Puerto Rico is an invisible nation! This is also noted in the literary field … however, great Puerto Rican authors are writing.
However, their works aren’t printed or taught. Puerto Rican’s are ‘hungry’ for this knowledge. Figure the $$ coming in & this will change!
Puerto Ricans DO read!!
In 1952, Ralph Ellison published his first novel. Hailed as an immediate masterpiece, it won the 1953 National Book Award. The book was called Invisible Man.
Unfortunately, Puerto Rico is an invisible nation. This is most apparent in the near-total absence, of any Puerto Rican works from the US literary “canon.”
We have a poorly-translated Macho Camacho’s Beat, Piri Thomas’s Down These Mean Streets, the Ed Vega novels, a few Piñero plays, Santiago’s When I was Puerto Rican, Pietri’s Puerto Rican Obituary, and an array of Nuyorican poets, playwrights and novelists, all laboring in relative obscurity. That’s about it.
Even the few authors listed above, are rarely included in the US public school curriculum. Many of them are not found in Barnes & Noble. Some are out of print. From a literary standpoint, Puerto Ricans do not exist.
COLONIALISM IN US SPANISH DEPARTMENTS
This…
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