Caribbean Books

Manlio Argueta's most lyrical novel to date, A PLACE CALLED MILAGRO DE LA PAZ continues de saga of life among the common people in El Salvador begun with ONE DAY OF LIFE. Examining the legacy of civil strife in the lives of a Salvadoran family, it tells the story of the courage and strength of a single mother and her daughter, who have to overcome the trauma of the murder of the eldest daughter and survive in an atmosphere of bitter poverty and repression. The book is filled, however, with magical, lyric moments of love and compassion, strangely illuminated by the figure of a young girl with butterflies in her hair who suddenly appears and adopts the family. This astonishing tour-de-force exemplifies the best in magic realism.

The Washington Post called Argueta's A PLACE CALLED MILAGRO DE LA PAZ an "exquisitely crafted novel" and considered it "a veritable hymn to these resilient, uncomplaining women." Critic Beatriz Terrazas wrote in Dallas Morning News: "It takes a master to turn a story of pain and tragedy into a thing of beauty. But then Manlio Argueta is a proven master of words." Philip Herter commented in The St. Petersburg Times that A PLACE CALLED MILAGRO DE LA PAZ "charms like a fairytale but has the moral force of an indictment." Nick Owchar from The Los Angeles Times noted that Argueta's novel "assures us that from the ashes of tragedy, the human spirit will rise like a legendary bird." Other words of praise appeared in Publishers Weekly, Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education, World Literature Today, and The British Bulletin of Publications.

The book is a very intellectual and sensitive portrayal of a family of three women who must deal with very adverse conditions and who have to make a living with very few means. It is at once serious and yet it allows for human dignity and inner strenght in the characters. A very good look at the strenghts of women in a very unfavorable setting.

It is extremely sad to keep in mind the 40 million sick or dead from HIV that might have been avoided if public health measures had been taken.
Gisselquist brings together a lot of data, and Points to Consider is a must for the concerned person.
Today HIV epidemic continue via dirty needles unchecked. Last year, in 2007, 100 children were found contaminated with HIV as the Kyrgyzstan investigated, and 133 in 2006 in Kazakhstan: re-use of needles without sterilization, contaminated multidose vials, low paid medical staff, lack of supplies- all responsible for death of the children. Official litterature and dogma prevent investigations in Africa.. It's more convenient to blame HIV on promiscuous sex.. Garance at safeobserver.org

As someone interested in the AIDS pandemic in Africa, I am familiar with several of the publications by Gisselquist and his colleagues. With an article here and there calling to look at the rates of HIV infection from medical care (unsterile instruments and needles) it is hard to put the whole puzzle together. With Points to Consider, Gisselquist puts the whole puzzle together. Why is WHO concerned primarily with sexual transmission of HIV (which occurs about in less than 1 sexual encounter per 1000) when tainted medical devices have about a 90% transmission rate?

He makes an excellent case for how this is happening and why differences in sexual mixing patterns are not enough to explain the differences in HIV infection rates. The book points out an important anomaly in the current paradigm about how HIV is spreading in Africa. By ignoring nosocomial infections, WHO is allowing the pandemic to spread. The answer is simple: once use needles and syringes and clean sterile medical instruments.

This book was a great and informative book about the Bay of Pigs invasion. One point that I thought was especially interesting was in the different people who helped make this book possible. At a conference held in 1996 where panelists discuss the Bay of Pigs invasion, men from the US, Cuba, and even the Soviet Union are there to give their sides of the story. It truly does reexamine the Bay of Pigs and brings new information to the table of what exactly happened at the Bay of Pigs in the failed attempt to overthrow Castro.

If I could I would give this book 10 stars. This book is by far the most interesting and historical concerning the people on both sides of the spectrum of the invasion. Contains not only personal information of those involved but all of the mentioned documents are contained at the end of the book, many of which have never been seen before. Also, contains information on the actual knowledge of what Kennedy knew concering the invasion.

This is a tale of an incredible journey which helps to explain the passion and durablilty of Jewish families from around the world. It is both inspiring and, at times, chilling.

POMEGRANATE SEEDS. LATIN AMERICAN JEWISH TALES
by Nadia Grosser Nagarajan
Introduction by Ilan Stavens
University of Mexico Press ©2005
Reviewed by Cherie Karo Schwartz
*In full disclosure, I am mentioned in the acknowledgements of this book.

