Mainland Passage : The Cultural Anomaly of Puerto Rico

by Soto-Crespo, Ramon E.

• ISBN13: 9780816655878
• ISBN10: 0816655871
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-08-05
• Publisher: Univ of Minnesota Pr

Summary

One-third of the population of Puerto Rico moved to New York City during the mid-twentieth century. Since this massive migration, Puerto Rican literature and culture have grappled with an essential change in self-perception.Mainland Passageexamines the history of that transformation, the political struggle over its representation, and the ways it has been imagined in Puerto Rico and in the work of Latina/o fiction writers. Ramoacute;n E. Soto-Crespo argues that the most significant consequence of this migration is the creation of a cultural and political borderland state. He intervenes in the Puerto Rico status debate to show that the two most discussed options-Puerto Ricors"s becoming either a fully federated state of the United States or an independent nation-represent false alternatives, and he forcefully reasons that Puerto Rico should be recognized as an anomalous political entity that does not conform to categories of political belonging. Investigating a fundamental shift in the way Puerto Rican writers, politicians, and scholars have imagined their cultural identity,Mainland Passagedemonstrates that Puerto Ricors"s commonwealth status exemplifies a counterhegemonic logic and introduces a vital new approach to understanding Puerto Rican culture and history.

Author Biography

Ramón Soto-Crespo is associate professor and director of Latina/o studies at SUNY–Buffalo.