Boricua Power: A Political History of Puerto Ricans in the United States

José Ramón Sánchez

NYU Press, Mar 1, 2007 - Political Science - 278 pages

Where does power come from? Why does it sometimes disappear? How do groups, like the Puerto Rican community, become impoverished, lose social influence, and become marginal to the rest of society? How do they turn things around, increase their wealth, and become better able to successfully influence and defend themselves?
Boricua Power explains the creation and loss of power as a product of human efforts to enter, keep or end relationships with others in an attempt to satisfy passions and interests, using a theoretical and historical case study of one community–Puerto Ricans in the United States. Using archival, historical and empirical data, Boricua Power demonstrates that power rose and fell for this community with fluctuations in the passions and interests that defined the relationship between Puerto Ricans and the larger U.S. society.

Contents

• Introduction: 1
• Dance: 14
• The Cigar Makers Strike: 53
• The Rise of Radicalism World War II to: 96
• Puerto Rican Marginalization: 129
• The Young Lords the Media and Cultural Estrangement: 171
• Conclusion: 210
• Notes: 253
• Bibliography: 265
• Index: 275

Popular passages

Page 20 - ... a class of labourers, who live only so long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labour increases capital. These labourers, who must sell themselves piecemeal, are a commodity, like every other article of commerce, and are consequently exposed to all the vicissitudes of competition, to all the fluctuations of the market.‎

Page 19 - The reply is, that one ought to be both feared and loved, but as it is difficult for the two to go together, it is much safer to be feared than loved, if one of the two has to be wanting.‎

Page 20 - In proportion as the bourgeoisie, ie, capital, is developed, in the same proportion is the proletariat, the modern working class, developed...‎

Page 9 - ... situated so that they must take orders and rarely have the right to give them. Powerlessness also designates a position in the division of labor and the concomitant social position that allows persons little opportunity to develop and exercise skills. The powerless have little or no work autonomy, exercise little creativity or judgment in their work, have no technical expertise or authority, express themselves awkwardly, especially in public or bureaucratic settings, and do not command respect.‎

About the author

José Ramón Sánchez is Associate Professor of Political Science and Chair of Urban Studies at Long Island University, Brooklyn. He is also the Chair of the National Institute for Latino Policy.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Boricua Power: A Political History of Puerto Ricans in the United States
• Author: José Ramón Sánchez
• Publisher: NYU Press, 2007
• ISBN: 0814783570, 9780814783573
• Length: 278 pages
• Subjects: History / United States / General; Political Science / History & Theory