New York: New York University Press, 2010.
  563.  
  564. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  565.  
  566. A collection of documents written by the Young Lords in New York City between 1969 and 1972. Although short-lived, the Young Lords were an important activist group with a lasting legacy. Arranged thematically, most documents are articles from their newspaper, Palante.
  567.  
  568. Find this resource:
  569.  
  570.  
  571. Fernandez, Johanna. “Between Social Service Reform and Revolutionary Politics: The Young Lords, Late Sixties Radicalism, and Community Organizing in New York City.” In Freedom North: Black Freedom Struggles Outside the South, 1940–1980. Edited by Komozi Woodward and Jeanne F. Theoharis, 255–285. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
  572.  
  573. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  574.  
  575. Useful, brief overview of the emergence and the activism of the Young Lords in New York City within the context of postwar economic change and African American political activism.
  576.  
  577. Find this resource:
  578.  
  579.  
  580. Lee, Sonia S., and Ande Diaz. “‘I Was the One Percenter’: Manny Diaz and the Beginnings of a Black–Puerto Rican Coalition.” Journal of American Ethnic History 26.3 (2007): 52–80.
  581.  
  582. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  583.  
  584. Focusing on the work of community organizer Manny Diaz in New York City, this article reveals the emerging recognition among many Puerto Ricans of parallels with issues confronting African Americans, as well as the usefulness of civil rights activism and of coalitions. Important historical analysis of anti-poverty and educational activism of Puerto Ricans in the early 1960s.
  585.  
  586. Find this resource:
  587.  
  588.  
  589. Nelson, Jennifer. “‘Abortions under Community Control’: Feminism, Nationalism, and the Politics of Reproduction among New York City’s Young Lords.” Journal of Women’s History 13.1 (2001): 157–180.
  590.  
  591. DOI: 10.1353/jowh.2001.0031Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  592.  
  593. Argues that between 1969 and 1974 the New York City Young Lords merged nationalist and feminist politics to demand comprehensive reproductive rights, which included access to legal and safe abortions under community-controlled health services, as well as freedom from sterilization abuse and an end to poverty.
  594.  
  595. Find this resource:
  596.  
  597.  
  598. Pietri, Pedro. Puerto Rican Obituary. New York: Monthly Review, 1973.
  599.  
  600. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  601.  
  602. Poems illustrate the intersections of art and politics that characterized the Puerto Rican movement of the 1960s and 1970s. With powerful depiction of the hardships caused by poverty, as well as rays of pride, Puerto Rican Obituary, was recited at key events and published in the newspaper of the Young Lords and in Young Lords Party and Abramson 1971.
  603.  
  604. Find this resource:
  605.  
  606.  
  607. Torres, Andrés, and José Velázquez, eds. The Puerto Rican Movement: Voices from the Diaspora. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998.
  608.  
  609. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  610.  
  611. Essays depict the intersecting issues addressed by Puerto Rican activists and the range of forms their activism took, with significant attention to communities beyond New York City. Includes essays by scholars as well as autobiographical accounts and interviews. Provides important overview of the multifaceted Puerto Rican movement.
  612.  
  613. Find this resource:
  614.  
  615.  
  616. Totti, Xavier F., and Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, eds. Special Issue: Activism and Change among Puerto Ricans in New York, 1960s and 1970s. Centro: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies 21.2 (Fall 2009).
  617.  
  618. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  619.  
  620. Essays focus on the political and social movements and broad-based activism of the era in New York City, with particular attention to educational activism and the emergence of Puerto Rican studies.
  621.  
  622. Find this resource:
  623.  
  624.  
  625. Young Lords Party, and Michael Abramson, eds. Palante: The Young Lords Party. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971.
  626.  
  627. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  628.  
  629. Collection of photographs and writings documents the Young Lords in New York City between 1969 and 1971. Activists write of their own personal experiences and explain the ideology and actions of the Young Lords. Photographic essay captures the challenges of everyday life and the grassroots, collective activism of the Young Lords.
  630.  
  631. Find this resource:
  632.  
  633.  
  634. Urban Life and Place
  635. Studies on Puerto Rican urban life have sought to capture aspects of the everyday in local communities as well as how communities navigate their relationship to state power and municipal authority. In analyzing the particularities of place, this scholarship, primarily ethnographic in approach, takes into account the broader context of urban decline and heightened social and economic inequality amid deep fiscal retrenchment, misguided education and welfare policies, and the sheer political neglect of poor and working-class communities. Without dismissing the structural components of poverty and racism that contribute to academic deficiency, Nieto 2000 focuses on the role of schools, mainly in US urban centers, in shaping Puerto Rican student academic success or failure. New York–based studies, such as Aponte 1995 on casitas and Dávila 2004, an influential account of the “marketability” of “culture” in El Barrio, explore the symbolic and material meanings of place through claims to public space and control of community institutions. Zentella 1997, a study of bilingualism among three generations of Puerto Rican New Yorkers, examines both the significance of language in constructing identity and community and the strategic linguistic and life choices made by East Harlem residents in light of New York City’s changing political economy. Observing the same neighborhood, Freidenberg 2000, a powerful policy ethnography, describes and analyzes the wholly understudied and often overlooked viewpoints, daily lives, and spatial practices of aging residents. Beyond New York City, studies of urban communities in Chicago also examine unique and generalizable patterns and structures of inequality. Ramos-Zayas 2003 examines how expression of nationalism among Chicago Puerto Ricans are deployed to contest adverse economic and social conditions and in aspirations for upward mobility. Rúa 2012, a blended historical and ethnographic study, explores the social, political, and economic processes by which multiple meanings of Puerto Rican identity come to be organized and the role they play in setting the agendas of ethnoracial relations in Chicago. Small 2004 offers a theoretical analysis of cultural capital to reflect on the diverse ways in which individuals respond to living in poverty. Although not addressed, a relevant story about community and identity formation among Puerto Ricans in Boston emerges from Small’s ethnographic observations and the voices of the subjects he cites.
  636.  
  637. Aponte, Luis. “What’s Yellow and White and Has Land All Around It?” Appropriating Place in Puerto Rican Barrios. Centro: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies 7.1 (1995): 8–19.
  638.  
  639. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  640.  
  641. A foundational article on the study of cultural and spatial place-making by Puerto Ricans in New York City. Aponte examines how Puerto Ricans use the built environment as a means to claim space and ownership of the community, which is understood as historically rooted but also malleable to cultural change.
  642.  
  643. Find this resource:
  644.  
  645.  
  646. Dávila, Arlene. Barrio Dreams: Puerto Ricans, Latinos, and the Neoliberal City. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.
  647.  