POMEGRANATE SEEDS. LATIN AMERICAN JEWISH TALES is unique and amazing in its scope and depth, uncovering and recovering lost fragments of Latin America's Jewish culture's stories which have almost been forgotten. Taking tiny pomegranate seeds of tales she lovingly gathered in person all over Latin America, and adding tales from the Israel Folktale Archives in Israel, Nadia recreates a whole richly tapestried world. As she states in her introduction,
"I was touched by the generosity with which most of the people opened their hearts to me and shared their memories, anecdotes, and life experiences. I have retold the stories--that at times were only fragments, scraps of real incidents mingled with perhaps some fantasy, or sketchy and detached-- creating a background when necessary so that the tales come to life as distinct entities."
Nadia knows this world. Her family had escaped from Europe to Ecuador during WWII. Nadia speaks fluent Spanish. She is immersed in Jewish folk tales, history, and cultures. She is a consummate researcher, which is also abundantly evident from her beautiful and meaningful first book JEWISH TALES FROM EASTERN EUROPE. And most of all, she is a deep story listener. Upon hearing the stories firsthand, she has woven these story fragments into full evocations of various times and places, people and circumstances.
From this point, Nadia adds a magical ingredient that sets her work above and beyond: her fine, melodic, poetic writing. Her words are at once incisive and evocative; they draw us into the scene, the world, and the spirit of each particular tale.
Take this example: the fanciful beginning of "Icarus the Frog" (from a Brazilian tale from the Israel Folktale Archives in Haifa)
"In the old days when animals were still able to talk, Rana Icarus the frog, looked different from the way she appears today. She was round and fat and,
although small and not very prominent among the other creatures, was pleased
with herself and proud of her intense green coloring...."
Nadia has drawn broadly to gather and retell these tales from many Latin and Caribbean countries. The stories are from Sephardic, Oriental, and Ashkenazic sources, family stories, history, folk tales, personal tales, immigration stories, and more. The reflect the diverse cultural range of this area's relatively small and proud Jewish populations.
Each story is one seed, one piece of the Jewish Latin puzzle, as she says. One of the most intriguing stories is a misty childhood immigration memory from Argentina via Warsaw, "Sea Monsters". Before relating the immigration story, Nadia leaps forward to tell of us of a future time:
"...Years later, when Malvina had already lived in Buenos Aires for a long time, she could never forget Warsaw, the way it used to be, and neither did all the other Polish Jews there who felt the same attachment and had many memories
of the old country."
In the middle of a seemingly realistic family immigration tale, this fantastic image develops, reflecting perhaps the monstrous situation that was growing for the Jews in Europe:
"Looking at the blue, placid surface of the ocean, she should have known that the monsters were figments of her imagination created by the difficulties of her
voyage, yet in her heart she believed they did exist.... Somewhere far down, in the
remote depths of the seas, those mythical creatures were not extinct but in search
of victims, and she had been fortunate enough to escape that ordeal."
This is a book that shines with a brilliance of poetry and purpose, bringing honor to those whose tales have been shared in its pages. It is a treasure for those of Latin descent, lovers of folk tales and folklore, for Klal Israel (all Jews), and for anyone who loves story. Nadia has brought these tales and this many-faceted culture to life for us, to share and learn and retell..... and to remember. Her accomplishment in this important volume is summed up in one of her stories: the ending of "Albertito" (from Buenos Aires):
"Zaideh died at the age of seventy,and his family has missed him terribly since then.His "Albertito Tales"--and there were many of them-- live on, though, and will be told and retold from one generation to another. He might even be listening to the new renditions, assuming, of course, that he is not too busy playing soccer in the heavenly fields, chasing two stubborn cows that will not stay in one place and wait patiently till the game is ended."
May we all listen, read, and remember generation to generation. And may we soon have more tales retold by Nadia Grosser Nagarajan.

Excellent collection of pieces from obscure writers and celebrated Czech authors. The book is divided into sections for each part of the city (Old Town, Mala Strana, etc.). I've lived in Prague before and it was so much fun following each author around the city again. I recommend this book for anyone enchanted by the idea of Prague or for those who miss it and want to spend some time there with a bunch of amazing tour guides.

