Puerto Rico: A National History

by Jorell Meléndez-Badillo

A panoramic history of Puerto Rico from pre-Columbian times to todayPuerto Rico is a Spanish-speaking territory of the United States with a history shaped by conquest and resistance. For centuries, Puerto Ricans have crafted and negotiated complex ideas about nationhood. Jorell Meléndez-Badillo provides a new history of Puerto Rico that gives voice to the archipelago’s people while offering a lens through which to understand the political, economic, and social challenges confronting them today.In this masterful work of scholarship, Meléndez-Badillo sheds light on the vibrant cultures of the archipelago in the centuries before the arrival of Columbus and captures the full sweep of Puerto Rico’s turbulent history in the centuries that followed, from the first indigenous insurrection against colonial rule in 1511—led by the powerful chieftain Agüeybaná II—to the establishment of the Commonwealth in 1952. He deftly portrays the contemporary period and the intertwined though unequal histories of the archipelago and the continental United States.Puerto Rico is an engaging, sometimes personal, and consistently surprising history of colonialism, revolt, and the creation of a national identity, offering new perspectives not only on Puerto Rico and the Caribbean but on the United States and the Atlantic world more broadly.Available in Spanish from our partners at Grupo Planeta

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Latinx, Audiobook, Latin American History, Travel

303 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 2, 2024

Reviews

[Roberto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably one of the best history books I have ever read. A narrative from beginning to end, Taino to COVID-19 and Ricky Rosselló. Badillo is an amazing author and I hope he continues to write more and more books about Puerto Rico. I very much appreciated his own perspective as a member of the diaspora who travels between the U.S and PR rather frequently. My dad just told me last night that my bisabuela was born in Puerto Rico in 1907 and traveled to New York City to never return to Puerto Rico in 1937. My grandmother, born four years later, did not speak Spanish until she was well into her 40s. Why do I mention this? Because I began reading this book for two primary reasons: the first being guilt. As a Puerto Rican I must admit I knew next to nothing about Puerto Rico’s history, its people, its ethnic makeup, or its intense and varying political problems. The second: to learn and understand the history of a nation and my people through a dialectical lens. The parallels between the colonial powers of Spain and the United States are compelling, and Badillo even details this comparison at the end of the book. Puerto Rico, an island plundered, an island neglected has the strength of its people behind it. In many parts, the book made me tear up about the horrors the United States has inflicted upon it. Puerto Rico is a key example of a victim of colonial terror and the subsequent managerial class and upper strata that followed the creation of the commonwealth in 1952 (we see similarities in post-Oslo Accords Palestine). Yet these various methods used to crush our people have failed. Through assassinations, state violence and surveillance, and decapitation of revolutionary movements, the Puerto Rican people remain standing. Even while their backs are against the wall they remain steadfast in their discipline and in their culture. A primary example of this is Puerto Rico’s longstanding history of resistance and revolutionary fervor. From 1500-2020 Puerto Ricans have always resisted their colonial rulers. Strikes on campuses, occupations of buildings, militant protest against police violence, and varying mutual aid organizations have proven time and time again that Borinqueños will not be pushed around. Lastly, I will highlight how much capitalism and colonialism have affected Puerto Rican society and its economy. Puerto Rico is effectively a tax haven for the wealthy, many of which enjoy very generous tax exemptions and large scale properties that should be reserved for Puerto Ricans themselves. The Governor of Puerto Rico, no matter who is in charge, has always conspired with the wealthy business interests sucking Puerto Rico dry. This has left Puerto Ricans destitute and in very desperate need due to austerity measures and government cuts in order to make do for the many economic crises they endure (fabricated by their irresponsible and corrupt government). Now the capitalists are attempting to create a Puerto Rico without Puerto Ricans, a concept that the Rosselló administration very much desired. To the capitalists, the complete takeover of the island through privatization, disgusting touristic tactics, and more recently, Blockchain finance, are all desirable measures to take in order to wrestle away the archipelago from the people who have cultivated the land and sustained the lifestyle. This is a sad reality, but I have hope for the future of Puerto Rico. This book made me angry and upset at how neglected Boricua are by their colonial puppeteers, but also hopeful. The devastating effects of Hurricane Maria on PR’s infrastructure and the response to the Rosselló administration prove that Puerto Ricans can go it alone, they do not need America. They are their own people, their own island, their own nation. Their organizational skills, quick decision making, and fervor to resist all prove these things time and time again, these are not isolated events. Yo sé que un día Puerto Rico será libre 🇵🇷

