Colonial Subjects: Puerto Ricans in a Global Perspective

by Ramón Grosfoguel

Colonial Subjects is the first book to use a combination of world-system and postcolonial approaches to compare Puerto Rican migration with Caribbean migration to both the United States and Western Europe. Ramón Grosfoguel provides an alternative reading of the world-system approach to Puerto Rico's history, political economy, and urbanization processes. He offers a comprehensive and well-reasoned framework for understanding the position of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean, the position of Puerto Ricans in the United States, and the position of colonial migrants compared to noncolonial migrants in the world system.

Genres: Latinx, Nonfiction, History

286 pages, Paperback

First published May 5, 2003

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me, Grosfoguel's collection served as an incisive introduction to themes in Puerto Rican history and politics. Its primary focus, reflected in its later chapters, is to compare and contrast Puerto Rico's political economy and migration history to other Caribbean islands and nations, and so to illuminate contemporary colonial and racial dynamics worldwide. The first few chapters were the most interesting to me as a general reader, but I learned something new and worthwhile on nearly every page.

A former colleague from Union mentioned this as his favorite theoretical work on Puerto Rico and important to his dissertation. High praise, but I can see why. Grosfuguel's theoretical setup is precise and flexible, but also uncommonly lucid. When he uses jargon, it is for the best reason-- to hold together a complex and subtle idea in a word or two-- and in the best way-- with both terms and the stakes in their choice clearly defined. Not a text for non-academics, but a model of technical writing nevertheless.