  648. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  649.  
  650. An ethnographic study of neighborhood change and the symbolic meanings of place among New York City barrio residents. In an era of shrinking public services and public spaces (i.e., neoliberalism), the study illuminates how power operates via the uses of (racialized) culture in highly politicized and deeply conflictive claims to space.
  651.  
  652. Find this resource:
  653.  
  654.  
  655. Freidenberg, Judith Noemi. Growing Old in El Barrio. New York: New York University Press, 2000.
  656.  
  657. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  658.  
  659. An ethnography that takes a historical and life-course approach to explore how aging persons develop social strategies and networks to help them deal with a rapidly changing urban environment. Proposes “policy ethnography” as a way to address the health, social, and economic needs of vulnerable populations.
  660.  
  661. Find this resource:
  662.  
  663.  
  664. Nieto, Sonia, ed. Puerto Rican Students in U.S. Schools. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000.
  665.  
  666. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  667.  
  668. A collection of academic essays, personal reflections, and creative prose that examines the history, experiences, and future of Puerto Rican students in US schools, mainly in the Northeast.
  669.  
  670. Find this resource:
  671.  
  672.  
  673. Ramos-Zayas, Ana Yolanda. National Performances: The Politics of Class, Race, and Space in Puerto Rican Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.
  674.  
  675. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  676.  
  677. An ethnographic account of the production and performance of identities, with careful attention to political economy. The use of nationalism as an everyday vocabulary by Puerto Ricans is explored to make sense of formulations of race, class, and space that both disrupt and reorganize the polarized black-and-white constructions of US urban life.
  678.  
  679. Find this resource:
  680.  
  681.  
  682. Rúa, Mérida M. A Grounded Identidad: Making New Lives in Chicago’s Puerto Rican Neighborhoods. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
  683.  
  684. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199760268.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  685.  
  686. An interdisciplinary, historical, and ethnographic analysis of identity and urban life. The study, focusing on the end of World War II to the present, examines a range of social experiences— migration, settlement, urban renewal gentrification, political mobilizations, and community commemorations—to show the varied ways Puerto Ricans came to formulate and understand their identities and rights.
  687.  
  688. Find this resource:
  689.  
  690.  
  691. Small, Mario Luis. Villa Victoria: The Transformation of Social Capital in a Boston Barrio. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
  692.  
  693. DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226762937.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  694.  
  695. An award-winning sociological study that analyzes how neighborhood poverty affects community participation levels as well as the quantity and quality of the interpersonal networks of the residents. As the housing complex Villa Victoria exemplifies the struggles of Boston’s Puerto Rican community, a missed opportunity to engage Puerto Rican studies scholarship.
  696.  
  697. Find this resource:
  698.  
  699.  
  700. Zentella, Ana Celia. Growing Up Bilingual: Puerto Rican Children in New York. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1997.
  701.  
  702. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  703.  
  704. A foundational ethnographic study of how linguistic practices inform the development of identity, community, and belonging. “Anthropolitical linguistics” is introduced to “understand and facilitate a stigmatized groups attempts to construct a positive self within an economic and political context that relegates its members to static and disparaged ethnic, racial, and class identities, and that identifies them with static and disparaged linguistic codes” (p. 13).
  705.  
  706. Find this resource:
  707.  
  708.  
  709. Gender and Sexuality
  710. Scholars in Puerto Rican studies have given attention to women, as the field emerged. Acosta-Belén 1986 and Rodríguez and Sánchez Korrol 1996 (cited under the Emergence of Puerto Rican Studies) paved the way with chapters in these edited collections that addressed women and work, gender and households, literature, and gendered politics. In her chapters in these collections and in Sánchez Korrol 1994 (cited under Interwar Era), Sánchez Korrol laid the historical groundwork for exploring women’s critical roles in the building of Puerto Rican communities. Scholarship in Labor and Working-Class Histories and Cultural Studies has remained particularly strong with gendered analyses. More recently, ethnographers have delved into women’s roles in building transnational communities and into how women negotiate their reproductive lives. Alicea 1997 turns to women’s subsistence work and its role in the building of transnational communities, bringing attention to the household and transnational communities. Pérez 2003 focuses on competing gender constructions for Puerto Rican and Mexican women and on how gender stereotypes are engaged in complicated ways in self-definitions. Gender constructions and expectations have also been explored in the context of reproduction. Souza 2002 tackles stereotypes of Puerto Rican teen mothers by listening to the voices of young women and by embracing context and complexity. Similarly, López 2008, an ethnography of several generations of Puerto Rican women, complicates the scholarship on population control and sterilization abuse by engaging women’s efforts to claim reproductive freedom within constrained contexts. Although it emerged later, the scholarship on queer Puerto Ricans now includes historical, cultural studies, social science, and theoretical dimensions. Beginning a historical recovery project of rendering queer Puerto Ricans visible, Negrón-Mutaner 1991–1992 takes a transnational approach to the emergence of gay liberation movements in San Juan and New York City. Similarly, La Fountain-Stokes 2009 (cited under Cultural Studies) develops a transnational approach to argue the centrality of sexuality in understanding the causes and dynamics of migration. Focusing on migrant Puerto Rican lesbians, the author of Asencio 2009 uses interviews to interrogate how these women negotiated multiple and intersecting identities in the context of becoming stateside Puerto Ricans. Torres 2007 focuses on the narratives of Puerto Rican lesbians to delve into the complexities of “passing” in terms of both sexuality and nationality. Rocque Ramírez 2007 has advanced the scholarship, elucidating the interethnic context at play in the articulation of queer identities and in latinaje, or the creation of Latina/o cultures from below.
  711.  
  712. Alicea, Marixsa. “‘A Chambered Nautilus’: The Contradictory Nature of Puerto Rican Women’s Role in the Social Construction of a Transnational Community.” Gender & Society 11.5 (1997): 597–626.
  713.  
  714. DOI: 10.1177/089124397011005005Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  715.  
  716. Thorough analysis of women’s subsistence work across transnational fields of Chicago and Puerto Rico. Explores contradictions of family as perpetrator of gender oppression and as resistance to racial and class oppression. Argues that women’s unfair share of caring work continues gender oppression, while women also find satisfaction and build women-centered networks.
  717.  
  718. Find this resource:
  719.  
  720.  
  721. Asencio, Marysol. “Migrant Puerto Rican Lesbians Negotiating Gender, Sexuality, and Ethnonationality.” Feminist Formations 21.3 (2009): 1–23.
  722.  
  723. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  724.  
  725. Based on interviews, the author explores how thirty-two Puerto Rican lesbians (or women who have sex with women), negotiate multiple dimensions of their identities as a woman, a lesbian, a Puerto Rican, and a migrant. Author is attentive to commonalities and differences, particularly socioeconomic status.
