Beyond Island Boundaries

Abstract

One of the most common concerns among those who study the Puerto Rican reality is the extent of the alleged Americanization or cultural assimilation resulting from almost a century of U.S. colonial domination of the island. This cultural aggression, a process endemic to the colonial relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States which began in 1898, has been the subject of numerous studies and debates over the preservation and deterioration of Puerto Rican national identity and culture, and its inexorable connection with the political status of Puerto Rico. In recent years, for example, several aspects of this debate have resurfaced and captured public attention as a result of congressional hearings on the possible holding of a plebiscite to decide the future political status of Puerto Rico. The focus of this cultural predicament often fails to transcend the political context of the status question or tends toward the fervent protectionism of an immutable Puerto Rican cultural tradition, or the denunciation of an alleged transculturation in which all cultural change is attributed to U.S. influence. A more fruitful analysis, as has been well demonstrated by the new Puerto Rican historiography of the past two decades, is the detailed study of cultural processes in reference to the economic structures and social classes that engender them, and the conflicts that result from the dynamic interaction of those who share the social and historical scene. From this perspective, a great deal has been learned about those sectors historically marginalized and excluded from cultural processes, and of their struggles and strategies for selfaffirmation and cultural survival within the context of colonial subordination and dependency in which they are inserted. Within the complex and diverse ramifications of this national debate, the question of the cultural identity of those Puerto Ricans living in the United States (or, for that matter, the identity in question, frequently referred to by critics) has been generally relegated to a secondary status or left to a handful of scholars who live in the U.S. metropolis. In this essay, I would like to examine some of the most significant aspects of how this identity is configured, the ways in which it is articulated and mediated in the literary expressions of the Puerto Rican migrant community, and, at the same time, highlight those elements that bring coherence to this body of literature, and the diverse meanings and functions that it imparts to the building of this identity. As a secondary aim, I will attempt to link the analysis of how and with what means groups placed in positions of internal colonialism within U.S. society formulate and affirm