As we prepared for our trip to Prague, I ordered this book from Amazon.com but didn't get a chance to read until we actually got there. What a treasure! Each piece made some landmark or moment of history come more vividly alive than any of the standard guidebooks could possibly provide. The division of the book into corresponding areas of the city was a great idea.I always look to literature to gain insight into travel destinations. No single book has ever done a better job than this one.

This is a good old fashioned adventure story-- right along with lines of "King Soloman's Mines", "Allen Quartermain", "Beau Gests", "The Sea-Hawks","She", "Scaramouche","The Scarlet Pimpernel", etc.

"Prester John" is based on a character/myth of the same name. Thoughout the Middle Ages it was rumored that a priest named "Prester (Father) John" had traveled to Africa to convert the natives. But instead emassed a huge fortune and made himself king of this mysterous part of Africa. So as you can expect this story is full of lost civilizations, hidden treasures, deepest-darkest Africa, great friendship and ruthless betrayal, explorers of spooky places, tigers and lions, witch doctors, and just plan good old fashioned late-victoria adventures. And despite it being written 100 or so years ago, it is still very,very readable.

So if you just want 100% escapism, or to introduce a child to the joys (and excitement) of reading, you can't go wrong with this story...esp. at this price!

This novel, set more than a century ago in backwater South Africa, is the great grandfather of today's thrillers. Buchan, who perfected the form in "The 39 Steps" some years later, gives his young hero plenty to do in sussing out and confronting a massive uprising by tribesmen who wish to slaughter all the white settlers for a hundred miles around. The writing is smooth and the situations are generally believable, though modern readers will have to forgive Buchan for some racist sentiments completely common at the time. Both black and white characters are compellingly and sympathetically drawn, though, so there's no reason to apologize for the book. Read it and be taken back to another time and another place, and imagine how Hollywood would produce this today-- it feels totally contemporary in terms of its "Indiana Jones" adventure plot. Enjoy! (Note: This book is available in its entirety online.)

This book is definitely a MUST for those studying the Puerto Rican diaspora, the Puerto Rican socio-political condition in the US and the economical condition of many Puerto Ricans who have been living in the US for decades. It explains in a balanced and fair way how and why Puerto Ricans have been moving to the US since the 1940's and why they ended up settling in certain parts of the US. I highly recommend it because it clearly shows the effects of US colonialism/imperialism on the economy of Puerto Rico as well as the economic situation of Puerto Ricans residing in the US.

Two thumbs up!

An outstanding collection of stories covering an incredible spectrum of
Boricua life throughout the Continent bolstered by no nonsense research.
A must for every boricua writer, student, or researcher. Kudos to Carmen
Whalen.

Pedro Pietri passed away on a cloud...literally. He was on a flight over Texas when he died. I'm sure that was how he wanted it. He was not born in the U.S. and so he did not die on the U.S. He passed on in mid-flight as if born to the clouds. OBITUARIOS is a truly great Poem. To call it a Poem does not really do it justice. It is an epitaph, an homage to the postwar migration of thousands of Puerto Rican Nationals who believed in the American Dream. This little book needs to be read. It not only represents the ideologies defining the Nuyorican experience, but it also continues the tradition begun by Beat poet greats such as Kerouac and Ginsberg. Pedro called himself El Reverendo de La Iglesia De La Madre De Los Tomates (Reverend of the Church of the Mother of the Tomatoes). I never quite understood what he meant, but I guess that he was poking fun at himself. Although Pedro's poetry was filled with humor, it was also full of the dark frustration that defined the Puerto Rican experience living in New York City. Some of his prose can sound preachy, but always full of hope and crystal clear realism. It is irony that permeates the larger part of his poetry, and where there is humor it was always as a mask to cover the tears of the unfulfilled dreams of each and every individual who felt he had no voice. I think Pedro fulfilled his dreams, in spite of himself. He has given us a symbol of Truth, and Perserverence in the form of his Art. I believe that one day soon we will see a School or a University, or a Library with EL REVERENDOs name at the top of it. It's the least they could do. In the meantime would someone PLEASE publish a new edition of this important book so that the rest of us can learn from the words of one of our greatest American Poets. We Love You, Pedro...