[poetic interludes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a crucial book to understand the history of Puerto Rico: a history filled with resistance, colonialism, and tragedy. The author brilliantly analyzes the indigenous history of the island going into great detail on the indigenous forms of government, social norms, and practices predating colonization. He then goes on to explain the Spanish colonization of the island, and the subsequent Spanish-American War which led to the U.S. colonizing the island.

This is the perfect book if you want to learn about Puerto Rico, as Meléndez-Badillo’s writing is very accessible. Puerto Rican history is so interesting and tragic. This small island has been the subject of brutal colonial violence. However, alongside that is centuries of fierce resistance against Western imperialism, colonialism, and domination. Goes to show that all anti-colonial struggles are interconnected and share many similarities. I can see Palestine, Cuba, and Artsakh in Puerto Rico's history. I hope to see an independent Puerto Rico one day, free from the shackles of Western imperialism.

[Donosti · Rating 2 out of 5]

¿Realmente este libro cambiará tu perspectiva sobre la isla de Puerto Rico y su gente? Es posible que mi reseña no agrade a muchos, pero como historiador puertorriqueño y filólogo me veo en la obligación de comentar algunos puntos. Desde la primera página, el libro está acompañado de más de una docena de errores ortográficos y tipográficos (sin contar la sintaxis y la semántica) que impiden una concentración plena en la lectura. No es un libro autopublicado, es un libro que tiene el sello de editorial Planeta y Princeton University Press, entiendo que una edición y corrección más detallada no es opcional, es mandataria.

No obstante, hay varios puntos positivos que tengo que reconocer y felicitar como la referencia a los cinco siglos de historia y la mención de mucha de nuestra literatura nativa y el rol que desempeñó la misma en nuestra formación como pueblo. El autor hace una muy buena distinción entre lo caribeño y latinoamericano, reflexionando en como el racismo estadounidense y español hacia nosotros, fue lo que nos unió como latinoamericanos.

De otra parte, se mencionan sucesos que usualmente son silenciados por los libros clásicos de historia como la existencia de una explotación sexual en la conquista española, la posibilidad de que los taínos practicaran los sacrificios humanos, los taínos también fueron marcados como el "karimbo" en los esclavos africanos y un punto destacable es que el autor aboga por un turismo sostenible para Puerto Rico.

Pese a lo bueno que menciono hay una constante visión con los valores presente que juzga y evalúa la historia de hace cinco siglos y hace al autor, en cierta medida, resbalar en seco. Por ejemplo hablar de la zona geográfica como una periferia para los hechos históricos de 1500, es totalmente incorrecto cuando en la atmósfera terrestre no había visos de la teoría de la dependencia. En ese mismo terreno, se utilizan las interpretaciones actuales de socialismo y feminismo para concluir que los taínos eran una sociedad avanzada porque tenían clases sociales y feministas porque tenían un sistema de sucesión matrilineal. El entre líneas entonces, es que nuestros "amados y pacíficos taínos" también conocían y hacían uso del tan de moda llamado "privilegio".

Sin embargo, los puntos negativos que más destacó son la constante alusión a contar la historia como un chisme, este estilo atrapa mucho en redes sociales, pero a nivel académico no es apto. Es un libro que va dirigido a un mercado puertorriqueño y estadounidense, por lo que usar el sistema métrico no sería propio. La constante alusión a Puerto Rico como "el archipiélago" llega a ser agotador, pero aún así el momento crucial, desde mi perspectiva, es el intento de comparar el dolor y el sufrimiento de la diáspora con el de los locales.

