Mainland Passage: The Cultural Anomaly of Puerto Rico

By Ramon E. Soto-Crespo

Disputes conventional thinking about the political status of Puerto Rico

One-third of the population of Puerto Rico moved to New York City during the mid-twentieth century. Since this massive migration, Puerto Rican literature and culture have grappled with an essential change in self-perception. Mainland Passage examines the history of that transformation, the political struggle over its representation, and the ways it has been imagined in Puerto Rico and in the work of Latina/o fiction writers.

Ram n E. Soto-Crespo argues that the most significant consequence of this migration is the creation of a cultural and political borderland state. He intervenes in the Puerto Rico status debate to show that the two most discussed options--Puerto Rico's becoming either a fully federated state of the United States or an independent nation--represent false alternatives, and he forcefully reasons that Puerto Rico should be recognized as an anomalous political entity that does not conform to categories of political belonging.

Investigating a fundamental shift in the way Puerto Rican writers, politicians, and scholars have imagined their cultural identity, Mainland Passage demonstrates that Puerto Rico's commonwealth status exemplifies a counterhegemonic logic and introduces a vital new approach to understanding Puerto Rican culture and history.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 081665588X
• ISBN13: 9780816655885
• Release Date: August 2009
• Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.9" x 8.9"