  726.  
  727. Find this resource:
  728.  
  729.  
  730. López, Iris. Matters of Choice: Puerto Rican Women’s Struggle for Reproductive Freedom. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2008.
  731.  
  732. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  733.  
  734. Interrogates the tensions and intersections between population control as government policy and birth control as people’s efforts to have reproductive freedom. Moves beyond the binary of women as victims versus women’s agency to explore how several generations of women in five families negotiate this terrain.
  735.  
  736. Find this resource:
  737.  
  738.  
  739. Negrón-Mutaner, Frances. “Echoing Stonewall and Other Dilemmas: The Organizational Beginnings of a Gay and Lesbian Agenda in Puerto Rico, 1972–1977 (Part I).” Centro: Journal for the Center of Puerto Rican Studies 4.1 (1991–1992): 76–95.
  740.  
  741. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  742.  
  743. See also “Echoing Stonewall and Other Dilemmas: The Organizational Beginnings of a Gay and Lesbian Agenda in Puerto Rico, 1972–1977 (Part II),” Centro: Journal for the Center of Puerto Rican Studies 4.2 (1992): 85–115. Foundational look at the intersections between gay liberation movements in New York City and San Juan as well as the role of and subsequent rendering invisible of Sylvia Rivera and other Puerto Ricans involved in the Stonewall riot of 1969, used to mark the origins of modern gay liberation movements.
  744.  
  745. Find this resource:
  746.  
  747.  
  748. Pérez, Gina. “Puertorriquenas Rencorosas y Mejicanas Sufridas: Gendered Ethnic Identity Formation in Chicago’s Latino Communities.” Journal of Latin American Anthropology 8.2 (2003): 96–125.
  749.  
  750. DOI: 10.1525/jlca.2003.8.2.96Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  751.  
  752. Ethnographic exploration of how Puerto Rican and Mexican women use, challenge, and complicate gender stereotypes in defining themselves, often in contrast to each other despite their shared experiences in Chicago.
  753.  
  754. Find this resource:
  755.  
  756.  
  757. Rocque Ramírez, Horacio N. “‘¡Mira, Yo Soy Boricua y Estoy Aquí!’ Rafa Negrón’s Pan Dulce and the Queer Sonic Latinaje of San Francisco.” Centro: Journal for the Center of Puerto Rican Studies 19.1 (2007): 274–313.
  758.  
  759. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  760.  
  761. Explores how California Puerto Rican Rafa Negrón and his San Francisco nightclub created an urban space and opportunities for the creation and expression of queer and Pan-Latina/o identities, what the author refers to as latinaje, or the creation of Latina/o cultures from below.
  762.  
  763. Find this resource:
  764.  
  765.  
  766. Souza, Caridad. “Sexual Identities of Young Puerto Rican Mothers.” Diálogo 6 (Winter–Spring 2002): 33–39.
  767.  
  768. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  769.  
  770. Moving beyond simplistic labels and stereotypes, explores the causes and meanings of becoming mothers for young Puerto Rican women. Attention to political, economic, and cultural forces and also gender ideologies and expectations in Puerto Rican working-class households and communities as well as peer groups in influencing young women as they define their sexual identities.
  771.  
  772. Find this resource:
  773.  
  774.  
  775. Torres, Lourdes. “Boricua Lesbians: Sexuality, Nationality, and the Politics of Passing.” Centro: Journal for the Center of Puerto Rican Studies 19.1 (2007): 230–249.
  776.  
  777. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  778.  
  779. Through a variety of narratives by Puerto Rican lesbians, including performance, memoir, and oral histories, the author explores intentional and unintentional passing and “passing through,” moving deftly between discussions of sexuality and nationality, as well as their intersectionality.
  780.  
  781. Find this resource:
  782.  
  783.  
  784. Labor and Working-Class Histories
  785. Puerto Rican communities have been predominantly working class. Given that migration is a selective process, the nature of economic displacement in Puerto Rico, the recruitment of Puerto Ricans for low-wage jobs in the United States, and the racial and gender segmentation of the U.S. labor market have fostered a primarily working-class migration. Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños 1979 (cited under Emergence of Puerto Rican Studies) and two foundational essays, establish critical frameworks for understanding Puerto Rican labor migration and the origins of predominantly working-class communities. Maldonado 1979 focuses on contract labor programs, many of them government sponsored, that sparked migration and settlement patterns. Benmayor, et al. 1988 captures women’s voices and experiences in labor migration. Whalen 2001 (cited under Post–World War II Era) builds on these foundations to define Puerto Rican migration as a gendered labor migration. Ortiz 1996 and Matos Rodríguez and Delgado 1998 are edited collections that retain a focus on women’s work as well as gender dynamics in Puerto Rico and the United States. Despite predominantly working-class origins, less attention has been devoted to collective organizing or the relationships between Puerto Ricans and labor unions. García-Colón 2008 offers an important look into the tensions surrounding Puerto Ricans recruitment to rural areas, as well as the collective efforts of Puerto Ricans to challenge portrayals of them as inferior and to improve their living conditions. Despite being recruited and migrating as labor migrants, Puerto Ricans have been displaced from the US economy and have confronted the persistent poverty that plagues many communities. Scholars, primarily social scientists, have debated the causes of this poverty. Torres 1995 focuses on the impact of structural inequalities and economic change on Puerto Ricans and African Americans in New York City, as the economic restructuring of the post–World War II era displaced Puerto Rican workers, who had become concentrated in particular sectors of the economy. Tienda 1989 also takes a comparative approach to explore the declining economic status of Puerto Ricans, and notes decreasing economic opportunities and the negative impact of economic change. While many scholars have analyzed structural economic changes and their impact, others have taken more “cultural” approaches reminiscent of the “culture of poverty,” discussed in Early Writings on Puerto Ricans. Entering into this debate, Tienda 1989 argues that more research is needed to determine if Puerto Ricans should be considered part of the “underclass,” while Bourgois 1996 gives considerable causal weight to the behavior of Puerto Ricans.
  786.  
  787. Benmayor, Rina, Ana Juarbe, Celia Alvarez, and Blanca Vázquez. “Stories to Live By: Continuity and Change in Three Generations of Puerto Rican Women.” Oral History Review 16 (Fall 1988): 1–46.
  788.  
  789. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  790.  
  791. Rich oral histories reveal the centrality of household gender dynamics, migration, and work in the garment industry in Puerto Rican women’s lives. Foundational approach to studying women, work, and migration, with historical specificity and with attention to the local and colonial contexts.
