Recommended Books

General

Babin, Theresa Maria. The Puerto Ricans' Spirit: Their History, Life, and Culture. This book offers good background information on the island's history and its people, along with a survey of its fine arts and literature.

Garver, Susan, and Paula McGuire. Coming to North America. This book explores the subject of the massive migration from Puerto Rico to America, where immigrants settled mainly in New York.

Gonzáles, José Luís. Puerto Rico: The Four Storeyed Country. A collection of essays examines Puerto Rican society, culture, and national identity; it assumes that you already know a lot about the island.

Gordon, Raoul. Puerto Rican Culture: An Introduction. Gordon provides an in-depth study of this subject for those interested in understanding the art and traditions of the island.

Hanberg, Clifford A. Puerto Rico and the Puerto Ricans. It offers a broad-based look at the history and background of Puerto Rico.

Santiago, Esmeralda. When I Was Puerto Rican. The president of a film company describes her childhood as 1 of 11 Puerto Rican siblings, born into poverty. From the island countryside to the crime-ridden streets of Brooklyn, Santiago's memoir is rich in the ambience of Puerto Rican life.

Steiner, Stan. The Islands. This is a journalistic portrayal of the island people, both within Puerto Rico itself and in North American barrios, such as those of the South Bronx.

History

Carrion, Artura Morales. Puerto Rico: A Political and Cultural History. This is one of the best major overviews of Puerto Rican history and culture. Most of the book focuses on the political history of the island, with extensive chapters devoted to 18th-century society, the plantation society, and the challenge to Spanish colonialism. Part II traces the conflicts, hopes, and trauma that followed the U.S. takeover of the island in 1898. The final section provides a good cultural survey of Puerto Rico, covering folklore, literature, music, and art.

Dor-Ner, Zvi, and William G. Scheller. Columbus and the Age of Discovery. This companion book to the PBS series about the explorer is a good general survey of what is known about the voyages of Columbus.

Golding, Morton. A Short History of Puerto Rico. This book suits those who want their history readable and condensed.

Honychurch, Reginald. The Caribbean People. In three volumes, this is a well-balanced account written by one of the so-called new historians of the Caribbean.

Scarano, Francisco A. Sugar and Slavery in Puerto Rico: The Plantation Economy of Ponce, 1800-1850. Scarano produces a scholarly study of an agrarian region of Puerto Rico far removed from the Spanish-controlled capital of San Juan.

Wagenheim, Kal, and Olga Jimenez, eds. The Puerto Ricans: A Documentary History. This sourcebook offers a better understanding of Puerto Ricans. Its fast-paced rhythm makes it engrossing, if prejudicial, reading.

Williams, Eric. From Columbus to Castro: The History of the Caribbean. The former prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago takes you on a grand tour of a region dominated by slavery, sugar, and often sheer greed.

Politics

Carr, Ramon. Puerto Rico: A Colonial Experiment. Carr offers one of the most insightful views of island politics, which has been called the national religion of Puerto Rico. This book, funded by the Twentieth Century Fund (established in 1919 by philanthropist Edward A. Filene), discusses ways to loosen the economic bonds between a superpower and what is today a quasi-colonial possession.

Johnson, Roberta. Puerto Rico: Commonwealth or Colony? This book attempts to answer the title's provocative question.

Melendez, Edgardo. Puerto Rico's Statehood Movement. Melendez reviews the statehood movement, presenting the pros and cons of a complicated issue.

Perl, Lila. Puerto Rico, Island Between Two Worlds. This book describes the dilemma of an island caught between its Spanish heritage and its contemporary American ties.

Perusse, Roland I. The United States and Puerto Rico: Breaking the Bonds of Economic Colonialism. This book traces the history of trade relations in Puerto Rico, the second-largest Western trading partner of the United States, after Canada. It is a cultural and economic survey with a strongly politicized point of view.

Williams, Byron. Puerto Rico: Commonwealth, State, or Nation? This book offers a pointed discussion of the major Puerto Rican self-determination movements.

Fiction

Baldwin, James. If Beale Street Could Talk. This is an acclaimed work by the famed novelist. The setting of this story ranges from the streets of New York to Puerto Rico.

Coll y Toste, Cayetano. Puerto Rican Tales, Legends of Spanish Colonial Times. Translated and adapted by José Ramírez Rivera. A highly readable collection of 12 Caribbean vignettes provides an insight into the life of the Spanish conquistadors, the Taíno peoples, and the African slaves, in rich juxtaposition one to another. Dr. Ramírez Rivera, a medical academic, translated into English these original stories collected by Coll y Toste; originally published in the 1920s, they are tales of adventure, romance, religion and superstition, and history.

Michener, James A. Caribbean. This is a good epic from the master. His sweep of the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico, begins with the 1310 conquest of the peaceful Arawaks by the cannibalistic Caribs and proceeds through 7 centuries to Castro's Cuba. Perhaps it's a lot to cover in one book, but Michener has a way of recapturing the past that his many imitators don't.

Language

Del Rosario, Ruben. Vocabulario Puertorriqueño. This is the first major compilation of the Puerto Rican vocabulary.

Literature

Babin, Theresa Maria. Borinquén: An Anthology of Puerto Rican Literature. This is a pioneering work and the best survey of several generations of island writing.