You Work on Puerto Rico? Studying Puerto Rico in History and American Studies Departments

The study of Puerto Rico challenges some of the traditional geographic boundaries and master narratives that shape the curricula of many History Departments. To teach the history of Puerto Rico means to introduce students to the history of Spanish empire in the Americas as well as US empire since the late nineteenth century. The histories of race relations and cultural nationalism that emerged in Puerto Rico were shaped by familiar experiences in Brazil and Cuba, the two other countries that participated in the “second slavery” of the nineteenth century. The history of Puerto Rican migration and diaspora is connected to labor practices and radical politics in the Caribbean and the Pacific. In addition, the politics of race, language, and identity of the Puerto Rican diaspora was interconnected with the experiences of African Americans and Mexican Americans and was shaped by that nation’s twentieth-century history of racial segregation, civil rights, and immigration. If you are a historian of Puerto Rico, then, what is your contribution to the curriculum? Are you offering US, Latin American, or Caribbean courses? Is Puerto Rico part of a Latino Studies course, a comparative ethic studies course, or one that focuses on comparative colonial histories (the Caribbean, Pacific and mainland US)?

In an American Studies department, I can place Puerto Rico at the center. A Puerto Rican history course can be all of the above – an introduction to hemispheric race relations and the politics of cultural nationalism. It allows for a comparison of Spanish and US empire in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The course can compare the experiences of Puerto Ricans with other US national and/or colonial examples.