Nelson A Denis

I am very interested in the history and politics of Puerto Rico, especially the statehood vs independence question, economic development, and relations between business, government, and people in PR. Unfortunately this book was basically written by someone who was both too personally emotionally invested in events, and too hateful toward the USA, to actually provide useful information. There have been some events over the past 120 years or so which are worth learning about, but I’m still left looking for a plausible objective recounting.… (más)

I honestly couldn't get that far in this book before putting it down for good. What did it for me was the author's complaining about the mosquitos: Apparently they are the fault of corporate American agricultural interests in Puerto Rico. (No, he is not claiming they invented the mosquito as some say they did the AIDS virus.) By contrast in Wisconsin they say the mosquito is the state bird. A little humor is necessary to weather the vicissitudes of the life; blaming your neighbor for anything and everything is not.… (más)

This book was an eye opener. If the author hadn't been so credible, and the events so well-documented (including by recently declassified FBI files), I would have found some of them difficult to believe. For example, I didn't know the extent to which US-backed politicians plundered the island for the benefit of large corporations such as Domino Sugar. I didn't know that in 1950, the US actually bombed PR in order to quell an uprising. And I had no idea that the US Supreme Court had ruled that the U.S. Constitution didn't apply in PR, so well into the late 50s and beyond, Puerto Ricans did not have even the basic protections of the Bill of Rights. Even possessing a PR flag was cause for a prison sentence--no wonder we see so many PR flags on the US mainland! The writing style is fairly plain, which makes the events described all the more shocking. 1/2 star deducted because of some repetition/wordiness.… (más)