IN 1950 , after over fifty years of military occupation and colonial rule, the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico staged an unsuccessful armed insurrection against the United Stated. Violence swept through the island: Nationalist were sent to kill President Harry Truman, gunfights roared in eight towns, police stations and post offices were burned down. In order to suppress this uprising, the US Army deployed thousands of troops and bombarded two towns, marking the first time in history that the US government bombed its own citizens.
Because many of the documents and books about Puerto Rico have been written by the island's colonizers, only the victors were celebrated. With this in mind, the author has expressly composed this book from the viewpoint of the colonized, suppressed, and exploited. She...
This text interprets Puerto Rico's attempt to end its colonial dependence on Spain. It examines the policies within Puerto Rico that led to the 1868 rebellion known as El Grito de Lares, and explores why the movement began decades after Spain's other colonies in the...
Attention to problems related to the Puerto Rican search for identity makes this a book of special interest to Americans and Puerto Ricans alike. "Understanding the island," says the author, "involves transcending the confines of American nationalism in an effort at...
Famous for his search for the legendary Fountain of Youth, Spanish conquistador Ponce de Len is credited with the discovery of Florida in 1513 as well as making Puerto Rico and the Gulf Stream known to the Spanish world. This sensitively written new book describes his...
From the emergence of the first sugar plantations up until 1873, when slavery was abolished, the wealth amassed by many landowners in Puerto Rico derived mainly from the exploitation of slaves. But slavery generated its antithesis - disobedience, uprisings and...
Foodies and lovers of Carribbean cooking will be inspired by the authentic Puerto Rican recipes in Yvonne's Ortiz's essential cookbook, A Taste of Puerto Rico. Yellow rice, papayas, guavas, pina coladas, adobo, cilantro, and recaito--color, spirit, and sun-splashed...