El libro pretende validar la teoría de que no existe un solo Puerto Rico, sino varios y que todos los puertorriqueños de la diáspora forman parte de la nación puertorriqueña, como teoría es completamente válido, pero mencionar y proponer que "Puerto Rico existe como nación sin un territorio fijo" a mí me suena un poco al discurso sionista de Israel y en eso sí que no puedo estar para nada de acuerdo.

[Özge · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this the week I stayed at my abuela’s house in southern Puerto Rico for the first time in probably a decade.

My Puerto Rican identity has always been a huge spot of disappointment and depression for me, a reminder of my mom’s ravaging mental illness and culturally self-hating rhetoric she raised me on. She spent the past thirty years aligning herself with whiteness at the expense of her family’s lived experiences with racism and love for our culture, she created a schism in her family that made us feel so disconnected from each other when I visit because I don’t understand much about what makes our family us except for the food or music, or much about them. She didn’t teach me Spanish then complains that I can’t speak Spanish. I’ve never truly felt apart of the community, felt like an imposter. I don’t think I’m accepted as Puerto Rican by other Boricuas for these reasons. But I've made it my mission to learn and I have been.

This read was cathartic for me, a reaffirmation that many Puerto Ricos coexist, because of the diasporic nature of our nation, we are always on the move, seemingly not allowed to be in Puerto Rico, creating and recreating our identity as a result of government policies of forced migration to the East Coast and other places in the USA.

We are resilient, because we have to be, because our colonial state persists, because what once were public government services (electricity grid, education, almost anything you can think of) becomes privatized, because the US media and president makes a public mockery and lack of response to our suffering during natural disasters like Hurricane Maria, because the modern day rich colonizers from the mainland persist in their pursuits of privatizing our island for their financial gain, because for sixty fucking years US Navy used Vieques for bombing target practice, excessively polluting the air and ground for the local people, leaving them suffering from abnormally high cancer rates, because the politicians running Puerto Rico are puppets of the USA’s colonial project and corrupt to the bone, operating for personal gain at the expense of their people. Resilience is not a choice, but it is exhausting.

And growing up, I knew about the state of Puerto Rico and how the USA fucked up our beautiful people and island so much, but I didn’t feel pride.

Because of the racist narrative, created by official USA government officials, that Puerto Ricans are stupid, poor, violent, leeches of USA resources (even though they choose and keep legally affirming Puerto Rico’s colonial status to this day), that we are a “floating pile of garbage,” — it is because of this narrative that people like my mom feel some weird, obsessive desire to align themselves closer to whiteness, to hate who they are and who they come from, and help the USA in their project of erasing of our colorful, caring culture. It is government policies of colonization THAT CONTINUES TO THIS VERY SECOND and narratives constructed out of racism that leads to people like me to grow up wondering who they are, who their family is, and why they were kept isolated from it all.

And of course that’s not the worst consequence of our history at all, it can even be considered inconsequential at a societal scale (material conditions trump personal identity), but it’s what personally struck me as I read this amazing telling of our history.

Reading this is helping me feel proud to be a Boricua, for all the ways we've been defiant in the face of injustice, in the face of straight up bullshit, all the hurricanes my family survived, and neglect, it inspires me as I remember, it is this resilience that allows me to exist today.

I wish Americans would read this before abusing the island on their next vacation.

[Michael Maurer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-researched book with an extremely left-leaning agenda, which makes it feel more like a personal history than a national history. The author constantly refers to police violence as “state-sponsored terrorism” but describes the violent acts of radical independent groups with a much lighter tone. I struggled with this book because it is neither an objective take on Puerto Rican history nor a fully subjective take on the author’s areas of interest and viewpoints.

