Puerto Rico Books

Juan Bobo is a favorite of young children, and this book continues in the same noodlehead tradition of the original four folktales of Juan Bobo told in the An-I-Can-Read series.

Very powerful and unusually funny, K.M.Norris knows how to put things into poetry that the majority of us wouldn't. She does it with hunor and pure artistry. For those of you who love poetry it is a terrific read and a great addition to your library.

Like its provocative cover --Basquiat's "Arroz con Pollo"-- this book is a rare combination of "the raw" and "the cooked." It navigates a treacherous and booby-trapped passage through the entire 20th century to the birth of a distinct Boricuan literary tradition!

Boricua Literature highlights the literary creativity of Puerto Ricans living in the mainland United States. The author focuses on recuperating "minor literature" by Boricua writers who often fall and disappear into the cracks between disciplinary boundaries and too-rigidly defined cultural and political spaces. She offers useful insights into contemporary cultural studies, focusing especially on gender and race.

Reading Boricua Literature introduced me to several remarkable literary figures, and the approach in the book was a colorful quilt of critical concepts. The way the author challenges political orthodoxies and literary canons without dismissing scholarly rigor is edifying. Sanchez-Gonzalez' style reminds one of Zora Neale Hurston's famous phrase "going a piece of the way with them," i.e. not "all the way" uncritically.

Each chapter spends a good deal of time reframing and re-negotiating theories and identities with sharp feminist and critical race questions. The author bestows on Luisa Capetillo --a turn of the 20th Century anarcho-feminist writer-activist-- the position of The founder of Boricua Literary tradition. In another chapter, Sanchez-Gonzalez recuperates children's stories written by Pure Belpre, a librarian at the New York Public Library, whose work on behalf of children remains alive in libraries throughout the U.S. today. One chapter is on Salsa lyrics and performances by Boricuas at the end of the 20th century where tropes in performance theory are utilized for analysis of lyrics. At the same time, the book focuses on more canonical figures such as Arturo Schomburg and William Carlos Williams. Sanchez-Gonzalez argues that scholars have often erased the Boricua formative experiences of these major intellectuals. Shomburg is known for his great achievements in establishing the most prestigious archives of Black history in New York. Moreover, William Carlos Williams is rarely read or studied as a Latino or Boricua poet. Anyone who knows James Clifford's admirable essay "Pure Products go Crazy," in Predicament of Culture, will be very surprised to read Sanchez's critique leveled against Clifford in this book! Students and writers of other diasporic communities in the United States, whose distinct literary and cultural production --performances, poetry, music, and fiction-- have not received proper attention as a discrete area, will find this book invaluable. It is well crafted, theoretically dense, yet impassioned and non-elitist.

But for the most part, it is satisfying to read a critical history of the not-so "minor literature" --indeed formidable literature-- of diasporic Puerto Rican artists and intellectuals. Their role in shaping the literary history of United States is not appreciated, and their works are still viable today. Boricua Literature re-acquaints us with these neglected writers-artists so we can better catch their drift!

Enlightening, outstanding, and just an all around good read. I read it in the late seventies and it stayed on my mind to this day. A work to be proud of. Thanks.

I found this book by accident and I'm thoroughly surprised that this incredible text isn't getting more publicity and circulation. It has a nice cover and some really interesting chapters. I liked this book much better than Guttman's "Changing Men." A Puerto Rican press with ties to AIDS funding published this book. I wonder if not having a mainland distributor somehow limited the publisher's reach. !Que lastima!

The book is subtitled "Working Papers." This practically sounds like a professor xeroxed students' term papers and just threw them in a binder after putting punchholes in each page. This book is for the most part quite polished. It has a nice mix of contributors: male and female; Caribbean and American; graduate students and full professors. The contributors look at song lyrics, elections, prison inmates, and nomenclature to discuss masculinity in this region. The chapters vary widely in terms of length and complexity. Perhaps this is why the anthology is humbly presented as just "working papers."

