Puerto Rico Mio: Four Decades of Change, in Photographs by Jack Delano

By Arturo Carrion

Puerto Rico Mio is an extraordinary collection from two series of photographs: the first taken when Delano first went to Puerto Rico with the Farm Security Administration in 1941-42 and the second when he rephotographed those same places in the 1980s.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0874743893
• ISBN13: 9780874743890
• Release Date: April 1990
• Publisher: Smithsonian Books
• Length: 242 Pages
• Weight: 1.97 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 9.7" x 9.7"

Customer Reviews

Can pictures talk? ....I think so.

I can't belive how Mr. Delano took this pictures in a way that it seems they are telling you a complete story. In thi book you can see how Puerto Rico had differente eras and how progress came to our Island. It was not an easy process but you can see it thru the excellent work of Jack Delano. Children, Adults, workers, farmers, everybody even poor people have part in this book because they all were part of our history. An excellent work.

A powerful photo essay about change in Puerto Rico

This book is fascinating! After spending an hour with this book I felt like I really knew what time has meant to Borinquen. Hearing family stories is one thing, but seeing pictures from when they were growing up is another. Anyone interested in Puerto Rican history should have this book.

Breathtaking, beautiful and touching

I simply love this book. As a starving college student, I still haven't come up with the money to buy it, but...someday I will. I've leafed through it a million times and never get bored by it...as a native Puertorrican living abroad, this is simply my favorite photographic work on my homeland. Delano did an amazing job.

Memories of joyful, heartfelt splendor fill the soul.

The pages of this pictorial opus expresses the legacy, struggle, beauty, misery, joy of Puerto Rico of days past. Second, third generation Puerto Ricans will reconnect with their roots page by page. This is surely an enlighting photo memoir of our People, the images speak louder then words. The power of photograph comes to light in these pages, and Delano did it so well. Delano saves the spirit of Puerto Rico's past, once thought to be lost with faded memories. This is a book to keep for oneself, it strenghtens one's soul.

A piece of history in your hands!

After spending six years living abroad as a photojournalist, in and around other Caribbean countries, I feel confident in saying that this is the most honest and beautiful book I've seen on Puerto Rico. Some of the side-by-side dated photo comparisons are incredibly insightful to the changes the island has gone through during it's "commonwealth" identity crisis. I stayed in Puerto Rico for a couple of years, and though it presently has much to offer, it's history was the most interesting topic of study. This book is an incredible collection of pre-1980's photos, from a real "people's" photographer, that I proudly pull out when friends ask me about my impression of Puerto Rico.