LA Vida: A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty--San Juan and New York.

by Oscar Lewis

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394450469
• ISBN13: 9780394450469
• Release Date: June 1966
• Publisher: Random House
• Length: 669 Pages
• Weight: 2.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Puertorican family"s struggle to survive

Lewis was able to go inside a family that trusted him enough to show just how difficult life can be. This book makes you think and shows you just how grinding poverty can eat away at ones soul. It also manages to show the vibrancy this family has. you are able to see the world from different members attempts at making a better life. It tells vividly how the streets of New York which hold so much promise ultimately cause most members of this family so much pain. This is a must read not only for latinos but for everyone. This book is more about the endurance of a soul as it is about ethnicity.

Worthy Study

La Vida is an anthropological study that tells the story, in their own words, of an extended Puerto Rican family in San Juan and in New York. What a lively and colorful culture! If you want to get a sense of life among Puerto Ricans in the 1960s who exist low on the economic scale, this book will tell you everything you could possibly want to know about their individual lives from their perspective. The perspective is important because it can change the way the reader views a person until she hears that character's own voice. Every day I looked forward to "living" with this family.