Because of this I am left somewhere in the middle, wishing I could’ve read a book which is either more historically dense or a fully transparent, subjective take on where Puerto Rico has been and where it is going (according to the author). It’s easy to point fingers as to why Puerto Rico is in its current situation, but what’s the solution?

It’s dangerous to blame “the outsider” as the problem and to imply that to be fully free, Puerto Rico must rid itself of them amongst others. The irony of the author calling out “capitalists” as one the groups that must leave (in a book I have purchased to read) isn’t lost on me.

(I am part of the Puerto Rican diaspora)

[Daniel Lobo-Lewis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reads a bit like a college leftist’s essay

[bird]

usefully comprehensive. i sometimes found it frustratingly written in that it kept overly explaining the same things again and again-- like saying every single time it described a spanish or us racist policy "this was based on racist and xenophobic beliefs" yes! thank you! i think it's become pretty common including in nonfiction not to have a lot of trust in the reader to remember or connect their own dots, but still. i also wish there was more analysis drawing out from individual cases or stories we DO know of things that COULD have been happening in an undocumented manner or what it tells us about the time-- instead we get repeatedly "of course there were likely many subtle and undocumented forms of rebellion" which is just like, what is this. it is a nothing sentence.

[nini · Rating 5 out of 5]

the way we all cry with guilt from the outside i think it’s also in the way we will talk about the situation from over here you can hear it in how we talk how my grandma is so thankful it’s not any of her family that’s so cruel she is alone in all of that
— colonial neglect. privatization and corruption plague the puerto rican government — actually radicalizing the times are peaking to the worst there’s more of me to get done — todo va venir para atrás ; la luz de alante es la que alumbra 🤎👩🏽‍🌾🕯️

[Dylan Matthews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely a step up from the Denis book, in that I have a basic level of confidence that Meléndez-Badillo has checked his facts and is not just passing along obviously dubious rumors throughout. Attempting a history from the pre-Columbian era through RickyRenuncia is ambitious, and attempting it in 219 pages (sans endnotes) is ambitious bordering on quixotic. The "national" in the title is chosen very deliberately: if this is a history of anything, it's a history of the development of Puerto Rican nationalism, particularly among writers Meléndez-Badillo calls "working-class intellectuals," during the late Spanish and American eras.

These portraits are intriguing and smartly drawn. One wonders, though, if they take up time that could be better spent delving into the development of the economy or social practices (the church, the arts). They also, like the more recent material, betray a typical but also typically blinkered political bent in Meléndez-Badillo's interests. You hear a lot about anarchists and socialists, and relatively less about, for instance, the black writers he mentions briefly who favored American annexation because of their enthusiasm for the American system of government, even in 1898. "America is a beacon of hope and freedom" is obviously not a popular viewpoint in 2024 history academia, but what drove black intellectuals, a generation removed from slavery, to believe it?

That failing becomes more glaring as we get to recent history. He condemns both journalists who portray Puerto Rican victims as "hopeless and in need of saving," and those who by "focusing on resilience ignore the fact that people who had suffered multiple traumas were doing what they needed to survive." So you can't describe residents as either hopeless or as resilient, but a secret third thing. When the 2019 protests change the governor but not government policy, Meléndez-Badillo concludes that the protests did not fail but instead "challenge the fixed binary of success or failure." This is a very funny academic euphemism for "failed."

While a far better historian and writer than Denis, Meléndez-Badillo shares his commitment to Puerto Rican independence, a view that seems to be shared by only a small fraction of the archipelago's residents. My understanding from polling is that statehood is modestly more popular than continuing territorial status, but both are substantially more popular than either full independence or "free association" (the US arrangement with Palau, Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands, conferring some security benefits but not US citizenship to residents). Diasporas with more radical views than residents of the homeland … many such cases! But one thing I hoped to understand from this book is why independence is such a marginal view. So Meléndez-Badillo's decision to simply pretend it isn't was disappointing.