A good portion of this book is simply how to conduct men's studies research in the Caribbean, period. The authors are very conscious of this as a new terrain. Upon reading the table of contents, one would think only the last chapter deals with gay men in this area. However, gay relations, gay identity (or lack thereof), and homophobia are themes constantly presented in this book. This book is sufficiently representative of the Caribbean, covering the English-speaking and Spanish-speaking, machos and non-machos, as aforementioned men of various sexualities, etc. However, there is nothing on Cuba. I wonder if its status as a Communisti country somehow makes it unique in terms of gender, or doing research period. Richard Parker's chapter was unnecessary as it dealt exclusively with Brazil and not the Caribbean. I wonder if they included him just for the name recognition. Commentators on the Caribbean in other books have strongly stated that issues of gender cannot be separated from race and class matters. However, in this book, only one or two chapters bring those matters up. That is a bit of a letdown.

I truly applaud this book, wish the best for its contributors, and encourage all to read it.

Caribbean Paleodemography: Population, Culture History, And Sociopolitical Processes In Ancient Puerto Rico is a scholarly assessment of the ancient human population of Puerto Rico, migration patterns, cultural changes, population trends, and unexplained mysteries of the region's paleodemography. Extensively researched by adjunct assistant professor of anthropology L. Antonio Curet, Caribbean Paleodemography stresses the importance of scientific rigor when analyzing demographic factors and proposes more rigorous and exacting ways of modeling past human behavior and population trends. A critical-minded, succinctly written scholarly account, enthusiastically recommended to students and professionals in the fields of archaeology and paleology.

This book examines state policy and higher educational reform in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. The dearth of attention to the postsecondary experience of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean makes this a very special contribution to the literature in the field, where present literature focuses primarily on Central and Latin America, the larger context of globalization, or specific issues like financing, equity, and quality. The authors weigh variables of economic environments, political institutions, and culture as they analyze the evolution of higher educational policy and post-secondary institutional change. Their analyses at once show the commonality of problems across Caribbean national boundaries, and illuminate the ways in which processes of educational change and reform differ between the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Puerto Rico.
The authors conclude that the convergence of higher education trends and reforms in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic are not serendipitous (including the shared experience of "brain drain" emigration to the continental United States), underscoring the need for Caribbean post-secondary institutions and their respective states to explore new linkages and deepen existing transnational interconnectedness. Numerous barriers and challenges remain; the book ends with an extensive discussion of future agendas in higher education and public policy on these islands and in New York City.



Hardcover Info:
ISBN 1-55876-323-6
268pp
$69.95

Also available in Paperback :
ISBN 1-55876-324-4
268pp
$24.95
About Silvio Torres-Salliant:
Silvio Torres-Saillant, Syracuse University, is the author of Caribbean Poetics: Toward an Aesthetic of West Indian Literature.

About Maria J. Canino:
Maria J. Canino, University of Puerto Rico, is the co-editor of La politica social ante los nuevos desafios: Cuba y Puerto Rico.

A

Part of a series developed by World Book Inc. several decades ago for young people, these books have evolved into a rich storehouse of information for anyone of any age who enjoys learning the Christmas history, music, crafts and recipes of many nations.

Puerto Rico has a rich mix of cultures that results in a rich tapestry of holiday traditions. In addition to the Christmas portion of this book, there is a section on other holiday festivals including "The Coming of the Kings."

The book is richly illustrated with full-color photos. Two Puerto Rican carols have the original language, English translation, and musical notes -- "Christmas Carol from Yauco" and "If You Give Me Pasteles."

Recipes in the book include Candied Plantains, Coconut Pudding, Tropical Salad, Spice Cake, Stewed Shrimp, and Rice Fritters. Included with the book are six recipe cards for additional Christmas treats such as Pickled Green Bananas, Rice with Pigeon Peas, and Coconut Eggnog. There is also an Advent calendar.

Collect the whole series for your home library and re-read them every December.