  792.  
  793. Find this resource:
  794.  
  795.  
  796. Bourgois, Philippe. In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
  797.  
  798. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  799.  
  800. A controversial ethnographic study of Puerto Rican crack dealers that claims to contest the culture of poverty approach by exploring the relationship between culture and economy. The study, nonetheless, presents “ghetto” residents’ behaviors as not only responses to poverty, but also as central in causing their individual poverty, as well as Puerto Rican poverty more generally.
  801.  
  802. Find this resource:
  803.  
  804.  
  805. García-Colón, Ismael. “Claiming Equality: Puerto Rican Farmworkers in Western New York.” Latino Studies 6.3 (2008): 269–289.
  806.  
  807. DOI: 10.1057/lst.2008.23Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  808.  
  809. Essay turns our attention to Puerto Ricans who migrated as farm workers to a rural area in western New York. Analyzes how Puerto Ricans were defined as inferior by local residents, the tensions that emerged, and how Puerto Ricans challenged that definition through collective action in the summer of 1966.
  810.  
  811. Find this resource:
  812.  
  813.  
  814. Maldonado, Edwin. “Contract Labor and the Origins of Puerto Rican Communities in the United States.” International Migration Review 13.1 (1979): 103–121.
  815.  
  816. DOI: 10.2307/2545274Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  817.  
  818. Foundational essay details contract labor programs sponsored by private contractors and by the governments of Puerto Rico and the United States. Author delineates the role of contract labor in sparking social networks and dispersed settlement, as well as in shaping the predominantly working-class origins of Puerto Rican communities.
  819.  
  820. Find this resource:
  821.  
  822.  
  823. Matos Rodríguez, Félix V., and Linda C. Delgado, eds. Puerto Rican Women’s History: New Perspectives. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1998.
  824.  
  825. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  826.  
  827. Collection of essays on Puerto Rican women in Puerto Rico and the United States, with particular attention to women workers, as well as the intersections among gender, class, and politics.
  828.  
  829. Find this resource:
  830.  
  831.  
  832. Ortiz, Altagracia, ed. Puerto Rican Women and Work: Bridges in Transnational Labor. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996.
  833.  
  834. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  835.  
  836. Essays on women workers in Puerto Rico and in the United States, particularly garment workers from the 1920s through the 1980s. Collection includes white-collar workers, with a chapter on teachers in New York City and one on clerical workers in Puerto Rico.
  837.  
  838. Find this resource:
  839.  
  840.  
  841. Tienda, Marta. “Puerto Ricans and the Underclass Debate.” ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 501.1 (1989): 105–119.
  842.  
  843. DOI: 10.1177/0002716289501001007Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  844.  
  845. Uses census data and population surveys to probe why the economic status of Puerto Ricans diminished more than that of Mexican Americans or Cuban Americans. Posits decreased employment opportunities and concentration in areas most impacted by economic decline as causal. Argues more research is needed before considering Puerto Ricans part of the underclass.
  846.  
  847. Find this resource:
  848.  
  849.  
  850. Torres, Andres. Between Melting Pot and Mosaic: African Americans and Puerto Ricans in the New York Political Economy. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995.
  851.  
  852. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  853.  
  854. A study of social and structural inequalities that looks at how post–World War II demographic and economic shifts have transformed New York City. It compares how these changes have affected the city’s two largest minority populations as well as some of the strategies these respective communities have developed, together and separately, in response.
  855.  
  856. Find this resource:
  857.  
  858.  
  859. Autobiographies and Autobiographical Fiction
  860. Autobiographies and works of autobiographical fiction explore the experiences of Puerto Ricans from a wide variety of perspectives, often adding nuance and complexity. Thomas’s memoir (Thomas 1991, originally published 1967) paved the way and has become a classic. Set in Spanish Harlem in the post–World War II era, Thomas narrates the experiences of a young man confronting the challenges of poverty, racism, the streets, and drug addiction. Mohr’s novel (Mohr 1986, originally published 1973) is also rooted in New York City during World War II, but she writes from the perspective of a young girl who finds herself negotiating not only her own place in the city, but also that within her family and between her family and the larger society. Two autobiographies—Rivera 1982 and Santiago 1993—highlight the transition from rural Puerto Rico to urban New York City, from the perspectives of a young man and a young woman, respectively. Santiago 1993 is particularly revealing of the impact of larger societal forces on an individual’s life as the author depicts the impact of the United States in rural Puerto Rico, as well as the impact of gender constructions in both locales. A collection of short stories, Rodríguez 1992 depicts contemporary life in the South Bronx, moving beyond the focus on young men and street life to nuance the experiences of young women. Also based in the South Bronx, Torres 2009 shares the author’s experiences as a “hearing son,” providing a rare glimpse into the “signing village” created by his deaf parents and other Puerto Ricans. Pantoja 2002 provides a glimpse of someone arriving before World War II and of the author’s role in helping to build community organizations to meet the needs of post–World War II youth. Cofer 1991 creatively explores her upbringing as bilingual and bicultural through partial remembrances of her childhood, which was shaped by her family’s circular migration to and from Puerto Rico and Patterson, New Jersey.
  861.  
  862. Cofer, Judith Ortiz. Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood. Houston, TX: Arte Público, 1991.
  863.  
  864. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  865.  
  866. A cross-genre collection of autobiographical stories, essays, and poems that explores growing up bilingual and bicultural from the perspective of a young girl. It depicts memories of daily life in the context of a family’s back-and-forth movement from Puerto Rico to Patterson, New Jersey.
  867.  
  868. Find this resource:
  869.  
  870.  
  871. Mohr, Nicholasa. Nilda. Houston, TX: Arte Público, 1986.
  872.  
  873. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  874.  
  875. Poignant novel of a girl growing up in New York City during World War II, negotiating life within the barrio and with the broader society. Movingly depicts the impact of racism on a young girl. Originally published in 1973.
  876.  
  877. Find this resource:
  878.  
  879.  
  880. Pantoja, Antonia. Memoir of a Visionary: Antonia Pantoja. Houston, TX: Arte Público, 2002.
  881.  
  882. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  883.  
  884. Autobiography of Antonia Pantoja (b. 1922–d. 2002), who came to New York City in 1944. She founded ASPIRA in 1961, to support education and leadership development for Puerto Rican youth, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996. Details the emergence of Puerto Rican organizations during the 1950s and 1960s.
  885.  
  886. Find this resource:
  887.  
  888.  
  889. Rivera, Edward. Family Installments: Memories of Growing Up Hispanic. New York: Morrow, 1982.
  890.  
  891. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  892.  
