Puerto Rico: The Four-Storeyed Country and Other Essays - Softcover

Gonzalez, Jose Luis

 
9781558760721: Puerto Rico: The Four-Storeyed Country and Other Essays
Softcover
ISBN 10: 1558760725 ISBN 13: 9781558760721
Verlag: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1993

Inhaltsangabe

The publication of El pais de cuatro pisos (Spanish-language original version of this book) set off a frenzied debate on Puerto Rican society and cultures, now gaining in vehemence with the growing importance of Afro-American, Mestizo, and Caribbean cultures in the United States.
Gonzalez dismantles the myth of a dominant Spanish and racially white national culture in Puerto Rican history. He claims that the national identity is primarily Mestizo with a significant contribution from Africa. Gonzalez calls the African slaves and Mestizo peasantry the first Puerto Ricans because they were the first inhabitants who had to make the island their home. Having witnessed successful uprisings in neighboring Haiti, the Spanish authorities encouraged white immigrants to settle in Puerto Rico in an attempt to "whiten" the population then thought to be tilting dangerously to the advantage of the Afro-Antilleans. These immigrants became the small but influential class of landowners and, later, urban professionals.
Afro-Antilleans and Mestizos constitute the first "storey," or tier, of the "Puerto Rican house" of the title story, landowners the second, urban professionals the third, and managerial class the fourth. Gonzalez argues that a national culture must be seen and defined as something rising "from below" rather than imposed by a white minority "from above," and that Puerto Ricans must acknowledge that their culture is primarily Caribbean rather than either North American or Hispanic.

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The publication of El pais de cuatro pisos (Spanish-language original version of this book) set off a frenzied debate on Puerto Rican society and cultures, now gaining in vehemence with the growing importance of Afro-American, Mestizo, and Caribbean cultures in the United States. Gonzalez dismantles the myth of a dominant Spanish and racially white national culture in Puerto Rican history. He claims that the national identity is primarily Mestizo with a significant contribution from Africa. Gonzalez calls the African slaves and Mestizo peasantry the first Puerto Ricans because they were the first inhabitants who had to make the island their home. Having witnessed successful uprisings in neighboring Haiti, the Spanish authorities encouraged white immigrants to settle in Puerto Rico in an attempt to "whiten" the population then thought to be tilting dangerously to the advantage of the Afro-Antilleans. These immigrants became the small but influential class of landowners and, later, urban professionals. Afro-Antilleans and Mestizos constitute the first "storey", or tier, of the "Puerto Rican house" of the title story, landowners the second, urban professionals the third, and managerial class the fourth. Gonzalez argues that a national culture must be seen and defined as something rising "from below" rather than imposed by a white minority "from above", and that Puerto Ricans must acknowledge that their culture is primarily Caribbean rather than either North American or Hispanic.

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Verlag
Markus Wiener Publishers
Erscheinungsdatum
1993
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1558760725
ISBN 13 
9781558760721
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
154
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Nicht verfügbar

Weitere beliebte Ausgaben desselben Titels

9781558766457: Puerto Rico: The Four-Storeyed Country and Other Essays

Vorgestellte Ausgabe

ISBN 10:  1558766456 ISBN 13:  9781558766457
Verlag: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2013
Hardcover