[Marietere T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here comes my review, this was a great book for details and the history of Puerto Rico. Do I feel some things are missing? Yes, but it's hard to give a full idea of what happened and the history.

There were so many details in this that I loved. I loved the sensitivity in some aspects in this, especially when it touched on Hurricane Maria. People that don't live her really don't understand or see how it still to this day affects people. Too many difficult situations that are completely out of our control happened back to back and we'll never know if Puerto Rico will recover. I do believe we can.

Resilience and Resistant has always been a part of that. I mostly want to talk about the new little details that aren't a part of this whole book. For those that don't know a lot of Non-Profit organizations have started to buy the schools that were closed and are now fixing them and helping communities that get no help.

I still might add to this, don't know. I loved it.

[Gerardo Miguel M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este libro es ideal para quien quiera comenzar a conocer de manera breve y precisa la historia de Puerto Rico. Mientras leí, sólo sentía tristeza y coraje; siglos y siglos de abuso en contra de mi isla. Españoles, estadounidenses y hasta los mismos puertorriqueños que nos “gobiernan” sólo han desgarrado el bienestar de la isla para beneficiarse unos pocos.

Con el pasar de los años, iba leyendo cómo las decisiones siempre han ido en contra del puertorriqueño, cómo cada vez les importa menos quienes aún viven ahí. Fomentando de manera directa e indirecta que nos vayamos. Nadie se quiere ir, nadie quiere abandonar donde nació, las diferentes protestas a través de los años así lo demuestran, pero el cansancio es real, también.

En 250 páginas de acontecimientos puertorriqueños, el autor demostró que el sentido común no es tan común.

——

This book is ideal for anyone who wants to begin learning about the history of Puerto Rico in a brief and precise way. As I read, I only felt sadness and anger; centuries upon centuries of abuse against my island. Spaniards, Americans, and even the very Puerto Ricans who “govern” us have only torn apart the well-being of the island for the benefit of a few.

As the years went by, I kept reading how decisions have always gone against Puerto Ricans, how those in power care less and less about those who still live there. They directly and indirectly encourage us to leave. No one wants to leave, no one wants to abandon the place where they were born — the various protests throughout the years prove that — but the exhaustion is real, too.

In 250 pages of Puerto Rican events, the author showed that common sense isn’t all that common.

⚖️: 5/5

[RaspberryRoses · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very dense book - I would have loved to read this in a classroom setting, where I could have gotten the most out of it. Especially in the beginning, when establishing so much history over such a long time.

Not exactly a fault of the book, to be clear. It is a history book. But this is a muscle my brain hasn't had to stretch for a while.

It is hard to grapple with, at times, just how many atrocities this island has had to go through. It's not as if Puerto Rico being a victim of colonialism was *news* to me. But there's a difference between knowing it in the abstract and actually learning the specific instances. And I'm sure there are so many this book couldn't even cover!

Still, it's a story of resillence above all else.

[Daniel Hasegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth a read to better understand the situation of Puerto Rico as a US colony. It’s a tragic story of corruption and disaster but handled with a lot of resistance. But be careful to “not romanticize the struggles that people face by celebrating resilience”.

I didn’t know about the connections with the Spanish labor movements, the anarchists, and the independence fights. The story of Puerto Rico is the story of fighting the imperial powers.

[Lois · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this month's ago.
Definitely I need to read more about PR abd revisit this review.

[Victoria Jacobo · Rating 4 out of 5]

all set for my trip, and ready to see history reveals itself to me in PR!

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps a personal flaw but I had trouble focusing for the first half, it's a very dense book.

Got hooked in the second half as it moved to more modern history and I learned a lot. This should be required reading if you ever plan to visit.

Rating it 3.5 with the last half being a 4

[Hattie O’Hara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Soon I’ll be traveling to Puerto Rico as an American who admittedly has not spent much time learning about the archipelago. I chose this book as my pre-read, and it was exactly the guide I needed through PR history and its relationship to the US.