THIS BOOK WAS EXTREMELLY DELIGHTFUL, ENJOYABLE, FUNNY OH MY GOODNESS FUNNY, OUTSTANDING POETRY.
PEDRO HAD ME IN AWE, WITH HIS MIND AND THE ABILITY TO PUT ALL THIS IN A BOOK.
IT WAS SO FASCINATING TO READ OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
I KNOW THIS BOOK IS OUT-OF PRINT BUT TRY TO RENT IN A LIBRARY, U WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.
PEDRO PIETRI IS AND OUTSTANDING AUTHOR, POET, COMEDIAN, WRITER AND MOST OF ALL HUMAN BEING.

Press and Reviews for Puerto Rico 1898

In this book, Fernando Pico not only analyzes the nature of the violence that :
erupted in rural Puerto Rico following the island's invasion by the United States on July 25, 1898, but also calls into question the interpretations of earlier scholars.
Pico's much.moreexhaustive study provides new evidence with which to revise those interpretations. He demonstrates.,that, for several months after the U.S. invasion, workers and peasant farmers of the interior of Puerto Rico attacked first the businesses and haciendas of the Spaniards and later those of the local Creoles.
Pico argues that the groups involved, known in Puerto Rico's history as "par-tidas sediciosas," were neither solely in favor of annexation to the United States, as Mariano Negron-Portillo (1987) contends, nor merely anti-Spanish groups seek-ing independence for Puerto Rico, as Juan Manuel Delgado has suggested (1980). Although Pico found evidence that groups of Creoles, primarily from the urban areas and from the "better" families of the island, cooperated with the U.S. troops, lie rejects tlie notion that the pai~tidns can be dismissed as proannexationist. He is quick to point out that he found evidence that some Creole groups also cooperated with the Spaniards during the early stages of the Spanish-American conflict. Having studied the social and economic development of rural Puerto Rico for most of the nineteenth century, Pico offers the view that tlie partidas "constituted a vigorous popular reaction against the old order and a desire to settle old scores with the members of the system they were rejecting" (p. 201).
Pico's contribution rests in his ability to analyze the violent conflict in light of the deteriorating economic conditions of the 1980s and -the anarchy that resulted from the U.S. invasion. He explains that, in the rural economy of Puerto Rico, neither the workers nor the peasant farmers could escape the exploitation of the wealthier rural classes. This exploitation kept them in debt, paid them starvation wages, and often deprived them of their plots of land. Thus, he finds nothing un-usual about the fact that the poorer classes should revolt against their oppressors. That such attacks against the local property owners lasted at all is an indication that U.S. troops were willing to tolerate outbreaks so long as they served U.S. purposes. As Pico points out, once the U.S. forces took possession of the island they set up military garrisons in the troubled areas and arrested and imprisoned the partidas leaders.
In this as in his earlier works, Pico, following the method of the Annales school, has reconstructed a period of Puerto Rico's history in splendid fashion. It should be of interest to social historians and students of Puerto Rican, Latin American, and U.S. history.
-Hispanic American Historical Review
Rutgers University, Newark Campus OLCA JIMENEZ WAGENHEIM

