Memoirs of Bernardo Vega

by Cesar A. Iglesias

When Bernardo Vega arrived in New York from Puerto Rico in 1916, he was at the forefront of a migrant stream that was soon to become a flood. His memoirs—perceptive, lively, and politically aware—provide us with a unique and often humorous firsthand account of the life of an immigrant, as well as of the concerns and activities of the Puerto Rican community in New York in the period between the wars. A true worker-intellectual, a cigar-maker by trade, Bernardo Vega tells about the difficulties faced by the new immigrants, about their growing involvement in political parties, labor organizations, and socialist movements, and about their vibrant cultural life. He includes the recollections of his uncle, which offer a rare glimpse of Puerto Rican life in New York in the late nineteenth century, during the Cuban and Puerto Rican wars of independence against Spain. Thus the memoirs are not only absorbing reading, but an important contribution to the history of the Puerto Rican community in New York, and to the literature on immigration, ethnic relations, and urban history.

Genres: Latinx, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1984

Reviews

[Fabianna Himet · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book I hold close to my heart. Although Vega is, at times, achingly reflective of his time, I'll focus my review on the merit of his documentary style as part of the Puerto Rican diaspora.

Vega’s Memoirs, written in New York between two world wars (1916-1947), helped chronicle the beginning of many migratory waves of Puerto Ricans to the U.S. Vega worked as a tabaquero (cigar maker) and thus formed part of the Tobacco factory reading traditions. While rolling cigars, a lector would read the newspaper aloud during the morning and classical literary works in the afternoons. This practice played a crucial role in forging the tabaqueros' intellectual caliber and allowed them a deliberate involvement in labor organizations (it’s undoubtedly so, one of my favorite parts of the book.)

Meanwhile on the island of Puerto Rico, figures like Albizu Campos would echo the autodidact tradition. Statements like "es deber de cada boricua ser la persona más culta porque las pequeñas nacionalidades se basan en la grandeza de cada individuo," exemplify the weighted sense of responsibility allotted to each person and the role of education as both a guide to freedom and an act of resistance.

Luis Rafael Sánchez's literary works, in particular,La Guagua Aerea have gone a long way to suggest new paradigms of national belonging for Puerto Ricans living on the island and those living in the states. But the accounts of discrimination, marginalization, poverty, and struggle bring other levels of national identity to be examined that people who remained on the island cannot account for in the same way.

The increasing sociopolitical awakening experienced by the Puerto Rican diaspora during the first half of the 20th century would influence a more receptive decade. In the U.S., social demonstrations increased and strengthened with the ’60s civil rights movements, anticipating the Nuyorican movement. Not included in the book but relevant to further navigate the themes of dissonance and blurred lines of our Puerto Rican identity are the later works of Jesús Colón, Piri Thomas, and Carmen Teresa Whalen (to name a few).

The Puerto Rican population surpasses the island's borders. While this is an accepted reality due to past demographic profile studies (see past census bureau reports), the authenticity of the Puerto Rican nationality of those who left is often questioned. Our understanding of how to define the Puerto Rican identity can become acutely two-dimensional when distilled into just one component, such as birthplace. We casually assign exclusionist and unrealistic requirements in order to "qualify" as a legitimate Puerto Rican, ignoring the effects of our relationship with the U.S. When a stranger’s "I'm Puerto Rican" is met with our reflex-like, "Do you speak Spanish?" we should question the weight we are assigning to language alone as the most integral determinant of our puertorriqueñidad.

I hope this book brings an all-embracing recognition of the Puerto Rican diaspora as an integral part of our complex Puerto Rican identity—with all its subtleties. So that when we sing those familiar words written by the poet Juan Antonio Corretjer, “yo sería Borincano aunque naciera en la luna,” we not only rejoice in rhyme reciting the melody, but that we also truly mean them.

[Rafael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read—understanding of course that some of Bernardo's views stand in contrast with our own more enlightened zeitgeist. For instance, while he aderntly championed Luisa Capetillo, a highly regarded labor leader and anarchist as well as an openly gay woman and militant feminist, he had a (dare I say) an embarrassing view of gay people overall—
not uncommon for his times. Again, in that sense, he was very much a man of his time while at the same time seems to have had the wherewithal to foresee the necessity to document the history of the growth of the Puerto Rican community in the US (primarily in NYC) from a radical left perspective. In the final analysis, his passion and honesty are both courageous and, in hind site, prophetic. I highly recommend it for all interested in the study of Puerto Rican migration and political thought.

[Drew Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A little dry and overwhelming at times. I skimmed some sections/chapters. But overall this is a vital work--both a vital memoir and history of Puerto Ricans in New York from the late 1800s up until the late 1940s.

[Arthur Bernardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is a good description of the hardships that Puerto Ricians experienced in New York and Puerto Rico during the last century. Unfortunately, Puerto Rico is planing on removing entombed Puerto Rician patriots and dumping them in a mass grave. Bernardo Vega was instrumental in the development of the Puerto Rician constitution and should be considered a hero to the Puerto Ricain People.


Bernardo Vega

Author profile


born

Puerto Rico


gender

male


genre

Biographies & Memoirs

About this author

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Date of Birth: 1885
Date of Death: 1965

Cigar maker and writer. Bernardo Vega was born in Farallón near Cayey, Puerto Rico, and died in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He is best known for his work Memoirs of Bernardo Vega (1977). The title is quite misleading as it is not a memoir of Vega's life; rather it is a memoir of Puerto Rican life in New York between the late 1800s and the 1940s from the viewpoint of a socialist cigar maker. Vega had many occupations throughout his life, including bookkeeper, postal worker, and editor in chief. But the occupation that defined Vega and the one he returned to throughout his life was cigar maker. He picked up this trade as a young boy and took immense pride in it. As a cigar maker, he was considered part of the intellectual sector of the working class because cigar makers often had someone read to them as they worked.

[Beaver · Rating 4 out of 5]

gives an excellent introduction to the history of Puerto Ricans in New York, Nurico, and race in labor movements.