  893. Coming of age memoir recounts growing up in rural Orocovis, Puerto Rico, and attending parochial school in East Harlem. One of the first memoirs to capture post–World War II migration from rural Puerto Rico to urban New York City from a young boy’s perspective.
  894.  
  895. Find this resource:
  896.  
  897.  
  898. Rodríguez, Abraham. The Boy without a Flag: Tales of the South Bronx. Minneapolis: Milkweed, 1992.
  899.  
  900. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  901.  
  902. An evocative collection of short stories about daily life in the South Bronx from the perspective of urban youth. Unlike most Puerto Rican literature dealing with the precariousness of the urban landscape (i.e., la calle), young women serve as the main characters in most of these stories.
  903.  
  904. Find this resource:
  905.  
  906.  
  907. Santiago, Esmeralda. When I Was Puerto Rican. New York: Vintage, 1993.
  908.  
  909. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  910.  
  911. Autobiographical account of growing up in rural Puerto Rico and coming to New York City as a child in the post–World War II era. Reveals the impact of the United States in rural Puerto Rico, as well as gender constructions and dynamics in Puerto Rico and New York City.
  912.  
  913. Find this resource:
  914.  
  915.  
  916. Thomas, Piri. Down These Mean Streets. New York: Vintage, 1991.
  917.  
  918. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  919.  
  920. First published in 1967 and now a classic, Thomas’s moving memoir of the challenges of life in Spanish Harlem begins when he is twelve years old at the beginning of World War II. Captures family life and the impact of poverty and racism as well as life on the streets and in prison.
  921.  
  922. Find this resource:
  923.  
  924.  
  925. Torres, Andrés. Signing in Puerto Rican: A Hearing Son and His Deaf Family. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 2009.
  926.  
  927. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  928.  
  929. This autobiography is a rare and deeply rewarding glimpse into the experiences of a hearing son raised by his deaf parents in the South Bronx and of a “signing village,” which included the Puerto Rican Society for the Catholic Deaf, primarily focused on the 1960s.
  930.  
  931. Find this resource:
  932.  
  933.  
  934. Cultural Studies
  935. In conventional cultural studies scholarship, class has been the dominant analytical category. Highly influenced by the Birmingham School, especially the work of Stuart Hall, these sources stretch the boundaries of class in cultural analysis with attention to race, gender, and sexuality, and its intersections, among neglected and marginalized populations. Covering a diverse set of cultural sites, these studies also consider unequal power relations in both production and consumption, and the potential of expressive culture as a political resource. Scholars in Puerto Rican studies turned to popular culture to challenge elite constructions of nation and identity, as well as island-based notions of nationality that excluded the diaspora. The largest impetus for Puerto Rican cultural studies was the recognition of Puerto Ricans outside the island. Flores 1993 presents a revisionist, cultural studies reading of Puerto Rican identity formation, centering the analysis on race, class, and diaspora. The author’s essays consider not only how the island’s historical and socioeconomic conditions have informed conceptualizations of a Puerto Rican national character and culture, but also the pivotal role of the diaspora—its related historical and socioeconomic conditions—in the continuous, and highly contentious, formation of nation and cultural identity. Countering the idea that cultural critique is the exclusive realm of academia, Aparicio 1998 integrates the critical perspectives and theory-building capacities of ordinary salsa listeners in this groundbreaking and generative feminist study of popular music. Also appreciating vernacular expressive cultures, Rivera 2003 explores the musical innovations and practices of Puerto Ricans in New York. The author’s work focuses on the shared histories, spaces, and struggles of Puerto Ricans and African Americans to think about how boricua hip hop artists make sense and use of the convergences and divergences of race, culture, and place. Turning to Broadway and film, Sandoval Sánchez 1997 and Negrón Muntaner 2000 examine West Side Story as a foundational cultural production that problematically introduced and characterized “Puerto Ricans” to a general “American” public. Thinking about production, presentation, and patronship, Sandoval Sánchez sheds light on how West Side Story decisively framed Puerto Ricans as a distinct racialized minority. In conversation with Sandoval Sanchez, Negrón Muntaner’s queer reading of West Side Story examines the positioning of Puerto Ricans in the US national imaginary through the lens of differential inclusion. La Fountain-Stokes 2009 foregrounds sexuality, not only as an integral consideration informing migration decisions, but also as a means to contemplate how an array of cultural workers have rendered and debated queer diasporic experiences.
  936.  
  937. Aparicio, Frances. Listening to Salsa: Gender, Latin Popular Music, and Puerto Rican Cultures. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1998.
  938.  
  939. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  940.  
  941. An influential interdisciplinary study that turns to popular music, particularly salsa, to examine ideologies of race, class, gender, and nation. Combines humanities and social science methods to explore how music marks gender as well as how the musical form is itself gendered. Also considers how listeners interpret the politics of gender embedded in music.
  942.  
  943. Find this resource:
  944.  
  945.  
  946. Flores, Juan. Divided Borders: Essays on Puerto Rican Identity. Houston, TX: Arte Público, 1993.
  947.  
  948. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  949.  
  950. A remarkable and oft-cited volume comprised of previously published essays written between 1979 and 1991 on Puerto Rican culture and identity formations. Provides a race and class analysis of various forms of cultural production—critical essays, novels, short stories, poetry, and music—from the island and the diaspora.
  951.  
  952. Find this resource:
  953.  
  954.  
  955. La Fountain-Stokes, Lawrence. Queer Ricans: Cultures and Sexualities in the Diaspora. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009.
  956.  
  957. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  958.  
  959. This interdisciplinary study combines literary and cultural studies, archival research, and interviews to examine queer Puerto Rican expressive cultures in relationship to migration from the 1960s to the beginning of the 21st century. Gives attention to the particularities of time and place in an analysis of diasporic cultural productions in Puerto Rico, New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia.
  960.  
  961. Find this resource:
  962.  
  963.  
  964. Negrón Muntaner, Frances asd. “Feeling Pretty: West Side Story and Puerto Rican Identity Discourses.” Social Text 18.2 (2000): 83–106.
  965.  
  966. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  967.  
  968. A well-noted article that puts forth a queer reading of West Side Story. The author suggests that the musical serves as both a root source of “shame” for diasporic Puerto Ricans and a foundation for their “ethno-national” identifications.
  969.  
  970. Find this resource:
  971.  
  972.  
  973. Rivera, Raquel. New York Ricans from the Hip Hop Zone. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
  974.  
  975. DOI: 10.1057/9781403981677Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  976.  
  977. This study underscores the contributions of Puerto Ricans—as co-creators, practitioners, and fans—to hip hop. In so doing, offers an analysis of the ways in which this population has experienced, negotiated, and problematized conceptions of Puerto Rican-ness, latinidad, and blackness.