The author starts with indigenous Taínos and Spanish colonization in the Caribbean, takes us through the centuries of slavery to the 1898 US invasion, all the way to Hurricane Maria and summer 2019 protests, to the nation’s complicated relationship with migration today. Throughout it all, the reader is shown the unique identities found in Puerto Rico and I’ll be a better visitor knowing what I know now.

I’ll say, this book is essentially this brilliant man’s dissertation, which is what I needed to learn this content! But it’s not a book I’d recommend for casual reading without a notable interest in learning about Puerto Rico.

[Randall Harrison · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't know much about Puerto Rico before reading; can't say I know a substantial amount more after reading this book. There is very little about the history until the mid-19th century. Would have liked to have seen more about that, and less about the struggles among the various political parties in the late 20th and early 21st century.

There is lots of information about 20th and 21st century elections, making me think the author - an academic - is a political scientist by trade. No problem with that, just not much in the way of "history" as the title suggests.

The author does a good job of describing the myraid political parties and actors, various interest groups and US federal government policies toward "the archipelago" as he defines the area. What he doesn't do well is explain why things have constantly been in the toilet for the past 100+ years. The description is good, the prescription is thin gruel. You can only blame the government in Washington, DC for PR's problems up to a point. Why hasn't there been a tipping point for residents to alter the status quo if so many of them oppose the elected governments and their policies? Historically, the deck has been stacked but it doesn't seem to be that way in the 21st century if I read things correctly.

Why do such a small minority of eligible e voters bother going to the polls? Why haven't the various parties on the left done a better job of uniting at election time to oust the rightist parties that have controlled PR for many years? If so many parties, NGOs, homemade protest groups, etc., have rallied against the rightists, why do so few of them turn out for elections? Why have they failed to unseat governments elected with only 40-45% of the votes? Why haven't there been more efforts to get this majority who oppose these status quo parties to vote in unison and oust them?

There is extensive commentary on the divisions and differences among the various factions. However, after more than a hundred years, it doesn't appear they have been effective in winning elections and getting rid of those who end up ruling with small pluralities of the electorate. Would have liked to have read why these non-ruling parties can't get their acts together and elect a government and enact legislation to address the poverty, income equality, racial divisiveness, and rent seeking by those who are able to attain, and retain, political power.

Guess my biggest complaint is that the book left more questions unanswered than it answered.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first book ever on PR history and it was absolutely wonderful. I bought it at El Yunques historical center and I couldn’t wait to read it. I rate it 4/5 stars because I got a little confused at times in some of the chronology of events in the chapters but overall the magnitude of history the author shares in under 230 pages is incredible. The chapters are a great size and keep you very engaged. I live in Orlando so diasporic PR is always near me and learning more about the community is something I look forward to always. This gave me so much information to better understand the history and I couldn’t put the book down. Def one to repeat and I will actually go back to summarize the chapters and take notes. I can’t wait to read more on Pr history.

I really liked that the book had a very holistic story telling as well on what was happening in the region and how it impacted PR. We often read history books that just focus on the place without giving international context. As someone that also loves Haitian history I was happy to see its involvement here as many historians look away from Haitian history. In addition to understanding Cubas connection was great. Overall the history with US and seeing the full extent was eye opening. It’s def a reread for me.

[Andrea Beatriz Arango]

Took my time with this one, which I mostly listened to on audio. (Thanks for my copy, @librofm ! Tony Chiroldes did a great job narrating.)

The first half of PUERTO RICO: A NATIONAL HISTORY was a good refresher of my high school history classes, while the second half was the first time I've ever read things I've *lived through* in a nonfiction book. It was wild to remember the protests, laws, and governors referenced in the book as stuff that was actually happening in the backdrop of my teenage, college, and teaching years.

It's also now been 9 years since I left the island, which means the last bit of the book dealt with things I witnessed state-side without actively participating in, aka a whole diasporican experience to read 🙃. (Yes, I still struggle with having left.)