Fernando Pico has made fundamental contributions to the history of Puerto Rico, from broad interpretive surveys to fine-grained studies of work, class, and politics in Utuado, a mountainous coffee district that underwent dramatic social and economic changes in the nineteenth century. Puerto Rico 1898 is the translation of a work that first appeared in Spanish in 1987. It is a study of how Puerto Ricans responded to the North American invasion of the island in 1898. Much of the analysis relies on police reports from Utuado. The author also incorporates press reports, novels, and memoirs that address other regions. Pico's study focuses on the armed bands of tiznados (men who blackened their faces with burnt cork) that sprung up during and after the American invasion. These groups carried out acts of rough justice, addressing grievances accumulated in the latter decades of Spanish rule. In the relative political vacuum opened by the imperial transition, the bands robbed and intimidated prominent landowners, many of them Spaniards.
Pico treats the actions of the tiznados as a window onto the tensions within Puerto Rican society in the closing days of Spanish colonialism and the opening of the United States occupation. In his judgment, "After the 1898 invasion, the 'seditious bands' were the broadest and most vigorous expression of popular sentiment as a reaction to the Spanish-American War in Puerto Rico. However, far from being a resistance movement against the invasion, the bands represented the repudiation of the previous economic and social regime, and a settlement of accounts with the most visible representatives of that
regime" (p-123).
Reconstructing the history of the tiznados has other ends, as well. In the author's view, capturing the violence of late-nineteenth-century rural life in Puerto Rico is a way of debunking the nostalgic yearnings for the era of Spanish rule that sometimes crop into Puerto Rican views of the past. As scholars such as Arcadio Diaz-Quinones and Silvia Alvarez Curbelo have shown, for many Puerto Ricans since 1898, the days of the Spanish colony have represented an attractive alternative to the present of North American rule. Pico, however, insists that under the Spanish regime life was brutally hard, especially for workers in the agrarian economy. Many lived on the edge of penury and starvation (pp. 1-10). Besides challenging hispanista nostalgia, Pico highlights the axes of conflict at the end of the nineteenth century. Separatism was not the major source of political opposition, as it was in the other Spanish colony, Cuba; the labor movement was (others might emphasize the Partido Autonomista, founded in 1887). Here, like other Puerto Rican historians such as Astrid Cubano-Iguina and Gervasio Garcia, Pico argues persuasively that the absence of a robust separatist movement did not indicate a harmonious colonial world. The history of the tiznados reveals instead a contentious society, rent by conflicts between Spaniards and criollos, workers, and hacendados: "To remember the bands is, first of all, to reveal the conflictive character of the old economic rule in the mountains. Likewise, it is to acknowledge the fighting capacity of the people of the mountains against those who had dispossessed them by subjecting them to the work regime of the haciendas and the indebtedness to the hacienda stores" (p. 126).
Though Pico focuses on the conflicts brewing under the old regime, he also provides fascinating insights into the early days of the United States occupation. Though penned in 1987, the 2004 translation of Puerto Rico 1898 will strike the reader as uncannily resonant with war and occupation in the twenty-first century. The transition of empires led to a breakdown of social order that allowed the tiznados to flourish. The new occupier began to undo the Spanish colonial state and only slowly replaced it with new institutions: "[D]ifferent regions of the island experienced a political vacuum. The Spanish State, which had, with much difficulty, managed to rule in the farthest and most troublesome areas of the country, was dismantled. The new American political and military apparatus replacing it, however, started off by wielding its power in a hesitant, uneven manner" (p. 43). An example of that hesitancy was the American military's attitude toward the tiznados. Only over time and with much imploring from landowners did the military come to see policing rural areas and maintaining social order as a necessary facet of war and occupation (pp. 60-62).
I recommend this book to several reading publics. For the scholar of the Caribbean and Latin America, Puerto Rico 1898 is a fine example of trends within Puerto Rican social and political history. It is also a concise depiction of one aspect of the transition of empires in 1898. In that sense, it should be of strong interest to historians of Spain, the United States, and other modern colonial regimes. Finally, while closely researched, this excellent translation is easily accessible to the nonspecialist. I myself would eagerly include it in undergraduate classes. Markus Wiener Publishers are to be congratulated for making available this important work, along with other first-rate works in Puerto Rican and Caribbean history.
- Hispanic American Historical Review

"The book is essentially the story of partidas sediciosas, armed groups that terrorized the Puerto Rican countryside in 1898 and 1899. Chiefly active during and after the invasion (July to October 1898), the partidas focused their anger on peninsular Spanish merchants and landowners. The bandits battered or killed their victims, and almost invariably destroyed property... Picó's thoughtful typology of the partidas sheds light on the tensions that undercut Puerto Rican society at the end of the nineteenth century. The author reconstructs, with the help of U.S. military records, previously unexplored aspects of the invasion." -American Historical Review
"In this as in his earlier works, Picó, following the method of the Annales school, has reconstructed a period of Puerto Rico's history in splendid fashion. It should be of interest to social historians and students of Puerto Rican, Latin American, and U.S. History."
-Hispanic American Historical Review
Fernando Picó, University of Puerto Rico, is the leading authority on Puerto Rican history and the author of seven books, including Historia general de Puerto Rico.



Hardcover Info:
ISBN ISBN 1-55876-326-0
200pp
$68.95

Paperback Info:
ISBN ISBN 1-55876-327-9
200pp
$22.95

This a great book on Puerto Rican art. The choice of pieces for this collection is very good. Book is in English and Spanish. Good for reading or leaving on your coffee table.

This book presents in both spanish and english an excellent review of Puertorican art. From the great José Campeche to a contemporary Osiris Delgado, it gives everyone a description of the greatest painters and artists from Puerto Rico.