  978.  
  979. Find this resource:
  980.  
  981.  
  982. Sandoval Sánchez, Alberto. “West Side Story: A Puerto Rican Reading of ‘America.’” In Latin Looks: Images of Latinas and Latinos in the U.S. Media. Edited by Clara Rodríguez, 164–179. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1997.
  983.  
  984. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  985.  
  986. A seminal cultural studies critique of the politics of race and representation via an analysis of West Side Story. Draws on personal reflection and an examination of key scenes in the production to reveal how the musical constructs “otherness” and creates and re-creates a racist discourse about Puerto Rican, in particular, and Latinos, in general.
  987.  
  988. Find this resource:
  989.  
  990.  
  991. Anthologies, Plays, and Poetry
  992. From the mid-1960s through the 1970s Nuyorican fiction, poetry, and theater flourished in the specific context of political struggle and as tools for mobilization. Many of these consciousness-raising forms of expressive culture integrated elements of history, politics, activism, and autobiography, becoming another means to disseminate broader messages of political struggle and to denounce US capitalism and imperialism. Mohr 1982 is an early attempt to document and review the trajectory of Puerto Rican literature—fiction, poetry, drama—about the diaspora. The author’s critical commentary and bibliography of works from the 1920s to the 1980s cites few female writers. Santiago 1995 pulls together an impressive anthology of various forms of Puerto Rican writing from the 19th and 20th centuries, including a number of works by women. The poetry in Esteves 1980 and Espada 1986 creates discursive spaces for the affirmation of collective identifications and self-recognition that had been rendered invisible or unworthy by the dominant society. In a similar fashion, Laviera 1985, a collection of poems, counters discourses of assimilation and reaffirms hybrid cultural identities that come into being from multiracial urban neighborhoods in the United States. A founding member of the Nuyorican Poet’s Café, Miguel Piñero was also a celebrated playwright. Piñero 2006 (originally produced in 1973–1974), a jailhouse drama conceived in a prisoner’s writing program, was the first play by a Puerto Rican staged on Broadway. It received a number of Tony nominations and won a few top drama awards in the mid-1970s. Yet, as Antush’s anthology (Antush 1994) shows, the production of New York–based Puerto Rican drama can be traced to the 1950s. Since the 1980s, works by female playwrights, such as Cruz 1992, have redefined this cultural form. Women have focused their works on issues of gender and sexuality, as opposed to male perspectives on race, nation, and community. All of these works express the views of the poor and working class in depicting migration, life in the barrio, and the institution of family; most pay particular attention to how each of these facets have been affected by a legacy of US colonialism and capitalism. These cultural productions serve as valuable sites for examining debates about representation, identity, and agency.
  993.  
  994. Antush, John V., ed. Nuestro New York: An Anthology of Puerto Rican Plays. New York: Mentor, 1994.
  995.  
  996. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  997.  
  998. A collection of eleven plays by Puerto Ricans playwrights, from the island and the diaspora, bringing to light a period of Puerto Rican theater from the 1950s to the 1980s.
  999.  
  1000. Find this resource:
  1001.  
  1002.  
  1003. Cruz, Migdalia. “Miriam’s Flowers.” In Shattering Myths: Plays by Hispanic Women. Selected by Denise Chávez and edited by Linda Feyder, 51–84. Houston, TX: Arte Público, 1992.
  1004.  
  1005. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1006.  
  1007. A controversial play that is Cruz’s most widely staged work. Depicts a young woman’s responses to the tragic death of her younger brother. Addressing themes of poverty, neglect, violence, sexuality, and their intersections, the play raises critical questions about victimization and agency.
  1008.  
  1009. Find this resource:
  1010.  
  1011.  
  1012. Espada, Martín. The Immigrant Iceboy’s Bolero. Maplewood, NJ: Waterfront, 1986.
  1013.  
  1014. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1015.  
  1016. Espada’s first published collection of poetry that includes some stunning photographs of the urban landscape taken by his father. Explores the dire consequences of structural neglect and urban poverty as well as the resiliency of everyday working people and their struggles for dignity under such circumstances.
  1017.  
  1018. Find this resource:
  1019.  
  1020.  
  1021. Esteves, Sandra Maria. Yerba Buena. Greenfield Center, NY: Greenfield Review, 1980.
  1022.  
  1023. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1024.  
  1025. The first published collection of poetry by the best known female member of the Nuyorican Poets Café. Brings an intersectional perspective—race, class, and gender—to aspects of urban life and the urban landscape. Also links social, political, and economic disparities suffered in the barrio to US imperialism and capitalism.
  1026.  
  1027. Find this resource:
  1028.  
  1029.  
  1030. Laviera, Tato. AmeRícan. Houston, TX: Arte Público, 1985.
  1031.  
  1032. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1033.  
  1034. Laviera’s third collection of poetry. Plays with language, culture, and identity formations in this lyrical challenge to discourses of assimilation and “Americanization,” as best noted in the title poem. The Poem “asimilao” has also been widely cited and analyzed. A spirited portrait of the multiracial urban environments out of which Laviera’s poetry emerges.
  1035.  
  1036. Find this resource:
  1037.  
  1038.  
  1039. Mohr, Eugene V. The Nuyorican Experience: Literature of the Puerto Rican Minority. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1982.
  1040.  
  1041. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1042.  
  1043. An early compilation of essays that explores the literary production of Puerto Ricans with respect to life in the United States, specifically New York. Considers works from the pre–World War II era, works written about US communities by island-based writers, autobiographical fictions of barrio life, and the works of poets and playwrights.
  1044.  
  1045. Find this resource:
  1046.  
  1047.  
  1048. Piñero, Miguel. Short Eyes. New York: Hill and Wang, 2006.
  1049.  
  1050. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1051.  
  1052. Won the New York Drama Critics Award for Best American Play, 1973–1974. A story of how inmates, specifically Puerto Rican and black, respond to the presence of a white pedophile (aka “short eyes”) in their detention unit, revealing aspects of the social, racial, and sexual structure and order of prison life.
  1053.  
  1054. Find this resource:
  1055.  
  1056.  
  1057. Santiago, Roberto, ed. Boricuas: Influential Puerto Rican Writings: An Anthology. New York: Ballatine, 1995.
  1058.  
  1059. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1060.  
  1061. A collection of excerpts from noted and noteworthy works of fiction, poetry, and critical essays by Puerto Rican authors, from both the island and diaspora. Organized around themes of history and politics, identity formations, urban life, beliefs, customs, faith, and redemption.
  1062.  
  1063. Find this resource:
  1064.  
  1065.  