Boricua friends, have you read this one? Are you planning to? Let's chat ⬇️. P.S. It's also available in Spanish! 🥰

[Katie ratherbereadinggg · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars This book should be required reading.

[Nakedfartbarfer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book gives the long colonial history of the island, though, after reading Naomi Klein's Battle for Paradise, I was mostly interested in the last few decades 🇵🇷

One thing that stuck with me (because I feel like I should have realized it earlier) is how the author makes a pretty cogent point about the veneration of individual efforts in the wake of catastrophe (i.e. Hurricane Maria) being a tactic which only normalizes institutional, governmental dereliction of its citizens' protection. After monsoons, wildfires and floods, it's better to publish a few articles exalting some of Mr. Rogers' helper-types and to save those relief funds for public-private "partnerships", strategic crypto reserves, or budget shortfalls brought on by corporate tax exemptions/subsidies. Better for slumlords and private equity to swoop in and buy ruined properties for pennies on the dollar.

Romanticizing the struggles that the working class goes through and for which the government offers no recompense or rectification is just a way of absolving oneself for doing nothing. A broadly recognizable instance that comes to my mind: this year's Super Bowl intro in the French Quarter "honoring" the victims of the Bourbon Street attack. It's like a doctor "honoring" a limb you lost to diabetes by charging your insurance and refusing to prescribe insulin. Pouring a bunch of money into celebrating "resilience" rather than doing anything to prevent the same thing from happening is obviously disgraceful.

Lastly, and it wasn't what this book was about, but reading this thing confirmed my long-held suspicion that Lin Manuel-Miranda comes from a politically well-connected nuyorican family who opened doors for him, given that everything I've ever seen him do is just ludicrous and pretty much indistinguishable from parody. I get activated every time I hear from him, because APART FROM being an envoy welcoming crypto impresarios to Puerto Rico in the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Maria and selling the idea of new-resident tax exemptions (federal, local, passive AND captital gains until 2035) to actual long-suffering taxpayers living in an increasingly privatized libertarian dreamland, the guy is (maybe even more offensively) bad at writing verse 😥

[mippers · Rating 4 out of 5]

audiobook! maybe it was the spanish-language history book challenge if it all but,,, it was a struggle to finish bc i almost always want to be listening to music instead.

the book was good! history book with some personal intertwined, which can be iffy but it wasn’t too much. first half was a lot less interesting For Me Personally, but second half was fascinating / shocking how little i knew about modern//US-colonized puerto rico, and the long history of radical resistance and corruption
once again wish US students were taught,, ANYTHING about the US “territories” in school

[Eden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic and detailed history of Puerto Rico, focused on the past century and a half. The author's work is thoroughly backed by research and cited. Although this was a dense read at times, the author did a great job of trying to distill down key information in a digestible way (I say this as someone rather weak with history/economics). The book gave me a lot to think on, and certainly a renewed outrage at Puerto Rico's colonial status. I would recommend this book to anyone curious about a deeper dive into Puerto Rico's sociopolitical history

[Marc Gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great overview of Puerto Rican history. It sprawls in time from the Taino people through the Covid pandemic. While covering hundreds of years in these few pages means some of the text was a little high over level, I loved this book for what it was. It is definitely a text I will be returning to in the future and will be recommending to anyone interested in boricua history.

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very complete & extensive. Begins before Spain arrived & ends present day as it was published less than a year ago.

[Laura Alderman · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5⭐️

[angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

too cursory an overview for what i was looking for, though i do appreciate the author weaving in some of his family history

[Alejandro Mayoral · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un buen libro para entender la historia de Puerto Rico, se ve que hay mucha investigación detrás. Como punto negativo se me ha hecho muy denso de leer

[Rebecca DuBs · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one goes out to my professor in college who asked “What was that all about?” when I sobbed giving a presentation about Puerto Rico.