Boricuas: Influential Puerto Rican Writings - An Anthology.

• Author: Mujica, Barbara

A varied collection of works by influential nineteenth- and twentieth-century Puerto Rican writers, Boricuas is certain to become a permanent fixture in English-language university courses on Puerto Rican literature and culture. The anthology contains fiction, essays, plays, and poetry - some brilliant, some merely informative - but all authentic expressions of the Puerto Rican experience.

The focus here is on the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States, although the book contains a few tableaux of life on the island. In spite of the wide assortment of selections, certain thematic constants emerge. Prejudice, humiliation, and violence are among them, but so are family, personal and collective resilience, will, faith, friendship, and love. Individual personalities also emerge, for although all these authors deal with some aspect of the Puerto Rican reality, each speaks with his or her own voice.

The selections are divided into six categories: Pride; History and Politics; Identity and Self-Esteem; Anxiety and Assimilation; Urban Reality; and Love, Faith, and Transcendence. These sections are preceded by a prologue, entitled "Catharsis," and an epilogue, entitled "Redemption."

The prologue consists of the poem "Here," by Sandra Maria Esteves, in which the poet, torn between two worlds, expresses the need to recover a sense of her own authenticity. The section entitled "Pride" contains some rather predictable poetry about persecution and rebellion, as well as a 1991 essay by Jose Torres urging young Hispanics not to succumb to low expectations, but to overcome their fear, to lead productive lives, and to achieve. The highlight of "History and Politics" is an intelligent meditation, published in 1993, by Esmeralda Santiago on the plebiscite in which Puerto Ricans were asked to choose between statehood, independence, or the status quo. For Santiago, statehood represents capitulation, while independence is unrealistic, a "lost cause." A vote for the commonwealth is a means of avoiding the issue - not a choice, but a refusal to choose. Also interesting is Jose Luis Gonzalez's piece on Rafael Hernandez's "Lamento Boricano," a song that for decades has enjoyed popularity in Latin America. Gonzalez explains that the song's appeal rests in its ability to express an ideological commitment to freedom on a human and individual level.

"Identity and Self-Esteem" opens with a beautiful poem by Aurora Levins Morales called "Child of the...