  1066. Documentaries
  1067. Documentaries offer visual and audio explorations of community histories, identity formations, and cultural productions; of social problems and social struggles; and of the consequences of certain state policies on daily life. Bringing together the traditions and devices of documentary film, as a tool of education and social understanding, with the activist roots and commitments of Puerto Rican studies, many works were inspired by the era of the civil rights movement, anti-colonial struggles, antiwar movement, and the Cuban Revolution. (See Emergence of Puerto Rican Studies). Figueroa Soulet 2007 and García 1982 take on issues of colonialism and the paradoxes of US citizenship from gendered perspectives. Soulet tells the history of Puerto Rican soldiers serving in the Sixty-Fifth Infantry Regiment of the US Army, established after the island became a US colonial possession. Garcia delineates the social, political, and economic context that made possible the implementation of female sterilization programs in Puerto Rico. Two distinct approaches to the biographical documentary explore highly honored and esteemed voices of the Puerto Rican diaspora. Jiménez and Olmos 2009 crafts a straightforward narrative featuring major milestones in Antonia Pantoja’s life, offering new insight on Puerto Rican community life and struggle, specifically in reference to education, but also with attention to the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality. The life and cultural work of Piri Thomas is explored in a more experimental fashion in Robinson 2004, which intermixes spoken word, musical performance, and dramatization within the documentary format. Thomas’s promotion of artistic expression as a vehicle toward self and community advancement and to counter violence are highlighted through his work with incarcerated youth. The spatial and social landscape of identity formation, cultural production, and political activism is explored in films about the Fania All-Stars, the Young Lords, and the roots and experiences of Chicago’s Puerto Rican community. Gast 2004 documents the emergence of the musical sound that came to be identified with diasporic Puerto Ricans and their urban neighborhoods. Morales 2010 explores the late 1960s and early 1970s political activism of the Young Lords. Franceschi and Franceschi 2008 inserts Puerto Ricans in the history of Chicago, a major industrial city, undergoing post-industrial and neoliberal transformation. Schwartz 2007, a series of audio recordings, brings together the voices of ordinary Puerto Ricans with the sounds of New York City, capturing the shifting soundscape of Puerto Rican migration and settlement from 1948 to 1955. These sources visually and sonically map individual and community histories and how Puerto Ricans have organized to claim rights.
  1068.  
  1069. Figueroa Soulet, Noemi, dir. The Borinqueneers. DVD. New York: El Pozo Productions, 2007.
  1070.  
  1071. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1072.  
  1073. Documents the untold story of the only all-Latino unit in the history of the US Army—the Puerto Rican Sixty-Fifth Infantry Regiment. It traces the unit’s origins in 1899 to its participation in the two world wars, the Korean War, as well as the controversial mass court-martial of some of its officers.
  1074.  
  1075. Find this resource:
  1076.  
  1077.  
  1078. Franceschi, Antonio, and Gloricelly Franceschi, dirs. Chicago’s Puerto Rican Story. Recorded DVD. Chicago: New Film Productions, 2008.
  1079.  
  1080. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1081.  
  1082. Presents an account of the Puerto Rican diaspora focusing on the history and experiences of the Chicago community. Uses photographs, film footage, and interviews to explore migration, community formations, and social struggles and activism in relation to labor, housing, and education. Also produced and written by Antonio Franceschi and Gloricelly Franceschi.
  1083.  
  1084. Find this resource:
  1085.  
  1086.  
  1087. García, Ana Mariá. La Operación. VHS. New York: Cinema Guild, 1982.
  1088.  
  1089. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1090.  
  1091. A powerful and disturbing account of the policy and politics of female sterilization in Puerto Rico. Includes surgical sequences, historical footage, and interviews with women of distinct class and racial backgrounds who had this operation. Places this procedure within the larger social and economic history of Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans.
  1092.  
  1093. Find this resource:
  1094.  
  1095.  
  1096. Gast, Leon. Our Latin Thing (Nuestra Cosa). DVD. Performed 26 August 1971. London: Vampisoul, 2004.
  1097.  
  1098. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1099.  
  1100. In documenting a salsa concert by the Fania All-Stars in Manhattan’s Cheetah Club in 1971, this film also presents everyday social and economic aspects of life in a Puerto Rican/Latino barrio. Shows ways in which a local urban environment shapes and is shaped by popular culture.
  1101.  
  1102. Find this resource:
  1103.  
  1104.  
  1105. Jiménez, Lillian, and Edward James Olmos. Antonia Pantoja ¡Presente! DVD. New York: Latino Public Broadcasting/Women Make Movies, 2009.
  1106.  
  1107. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1108.  
  1109. Features pivotal moments in the life history of Antonia Pantoja—educator, activist, champion of bilingual education, founder of ASPIRA, and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996. Incorporates home movies, archival footage, and interviews with friends, colleagues, and Dr. Wilhemina Perry (her life partner), as well as testimony from Pantoja herself.
  1110.  
  1111. Find this resource:
  1112.  
  1113.  
  1114. Morales, Iris, dir. Palante, Siempre Palante! The Young Lords. DVD. New York: Latino Education Network Service, Third World Newsreel, 2010.
  1115.  
  1116. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1117.  
  1118. Documents the emergence and demise (1969–1976) of the Young Lords, a group of mainly, but not exclusively, young Puerto Rican activists in New York City. Incorporates interviews, archival footage, photographs, and music to tell a story of Puerto Rican struggles for social justice and rights vis-à-vis housing, education, and the political empowerment of a community. Also written and produced by Iris Morales.
  1119.  
  1120. Find this resource:
  1121.  
  1122.  
  1123. Robinson, Jonathan. Every Child Is Born a Poet: The Life and Work of Piri Thomas. DVD. Washington, DC: Public Broadcasting System, 2004.
  1124.  
  1125. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1126.  
  1127. Chronicles the life and work of author, poet, and activist Piri Thomas, best known for his autobiographical novel Down These Mean Streets. Through Thomas’s life history presents aspects of Puerto Rican community life in Spanish Harlem from the 1930s to the 1960s. Incorporates archival footage, mixed media art, and poetry.
  1128.  
  1129. Find this resource:
  1130.  
  1131.  
  1132. Schwartz, Tony. Nueva York: A Tape Documentary of Puerto Rican New Yorkers. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, 2007, compact disc.
  1133.  
  1134. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1135.  
  1136. An audio-documentary that captures the sounds of Puerto Rican daily life in New York City in the 1950s. Features interviews with Puerto Ricans and other New Yorkers, music, and street sounds. Recorded between 1948 and 1955. Available online for purchase.
  1137.  
  1138. Find this resource:
  1139.  