The other day I went through my cookbooks, to see if I could weed some out, because I have too many to mention. It's hard getting rid of a cookbook, especially one with a few recipes in it that you've come to love. But I've scanned the recipes I need to keep forever into my MacBook. However, there were an even dozen I couldn't part with. These are books I turn to time and time again, even though I consider myself somewhat of a gourmet chef.

Emma Duprey de Sterling's COCINA ARTESANAL PUERTORRIQUENA is one of the books I kept. Yes the book is in Spanish, so if you don't read the language, you'll need a dictionary or the help of someone who does, but if you persevere, you'll find that you'll both learn a few important Spanish words and that you'll be cooking up something very good. The "Pescado Encebollado" on page 97 is one delicious way to serve salmon. The recipe is simple and easy to cook up. The "Ensalada Verde" (Green Salad) on page 49 is a perfect way to begin a meal, but you'll be giving your dictionary a work out with this one, still it's worth it. This book is a must for a someone who both speaks Spanish and wants to turn out delicious Caribbean dishes and even if you don't speak the lingo, it's still a joy to own.

Review submitted by Captain Katie Osborne

En "Tierra adentro", novela republicada y comentada tras muchos años en el olvido, Ramón Juliá Marín revive el Puerto Rico del interior con personajes envueltos en pasiones y odios, amores y venganzas, en parte debidas al resultado del trauma humano traído por el cambio de soberanía en 1898.

La novela es un retrato trágico en primer plano del campesinado puertorriqueño tras la invasión y ocupación militar estadounidense. A la imagen de un tiro que se sabe certero después que la sangre del caído se derrama, le sucede una huelga de jornaleros agrícolas y una migración de campesinos a Hawai. A la descripción en prosa poética de una amante le sigue una relación amorosa convertida en tragedia para tres...

En la novela los campesinos y tertulianos del pueblo de Utuado dialogan culta e inteligentemente sobre temas políticos, económicos y humanos. Hoy, más de un siglo después, los diálogos son calificados como improbables en las mentes de aquellos prestos a obliterar la línea entre la ficción y el documento histórico.

Juliá Marín los usa como recursos para denunciar el choque traumático que significó la invasión. Es así cómo el autor hace que los personajes ventilen temas como el encontronazo entre el gobierno semi autónomo - de poco antes de la invasión - y el sistema al que estaban acostumbrados, frente al impuesto por una nación poderosa y una cultura foránea determinada al dominio del territorio ocupado.

El libro es más que la novela. La segunda mitad es dedicada a un amplio comentario crítico por el profesor de la Universidad de Puerto Rico y editor Fernando Feliú Mantilla, una bibliografía, una sección que incluye un ensayo que sobre su tío abuelo escribiera el educador Edgardo Rodríguez Juliá, y varios artículos periodísticos de la época.

Feliú Mantilla orienta al lector con acertadas notas históricas y biográficas, y definiciones de términos lingüísticos en desuso, que no entorpecen en mucho la lectura. Unas pocas son definiciones que parecieran estar dirigidas a estudiantes de secundaria más que a lectores adultos (foete, cuadril, inopia, enhiesta). Su ensayo es fundamental para entender la novela en su contexto histórico, reanimar detalles borrosos y enriquecer su lectura.

Juliá Marín se adelanta a otros autores puertorriqueños. Gallos, perros y caballos asumen características casi humanas, tan heroicas como las del cuento "El josco" de Abelardo Díaz Alfaro. El autor presentaba en "Tierra adentro" (y en "La Gleba", continuación publicada más tarde) el trauma boricua antes que Enrique Laguerre, René Marqués, José Luis González, Pedro Juan Soto y Emilio Díaz Valcárcel, entre otros. En "Décimas de Bernardino", una improvisación cantada se convierte en el grito poético del oprimido, que hace pensar en el poema "En la brecha", de su contemporáneo José de Diego.

Juliá Marín murió acuciado por la miseria a los 39 años, dice la editorial. ¡Cuánto más y mejor hubiera escrito de no morir tan joven!