Puerto Rico: the pleasures and traumas of race

Writers and thinkers as diverse as Tomás Blanco, Luis Palés Matos, José Luis González, and Isabelo Zenón Cruz have grappled with the issue of the island s Afro-Caribbean identity, ranging from denial (Blanco) to full affirmation (González). Apart from some historical background, this paper will focus on perceptions of race in Puerto Rican literature (and music) from the island and the U.S. The latter is crucial not only because of U.S. colonial history on the island, but also because of the racial experiences of Puerto Ricans who have emigrated to (or were raised in) the U.S. The paper will examine the jíbaro myth, Palés Matos s poetry, and the representation of racial identities in authors such as Alejandro Tapia y Rivera, Tato Laviera, Rosario Ferré, Edgardo Rodríguez Juliá, and Mayra Santos Febre. It will draw on and critically discuss critics and thinkers from Puerto Rico, other parts of the Caribbean (Ortiz, Fanon, Glissant, and Stuart Hall).