  1140.  
  1141. Puerto Rican and Latina/o Studies
  1142. Scholarship exploring Puerto Ricans within broader US Latina/o experiences initially focused on Puerto Rican and Chicana/o/Mexican American relations, especially in Chicago, or on Puerto Ricans as part of diverse Latino communities. These works caution against homogenizing the historical experiences and the critical distinctions among the diverse populations supposedly captured by the “Latino” or “Hispanic” categories. Elena Padilla, in her University of Chicago master’s thesis (Rúa 2010, cited under Resources and Overviews), studied Puerto Rican identity and community formation, considering the significance of Chicago’s Mexican communities in questions of labor, residence, and social networks. She provided a template for potential articulations between Puerto Rican studies and Latino studies. Decades later, Felix Padilla 1985 examines the participation of Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in the institutional life of Chicago. The author proposed latinismo as a situational pan-ethnic identity, strategically deployed when the benefits of coalitional formations outweigh organizing along separate national affiliation lines. Scholars have built on and diverged from Padilla’s model of political identity formation. Placing the US government designation of the “Hispanic” category as a counter to the Chicano and Puerto Ricans movements, Oboler 1995 examines the tensions between imposed and assumed identities. Flores 1996 is preoccupied with the growing scholarly and popular attention to Latina/o formations and the implications for Puerto Rican identity and culture primarily in New York City. Revisiting the experiences of Puerto Ricans and Mexicans in Chicago, De Genova and Ramos-Zayas 2003 explores the “politics of citizenship,” calling attention to its role in exacerbating tensions and barriers to latinidad in the face of racializing practices and growing inequalities. Fernández 2012 provides a comparative social historical analysis of the migration of Puerto Ricans and Mexicans, focusing on residential settlement patterns, changing demographics, community organizations, and the interactions between residents in particular neighborhoods, with attention to the impact of state policies. Collectively, these works show why Latino formations cannot be taken as a given even in shared locations. Taking a historical comparative and theoretical approach, Rodriguez Dominguez 2005 compares how Puerto Ricans and Mexicans were racialized in the first decades of the 20th century. In the 1970s, the Revista Chicano-Riqueña offered a forum for US Latinos and Latinas to publish their poetry and art with Puerto Rican artists prominent in its pages. The Revista served as the launching pad for Arte Público Press in 1979. Moving beyond comparisons with Chicanas/os/Mexican Americans, Ramos-Zayas 2012 focuses mainly on Puerto Ricans and Brazilians in Newark, New Jersey, examining how these groups recognize and misrecognize one another, as well as Africans Americans, other Latinos, and whites, as they negotiate intimate exchanges and interaction in a neoliberal city.
  1143.  
  1144. de Genova, Nicholas, and Ana Yolanda Ramos-Zayas. Latino Crossings: Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and the Politics of Race and Citizenship. New York: Routledge, 2003.
  1145.  
  1146. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1147.  
  1148. An important and generative ethnographic account of how Puerto Ricans and Mexicans differently experience race and citizenship in relation to one another, even as they take on or are forced to take on a Latina/o identity.
  1149.  
  1150. Find this resource:
  1151.  
  1152.  
  1153. Fernández, Lilia. Brown in the Windy City: Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in Postwar Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.
  1154.  
  1155. DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226244280.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1156.  
  1157. A historical study that integrates the interrelated, parallel, and divergent struggles of Puerto Ricans and Mexicans over place and belonging in an analysis of the social, economic, political, and physical transformation of the city of Chicago. Fernández offers a model for a comparative Latina/o histories.
  1158.  
  1159. Find this resource:
  1160.  
  1161.  
  1162. Flores, Juan. “Pan-Latino/Trans-Latino: Puerto Ricans in ‘New Nueva York.’” Centro: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies 8.1–2 (1996): 170–186.
  1163.  
  1164. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1165.  
  1166. The essay reflects on Puerto Rican culture and identity in the United States in light of the diversification of New York City’s Latino population, or “pan Latinization.” Offers a review of the scholarship on the concepts “Latino” and “Hispanic.”
  1167.  
  1168. Find this resource:
  1169.  
  1170.  
  1171. Oboler, Suzanne. Ethnic Labels, Latino Lives: Identity and the Politics of (Re)presentation in the United States. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995.
  1172.  
  1173. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1174.  
  1175. Influential study of the construction of Hispanic and Latino labels. Considers the implications of these categories on the social movements of Puerto Ricans and Chicanos in the 1970s as well as the potential use for organizing around issues of citizenship and social justice.
  1176.  
  1177. Find this resource:
  1178.  
  1179.  
  1180. Padilla, Felix M. Latino Ethnic Consciousness: The Case of Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans in Chicago. South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1985.
  1181.  
  1182. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1183.  
  1184. Early consideration of the implications of claiming a situational, politically strategic, “Latino ethnic identity” (latinismo). Centered on Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in Chicago in the 1970s and 1980s, when the two major US Latino groups were nearly equal in numbers, Padilla suggests a Latino identity does not replace identities based on national origin.
  1185.  
  1186. Find this resource:
  1187.  
  1188.  
  1189. Ramos-Zayas, Ana Y. Street Therapists: Race, Affect, and Neoliberal Personhood in Latino Newark. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.
  1190.  
  1191. DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226703633.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1192.  
  1193. Comparative ethnographic study of Puerto Ricans and Latin American migrants, mainly Brazilians. Explores their insights on race, class, and sexuality in a predominantly black city, using “emotion” to consider how racial knowledge and hierarchies are constructed, reproduced, and deployed vis-à-vis commonsense ideas about city life and discourses of personal responsibility and respectability.
  1194.  
  1195. Find this resource:
  1196.  
  1197.  
  1198. Revista Chicano-Riqueña. 1972–.
  1199.  
  1200. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1201.  
  1202. First periodical dedicated to publishing literary works and art by US Latinas and Latinos. Founded in 1972 by Luis Dávila (IU Bloomington) and Nicolas Kanellos (IU Northwest), it was renamed The Americas Review in the mid-1980s. Nuyorican poets Tato Laviera and Miguel Piñero, among others, were noted contributors.
  1203.  
  1204. Find this resource:
  1205.  
  1206.  
  1207. Rodriguez Dominguez, Victor M. “The Racialization of Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans: 1890s–1930s.” Centro: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies 17.1 (2005): 70–105.
  1208.  
  1209. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1210.  
  1211. Comparative study of the particularities of the racialization for Puerto Ricans and Mexicans during the period when the United States embarked on overseas empire building. It offers a theoretical model to understand Boricua and Chicano experiences as racialized subjects.
  1212.  
  1213. Find this resource:
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